I loathe Sean Penn, and won't ever see any of his movies again if it's at all within my power. His new travel journal from Iraq may give you some insight into why. (I feel like noting there that, despite arrests for assault and drug use, Sean Penn was still granted a California permit to Carry Concealed Weapons; despite my lack of a violent criminal record, I've been denied.) The article starts idiotically enough.
Doc Birnbaum filled the last of three receptacles with my blood (he was concerned about my looming cholesterol problem and had graciously made a house call), then slid the needle out of my vein as my phone rang. I answered as the doc pressed a cotton ball onto the puncture in the crook of my arm.What normal people have doctors that make house calls to take blood? No one. It's not surprising that this pompus monkey is so disconnected from reality and popular opinion.
It is 2 a.m. in Jordan when my flight arrives. I part ways with Medea and her delegation, pay the 10 dinars for a visa, and go through customs, where I am greeted by Sattar. Before the Gulf War, Sattar had been a well-paid civil engineer. Now he drives the perilous 12 hours into Amman and 12 hours back to Baghdad, shuttling journalists and humanitarian aides, for a mere $300 per 24- hour round trip.Again, how many people in America make a mere $300 per day? It's not a huge amount of money (around $80,000 per year), but compared to what Sattar was likely making as a civil engineer before the war it's a fortune; plus, he's probably not paying a 40%+ marginal tax rate.
For hundreds of kilometers at a stretch, the occasional Bedouin sheepherder is the only human form in sight. As far as the eye can see, these Bedouins -- solitary robed figures traveling the desert followed by a hundred head of sheep -- appear to have neither a point of origin nor a destination. It seems their only mission is to exist as props for a National Geographic photographer. Where are they taking these sheep? And where did they come from?It's called working for a living. Idiot.
I've quietly arranged (the less my whereabouts are known, the better) to switch cars at the Hunting Club, a private social club that traditionally hosted a who's-who of Iraqi society. Saddam Hussein's son Oday was known to pick up girls there.By "pick up girls" he of course means that Oday (who? Uday?) kidnapped them, raped them, and often murdered them. Pshaw, minor details.
On the busy boulevard in front of the Palestine Hotel are several makeshift money-changing tables. They survive on the fluctuating exchange rate of the dinar and charge a commission for changing money, mostly U.S. dollars for Iraqi dinars. It's not really a black market, because there is no official market; it's all black, without regulation, taxes or import duty.That's not a black market, that's a free market. Communist.
Anyway, there's a lot more drivel, but Mr. Penn can't help but note in passing that the American troops are good guys, and that many (at least) of the Iraqis are glad to have them there. He manages to highlight the various failings of the occupation, but I'm quite encouraged by what I read between the lines. He notes repeated details of Saddam's tyrannical and murderous rule, and it looks like even Sean Penn may now see (some of the reasons) why the invasion was a good thing all around.
Shut up? If you don't like his opinions, don't read his diary.
Sheesh.
Jeff: Telling Sean Penn to shut up is a bit of free advise he'd do well to take. What's more, there's a risk that innocent bystanders could actually be made stupider and more ignorant by reading his tripe. I'm not telling him to shut up merely because I don't like his fantasy-land perspective on life -- I see myself as performing a private favor, as well as a public service.
Dont be fooled by his seeming fence sitting. The article still shows hiws muderous hate for this country. My favorite part is when he admits it would not be wise to discuss the unnescesary presence of American soldiers in Iraq with said soldiers. Wise man. wait until you get back before running your mouth. Too bad he saw the records from the mass graves and still could not find the American presence to be nescessary. Dumb ass.
Jeff...If you dont like the comment, dont read the blog. The first Ammendment...doesnt it sucks when it applies to conservatives too?
I too despise Sean Penn. I won't go to any of his movies and I loathe him and his ilk.
It's interesting that he notes Saddams brutality and then fails to make the connection that it only stopped because the US did something that he opposed.
I wish his writing was bad, but as far as the style, grammar, etc, he seems like a pretty good writer.
Now if he could only get a personality transplant he'd have something.
JDM: Right, he wrote all that by himself. I'm skeptical. But then, you already know my biases against him.
Uh. He said $300 for each 24-hour trip, not $300/day. To make $80k a year, he'd have to drive for five days straight (no sleeping) every week, 52 weeks a year. Genius.
Did he disavow that? Also, there's no real standard for transliteration from Arabic, so Oday is probably as good a stab as Uday.
Nice try, though.
CW: Uh, what's your point, genius? You think he drives 24 hours straight? Don't be stupid. You think he doesn't have other work to fill his time if there aren't rich Americans to taxi around? I only made the yearly salary number to give people a point of comparison. Considering that he probably made $30 a month before the war, he's doing pretty well.
As far as Uday, I highly doubt Sean Penn is doing his own translations from Arabic. I've seen "Usama" and "Osama" &c., but I think the standard English spelling is pretty obvious. And did who disavow what? Keep your pronouns straight.
Nice try at what, exactly? Making Sean Penn look like the preening, self-important doody-face that he is? Thanks, it was a nice try, particularly because it was successful. Meanwhile, you should try using sarcasm sometime, it might make your retorts more witty.
?Sarcasm is the protest of people who are weak.?
-- John Knowles
So are quotes.
Let me try to explain it to you nice and slow.
We know the guy makes $300 for every 24 hour trip.
Your estimate claimed that's the equivalent of making $80,000 a year. What's $80,000 divided by $300? 266. So. That's 266 24-hour trips a year, which is 6384 hours a year (266 * 24). How many weeks are there in a year? 52. 6384/52 = 122. 122 hours a week (assuming he doesn't take a vacation). With me so far?
It doesn't matter when he sleeps. He still has to physically drive (not sleep) an average of 122 hours a week in order to make $80,000/yr.
If I haven't lost you yet, you'll note that 122 hours a week is a lot more than 40, the standard American workweek. It leaves around 48 hours of the week for sleeping, which is, well, pretty much physically impossible.
But hey, don't take my word for it. Since you're so convinced of the booming Iraqi cab-driver market, I'm sure you're packing up right now to head over there... Right?
I don't get why you think there's 24 hours of driving involved. The trip is 24 hours in total, but what makes you think it's all driving? There's no data to support that, and traditionally when travel is measured in time rather than miles it's assumed that there's resting, eating, and everything else included.
For example, if I told you that it takes five days to drive from LA to NY, you wouldn't assume I meant five days with no sleep.
Furthermore, you're continuing to not account for the difference in monetary values between here and Iraq. $300 is worth a lot more in goods and services there than it is here in the US.
As for going myself, no thanks; I already make plenty more money than that. However, the job might be perfect for someone with limited skills and intelligence who enjoys covering the same ground over and over again.
Chris,
Even though Michael can defend himself quite well, I just have to butt in here. Even if we assume you are correct, if you cut his work hours in half, we are still talking $40,000 per year for approximately 60 hours per week. Not only is 60 hours per week not unusual in the US, but the median household income is $42,409. If you consider what $40,000 can buy in Iraq, he is doing quite well. You are just picking at nits here.
Hey Guys,
I just returned from Iraq, and if this guy was making just $20,000 a year he would be RICH in Iraqi terms. The average teacher under Saddams regime made a paltry $30 a month! A college professor under the same system made a bit more (anywhere from $120-300/ month) and these folks are educated! A man performing 24 hour taxi services for $300 dollars is outrageous! That is a wealthy man in Iraq make no mistake. You can't compare an Iraqi work week with an American one either because these guys take a mid-day nap. They have a work stoppage in the middle of the day akin to a Mexican siesta but on steroids. Those people (the vast majority of them) don't know back breaking work. Under Saddam they lived in a virtual welfare state were decisions were made for them!
One last thing...Sean Penn is scum of the earth!
He is a traitor to the country that berthed him.
Erik: Thanks for the info!
Chris,
We just wanted to put in our two cents here. If Sean is such a great writer he would know to check his facts(it is called copy editing, something I'm sure someone who works for that rag gets paid to do), and the general consensus is the spelling is Uday, not Oday. We have a sibling who serves in the military, and are proud to know that, if needed, he would give his life so that idiots like you and "Mr. Penn" can trash this country and take for granted all the freedoms that others have fought and died for. You might do well to go back and read some of the history of WWII and see what some of those people lived with,(in Europe) and note that there are not a lot of differnces between the regime we fought then and who we are fighting now. The fight for liberty has been core to the "American" dream since before American soldiers fought in their first war, just a little one we like to call the Revolutionary war, maybe you have heard of it? Maybe you should sit the rest of this one out?
If you look at people like Sean Penn and Barbra Streisand, you will notice that they don't live in the world we do. To hollywood elitists, politics is FASHIONABLE. Sincerely original thought is not a prerequisite for an opinion. Sean Penn did not make his trip to learn, tragically. He made his trip for the same reason much of the media did: to seek out and find facts that support his opinion. Sure, Mr. Penn was able to make the observation that our troops weren't demons in uniforms; but that does not take away from the fact that at the Oscars he had to mention lack of WMD. It seems that he would have more appreciation for what our great president has done having a first hand view of the atrocities, but I guess not.
It just takes me back to the fact that he lives in his own world.
Hey guys,
Just had to put my 2-cents in:
I agree that Sean Penn is an uneducated moron. If someone could just shut him up I'd be grateful. As the proud wife of a soldier, my advice to Mr. Penn is this; if you are ashamed of the actions your country has taken to defend not only itself, but the lives of millions of others then GET THE HELL OUT! (and take Susan Serandon and Tim Robbins with you!)
Stacey: We should only be so lucky.
Personally, I was just looking for a forum to express my disgust with this piece of vermin. I have never seen a Penn movie, nor will I, I saw all I needed to see the other night at the Oscars. I was watching him, not knowing what exactly was so special about him when the first thing to come out of his mouth was the noxious venom about WMD's. I didn't support the war in Iraq for my own reasons, but I support my leaders and watching this pompous idiot get up in front of the American public and use my airwaves (as a citizen, I as well as you own the rights) to spew his political ideals I IMMEDIATELY became a Penn hater. Just because he has money and is an actor, why does he think I care what he thinks on anything other than the lines in his movies? I am sick of both sides using my entertainment time, limited as it is, to try and indoctrinate me into their own political agendas. They're actors! After I pay my six bucks to see a movie, I want them to go away and do what they do, make more movies. Most of these Hollywood types are no better to me than a roll of charmin, use em' and forget em'.
Mike- I just wanted to say thanks for having this little forum. I too am disgusted by Sean Penn, and everything he stands for. Unfortunately, while I agree it was particularly obnoxious, his display at the Oscars was nothing if not typical. I am not really going to add anything more (I hope that does not make me seem to have no opinion of my own, but it has pretty much all been said.) I am just glad to see a forum like this in existence. Being constantly bombarded with the opinions of the liberally biased media, often brainless Schmuks who's opinions supposedly mean more than the rest of the world's simply b/c their money gets their faces on the screen..., (I don't mean to start a partisan argument here, but face it, its true), its a nice change to stumble upon a discussion like this.
Sean Penn rules. Only artist -- and one of a handful of citizens nowadays, it seems -- that will walk his talk and live the values of freedom that he loves.
The hacks on this forum should look at what we've done to Iraq in an effort to supposedly save it, look at the reasons Bush et al. gave for going in there in the first place, and then judge whether Penn is off kilter for going there. Or maybe, you're all rather impressed with Bush's neoconservative 'noble lie' to the public...
Abject hypocrits. You're the kind that The Christ threw out of the temple...by force.
Sean Penn is great. Ignorant Americans who never leave the U.S. are the problem...There's a big world out there and Americans would do well to follow Penn's example and explore other people's vastly different cultures.
Why is it so wrong for Sean Penn to state his opinion in what I see as a very tasteful way and yet all of you can say whatever you want. I do not respect anyones opinion who uses name calling in their argument. This is America, the land of the free. We all have the right to our opinion and the right to express it, thats what we go to war for. The thing that has always made this country great is that we have the right to disagree. But it can be done without acting like school children and calling people names
These ignorant Hollywood activists need to shut their mouths about politics and economics while they are at work promoting their wares. They think that since they have a soapbox to stand on in the public view that they are automatically experts on the economy, politics and religion. It is okay for them to have opinions but let them express them like the average citizen, off the airways.
I studied economics, politics (degree), marketing (degree) and communication (degree) in college and I have studied these things for years since I graduated. I have lived in foreign countries and studied their economies and cultures. I believe McCarthy was correct and Penn with his fellow commie idiots, are trying to ruin our nation, it's economy and lifestyle.
Sean's new movie reminds me how much he sucks... in acting, and real life. Glad I found this. Sean's way out of touch with reality ANYWHERE, and it's obvious every time he opens his mouth. If you're against Iraq you should at least admit it was the best attempt to try to get PEOPLE FROM KILLING OTHER PEOPLE. 400,000 in Saddam's mass graves vs. a few thousand is simple math! Is Sean pro-genocide or what?!
we did not go to Iraq to stop Saddam from killing people. If that were the case, why aren't we in Darfur, likewise Rwanda, Congo, etc. We invaded Iraq to spread influence in a region with resources that we need, and because Bush is a monkey brained born again right wing loony profiteer.
Regardless it would be sad to see the US divided along political lines in the future... that is how war and stuff starts. In any case if it eventually happens I will take out a few Republicans when my time comes. Im not a democrat either so stfu.