Thou Shall Not be Unproductive

The good and bad of actor Charlton Heston, who died April 5.

Good:

• Ben Hur: Who wouldn't love hearing a serious conversation about "ramming speed?"
  

Better:

• In 1961, Heston joined a picket line outside of a movie theater premiering one of his films because the theater enforced racial segregation in its seating. He also accompanied Martin Luther King Jr. to the March on Washington in 1963.

Bad:

• A 1997 speech: "Many homosexuals are hugely talented artists and executives... also dear friends. I don't despise their lifestyle, though I don't share it. As long as gay and lesbian Americans are as productive, law-abiding and private as the rest of us, I think America owes them absolute tolerance. It's the right thing to do. But on the other hand, I find my blood pressure rising when [U.S. President Bill] Clinton's cultural shock troops participate in homosexual-rights fund-raisers but boycott gun-rights fund-raisers... and then claim it's time to place homosexual men in tents with Boy Scouts, and suggest that sperm donor babies born into lesbian relationships are somehow better served and more loved."

Worst:

• Down right scary. (See vid below)
  

--Gay Guy