Rencently watched a doc about Phelps called The Most Hated Family In America. Fucking friut-loops the lot of them. Just make the Phelps character a closet Homo and maybe even a jew, Kevin, then send a copy to Phelps. That will be payback enough :) Snoogins!

Whatever happens, it is at least good to see Smith trying to do something different. Whatever his limitations as a director, I have always thought his main problem was staying too safe, sticking to what he knows too tightly. The internet is going to slam you whatever Kev, so at least go all out... I personally would love to see Smith handle something like a crime drama with comedic undertones. A heist caper if you will, but with the stress away from the comedy and towards the drama. Something in the vein of the movie my name is lifted from. That I believe he could do a very good job on...

look, the man is either a raving lunatic with a combination of absurd religious dogmatism and mental defects, OR he's an attention and money grubbing liar who will say anything to get more attention or money, OR he's an extremely progressive thinker who is using these extremely insidious stunts to unite people against a common enemy, and promote more progresive thinking about homosexuality among christians and non-christians alike.

in any event, "phelps is a Dem, look it up." is ridiculous...

Isn't it funny how quickly Hollywood types abandon the liberal viewpoint of "all speech should be protected" when it starts to go against their favor. Phelps is an idiot of the highest order; but you can't go around protecting some people's free speech rights while trampling on others', and that's unfortunate. If anybody should be made to shut up it's a moron who goes to American veterans' funerals and disrupts them with what can only be described as hateful rhetoric. However, we're stuck with laying in the free speech bed we've made for ourselves. Our government has no choice, the first amendment says what it says.

The more valid point is that Americans need to start paying less attention to people who do the things Phelps has done. We should stop lapping up the spoon-fed sound bites the media foists upon us. If we keep going back to the trough for this crap; they're just going to keep serving it up.

...and no amount of celluloid will be able to change that, no matter how sincere the effort.

The only people who will get on board with Smith's viewpoint are the people who already think the way he does. Essentially he'll be preaching to his own choir and guys like Phelps will use it as motivation to keep doing what they do... only louder.

Crap like this is self perpetuating. I'd rather just ignore Phelps. If more people would just write him off for the jerk that he is, he'd stop getting so much attention.

I'd much rather see a film based on the works of someone like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. *That* would be a story worth watching.

However, to each their own I guess.

...and goodnight to Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea.

Phelps is most certainly *not* a Christian... he's a deceiver; and I fear for any who have fallen under his sway.

...and it doesn't take the foremost expert to know that... It's *painfully* obvious the man is hateful.

Lott speaks favorably about Thurmond -- BAAD!! Dodd speaks favorably about Byrd -- GOOOD!!

The sexless sex scandal of Mark Foley unfolds with a 17 year old page -- BAAD!! The sex scandal that actually included sex of Gerry Studds unfolds with a 16 year old page -- GOOOD!!

Cheney profits from the Iraq war -- BAAD!! Dianne Feinstein profits from the Iraq war -- GOOOD!!

Libby can't verbally recollect the dates he had written in his notebook -- BAAD!! Clinton can't remember what the definition of the word "is" is -- GOOOD!!

There's bad news on both sides of the aisle, gang.

BUT, he does represent the extreme side of american christianity. that is what the red and blue state bias is more about. the conservatism of the red states is derived from the culture of dogmatic puritanical american christianity. in the blue states, where there are more progressive christians and non-christians, there is accoringly a more progressive viewpoint on social issues and such.

so whether phelps pretends to be a democrat, even as he slams most of the democrats in the press, as he slams ALL politicians in the press, he is definitely the extreme of the red state mentality. I'm not saying that I llump all people of faith in with him, I certainly don't. but come on. he's the far end of that side of the spectrum. he's as far to the right in terms of his attitudes towards social issues, as rosie o'donnell is to the left. and they're both wackos.

put it another way, according to wikipedia, he got 15% of the democratic vote in a primary for the gubernatorial race in 1998. that means HUGE numbers of people calling themselves democrats voted for him. so there are people out there that agree, more or less, with this nutjob, and they're happy to self identify as democrats. and that's exactly my point. the red state blue state thing might mean dem vs republican in the context of a nationwide presidential election, but the reality is much more subtle. there are EXTREMELY socially conservative religious voters in the red states that still register as a democrat. but they ain't gonna vote for hillary clinton, no matter what party their registered for. religion, and social perspectives derived from conservative christianity, are hugel important. more so than voter registration cards.

so if Smith wants to address the real root of the blue state/red state divide, Phelps is a very startling and enigmatic person to begin with. but he better make sure he knows that Phelps thinks of himself as a Democrat, or all of you guys will rip him a new one. and you know how much your talkback voice counts for Kevin Smith...it's, you know...a lot...

you get hung up on labels, and you don't want to think about the underlying issue. that's fine, do what you do, but don't label me a kook because you don't want to dig deeper into this stuff. that's dismissive and childish. phelps can call himself a democrat, a republican, a nazi, a martian, whatever. bottom line, he represents a fanatical extreme of evangelical christianity. conservative christianity is a red state staple much more than a blue state one. that's all I'm saying.

if you want to float on the surface of a hugely important issue, fine. but if you do that, you don't get to engage anyone who cares to think about more than stupid political labels.

love, the kook

By the way it's a yacht

yes, Phelps is a wacko, but he doesn't cease to be a part of our society, as you said. in my opinion, he should make us further examine our society. but I see your point. he's so nuts that he's almost irrelevant as a person, he only exists as a footnote or an example. except to those that he demonizes with his picketing, I suppose.

and Marlowe, take your meds and calm down. sure, I'm a liberal, but I'm also a spiritual person. and I can also make a point, and listen to someone else's point without resorting to the lowest common denominator of human communication: mindless insults.

but hey it's a talkback. there always have to be people that can't come up with much else than mindless insults...I accept it, warts and all, because I love me some talkbacks. you and Jackiejokeman re like bumblebees; annoying and bothersome, but necessary to the ecosystem.

I've always been on board with Smith, even when he made Jersey Girl I got the feeling (with his picture on the cover of the dvd box) that Smith was saying "I made this flick for my wife and kid...you probably won't be that crazy about it, but help a brother out and give it a rent. There's a few laughs and the next one will be better".

And sure enough, Clerks 2 came next and it WAS better. Smith got back to the vulgarity we love, but he retained the heart that he had grown from making Jersey Girl, and the result was a film that only a truly hard-hearted person could hate.

It also made me a Rosario Dawson fan (something that had started from the her involvement in Sin City), and I now think she's one of the coolest geek-chicks in Hollywood. After all, I can't imagine Kate Beckinsale or Nicole Kidman ever creating a comic book series called "Occult Crimes Taskforce".

But getting back on topic, this movie looks great, and I'm glad to see Kevin embracing genre filmmaking, even if he IS putting his own "spin" on the horror flick. Especially since I'd love to see him portray the right-wing "red state" mentality in a horrific manner...it definitely has it coming!