As David Kurtz has noted on TPM's main page, David Mamet has written a piece for the Village Voice explaining "Why I am no longer a 'brain-dead liberal.'" Link at end (if it survives).

First, a brief response to this quote from the article: “As a child of the '60s, I accepted as an article of faith that government is corrupt, that business is exploitative, and that people are generally good at heart.”

I trust many of us will note that none of these is a required tenet of liberalism.

But my main comment is that I never quite know what to think when someone, upon discovering he or she has a different opinion on some issue, finds it necessary to reject an entire set of beliefs and trade it in for a brand new set. It’s as if that someone – David Horowitz comes to mind, and now, apparently, David Mamet qualifies as well – regards having a set of beliefs as a place to shelter from the storm. And if a chosen shelter doesn’t work out in some way, a whole new shelter must be found.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell who the people are who think like this. In fact, until they switch shelters, it’s pretty much impossible. They look and sound just like the rest of us. But I always want to say, when such a person reveals himself: “Instead of switching shelters wholesale, why don’t you try thinking for a change? Make your own set of beliefs. Life isn’t a restaurant that prohibits substitutions.”

In any case, it's not surprising, really, to discover yet another person who can’t think for himself. It’s a bit surprising, though, to discover that person is David Mamet. But – and here’s where I must invite myself to reevaluate one of my own heretofore unexamined assumptions – it appears that not all artists are thinkers.