On occasion, while driving home from work, I like to listen to Michael Savage. While I can only handle him in small doses, I find that I agree with him on ALMOST everything. It is his presentation style which albeit sometimes entertaining, makes me only able to handle him for 15-20 minutes at a time. One of his claims which he has written a top ten best selling book on is that “Liberalism is a Mental Disorder”. I have never read this book and have often just chuckled when he says this. I can imagine that those on the left would claim the same of those on the right. This makes sense as we all think differently and just can not fathom why the other side thinks the way that they do. I would hypothesize that the right thinks logically, while the left tends to think emotionally, hence sometimes not really thinking at all. Please allow me to make a case for the latter by discussing some recent events that have taken place in my adopted second country of Venezuela.

I don’t think anyone would argue with me that Danny Glover and Sean Penn are devout liberals. Both of these men have recently taken it upon themselves to visit with the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. Shortly after his most recent highly publicized visit, Glover, now a “close friend” of Chavez accepted $18 million from him to Produce a movie about “Toussaint Louverture, the leader of the epic 1791 slave uprising that helped make Haiti the first black nation to throw off the yoke of European colonialism”. While a slave uprising is certainly a great and noble story, I would hardly reference Haiti as a political success story. In any case, whenever people make high profile relationships or take up causes with great fanfare and media attention, you should always take a close look at the money trail. This is certainly no exception.

It appears as though Sean Penn was intrigued by this outpouring of generosity from this oil-rich president and wanted to get in on the action when he decided to visit Chavez himself. He claims that he went because Pat Robertson said that Chavez should be assassinated, and anything that Pat Robertson says, he should think opposite. This is the first item that supports my hypothesis above. If Sean’s statement is true, someone should start a campaign to encourage Pat Robertson to hold a press conference urging Mr. Penn to make more movies and to make his profound opinions even more public.

The point I want to make here is that these guys are both actors. And even though actors don’t really create anything and are just imitators of others, I believe they are considered artists. While I would not consider myself an artist by any means, I know that art is based on self expression and can not thrive when it is limited. Despite the fact that Chavez has clamped down on his opposition’s freedom of speech by having journalists fired or imprisoned and closing down television stations that oppose him, these guys continue to praise him. Granted, arguments could be made about whether RCTV’s actions warranted the non renewal of their license, but shouldn’t liberals generally want to err on the side of free speech? Besides, Chavez is no stranger to coup attempts.

The latest is a story of a fellow artist who is being silenced by this “fascinating guy”. Grammy Award winning Spanish singer, Alejandro Sanz has been banned from performing in the state run Poliedro because in 2004, he said, ”I don’t like your president. I don’t like those from other places either.” This was hardly advocating a coup or assassination attempt, but Sanz has still been forbidden to perform. Could you imagine if Bush had forbidden all of his detractors from performing in publicly operated venues? Right or left, I don’t think anyone would argue that this is the epitome of stifled freedom of speech.

These are just a couple of examples of suppression of speech that have made international headlines. Having family and friends in Venezuela, I hear many stories about the apprehension of people to express their opposition to Chavez’s policies in fear of the consequences. Corruption is still rampant and the blessings are many for the Chavistas. Danny Glover can surely attest to this.

The Alejandro Sanz story is still relatively new, but I would hope that Sean and Danny would stand up for this fellow artist and denounce the actions of their friend. However with millions of dollars at stake, I see this as highly unlikely. I can not conclude this for all liberals, but I have certainly concluded that in the case of Sean Penn and Danny Glover that at best, they suffer from a lack of common sense and at worst as Mr. Savage would say they may indeed suffer from a mental disorder.