I have a sister who, to be honest, is nothing like me -- especially when it comes to politics. She and my brother-in-law, one of the sweetest guys on the face of the earth if truth be told, live entirely in an evangelical Christian right-wing bubble. They don't watch television, don't go to movies, sent their kids to a Christian school, and listen to no radio except the local Christian station and AM talk radio. When we're together, we just don't talk politics -- it's non-productive.
But yesterday, we had lunch together and my brother-in-law went off on "some actress who testified at a congressional hearing." Yep, it's a tenet of conservative faith that actors have no business expressing opinions. Of course, if their opinions are conservative, that's fine -- you know, like Ronald Reagan or Charlton Heston... Stupidly, I said I had no idea what he was talking about, at which time the two of them proceeded to explain that some actree, whose name they couldn't remember, had the unmitigated gall to testify at a (Congressional?) hearing about alar in apples, and her only expertise was that she had played someone who worked on an apple farm in a movie. The conversation deteriorated from there, although I do remember mentioning that I thought the USDA had phased out alar years ago.
Well, I was half right: the manufacturer withdrew alar from the market after the "EPA proposed banning it based on concerns about cancer risks to consumers." I was also right about "years ago" -- alar has been off the market since 1989 -- almost thirty years ago.
So why was my brother-in-law so dismissive of "some actress"? Because that actress was Meryl Streep -- who testified in front of Congress in 1989, not as a "movie star" but on behalf of a pro-organic food non-profit she had started in 1986. Yes, the same "some actress" who incurred the wrath of TrumpNation for dissing Donald Trump at the Golden Globes a few weeks ago: that Meryl Streep, "one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood..."
Poor Steve -- buried so deep in his conservative bubble that he doesn't even know what year it is...
But yesterday, we had lunch together and my brother-in-law went off on "some actress who testified at a congressional hearing." Yep, it's a tenet of conservative faith that actors have no business expressing opinions. Of course, if their opinions are conservative, that's fine -- you know, like Ronald Reagan or Charlton Heston... Stupidly, I said I had no idea what he was talking about, at which time the two of them proceeded to explain that some actree, whose name they couldn't remember, had the unmitigated gall to testify at a (Congressional?) hearing about alar in apples, and her only expertise was that she had played someone who worked on an apple farm in a movie. The conversation deteriorated from there, although I do remember mentioning that I thought the USDA had phased out alar years ago.
Well, I was half right: the manufacturer withdrew alar from the market after the "EPA proposed banning it based on concerns about cancer risks to consumers." I was also right about "years ago" -- alar has been off the market since 1989 -- almost thirty years ago.So why was my brother-in-law so dismissive of "some actress"? Because that actress was Meryl Streep -- who testified in front of Congress in 1989, not as a "movie star" but on behalf of a pro-organic food non-profit she had started in 1986. Yes, the same "some actress" who incurred the wrath of TrumpNation for dissing Donald Trump at the Golden Globes a few weeks ago: that Meryl Streep, "one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood..."
Poor Steve -- buried so deep in his conservative bubble that he doesn't even know what year it is...
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