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Normally, I embrace opinions. I traffic in opinions. After all, I’m a blogger. Opinions have been good to yours truly.

But if there’s anything scaring me these days, it’s the blatant use of celebrity opinions with regard to [the correct version, FYI] health care reform. I am appalled at the obviously widespread school of thought among the glitterati that those of us who don’t appear in cheesy horror flicks and bad 1980s TV series care one whit about what actors actually think.

Like Robert Englund, who slams those of us opposed to socialized health care as fearmongerers and liars:

If we’re going to achieve effective health care in this country, we need an honest public discussion based on facts: how do we pay for reform, how will it work, who will be covered?

These are important issues than cannot be solved while lobbyists, pundits and “tea-baggers” are muddying the waters by marketing fear. The only people who should be scared by health care reform are those who make a profit off of other people’s suffering and illness.

And, of course, he has to slam the Tea Party movement, the only truly grassroots political movement in America today, with the sexual insult made popular by a man who has probably done a whole lot of teabagging on his own. But to get back to the parody:

Other things that frighten me:

I’m scared by the enormous amount of chutzpah put out by the Hollywood community—like, the ones who popularized bottled water now freaking out at the number of plastic bottles of water consumed by their fellow Americans.

I’m scared by the celebrity slamming of Soccer Moms and SUVs, even as these people use their private jets, are brought to the studio by limousine (no doubt consuming their top of the line bottled water during the ride there and back), who slam the American working and middle class and then pretend that their own children ever walked to school from their L.A. mansions. (As for the mocking of the Blackberry and GPS—from a Hollywood actor/director/producer? Is he kidding us?)

I’m scared by the ease with which the Hollywood elites embrace the nanny state, and then wonder why children have lost their sense of adventure. It’s because the nanny statists have put so many regulations on what people can do, the outdoors is practically forbidden to the rough-and-tumble kids of yesteryear. You think kids are growing up on the internet? No. They’re growing up with the internet, which is an entirely different concept. But how would Freddy Krueger know anything about kids outside of his own sphere, which is the rarefied air of the Hollywood elite? Real world kids? They’re a whole ‘nother species.

Finally, one thing that’s not scaring me is the way children are managing to be raised quite well without ever knowing there was a scary guy in a mask named Freddy Kreuger, and an actor who conflates his popularity as an Freddy with the conceit that people care what he thinks about things that are not movies.

Cross-posted on Hot Air.

Soupy Sales died yesterday. A childhood icon is no more.

His greatest success came in New York with “The Soupy Sales Show” — an ostensible children’s show that had little to do with Captain Kangaroo and other kiddie fare. Sales’ manic, improvisational style also attracted an older audience that responded to his envelope-pushing antics.

Sales, who was typically clad in a black sweater and oversized bow-tie, was once suspended for a week after telling his legion of tiny listeners to empty their mothers’ purse and mail him all the pieces of green paper bearing pictures of the presidents.

I used to watch Milton Supman every day. He was a mainstay of my childhood. Now, I guess he’s launching pies at the angels.

I’ve always liked this woman, and now I like her even more.

Queen Latifah, who gave fans the chance to write and pick one of the songs for her next album, has a winner.

Ingrid Woode, of Sharonville, Ohio, will join Latifah in the studio to record Woode’s original song “Fairweather Friend” for the upcoming “Persona” album, set for release this spring.

The 25-year-old Woode works a “day job” at a pharmaceutical company, said a spokeswoman for People’s Choice, which conducted the contest with Latifah. The outcome was released online late Tuesday.

Latifah announced the opportunity when she hosted the People’s Choice Awards in January, with aspiring singer-songwriters invited to submit tunes.

Latifah winnowed the submissions down to three, the songs were posted on the People’s Choice Web site, , and fans picked Woode’s work as tops.

I think it’s wonderful that she’s helping someone fulfill her dream.