Hollywood turns Noah into a Leftist environmentalist?

  So Hollywood is planning a spate of Biblical epic movies, huh.
  Because Hollywood Leftists and greed mongers do The Bible so well.
  They know exactly what Christians want. 
  Plus there are no copyright fees, eh.
  So in case you're looking forward to Russell Crowe starring in Noah (alright, I confess I was), you might want to know this little tidbit from The Telegraph about the "cli-fi" disaster (climate faction for you uninitiated):

However, that audience is knowledgeable about the subject matter and Hollywood is wrestling with questions of dramatic licence. One of next year’s epics has already run into controversy. Test screenings for Noah with a Christian audience in Arizona, and a Jewish audience in New York, reportedly produced troubling results. It has been suggested that the film shows Noah as an early opponent of climate change. Its director, Darren Aronofsky, has called him the “first environmentalist”.

Brian Godawa, a screenwriter, claimed to have read an early version of the script and said it portrayed a scenario in which the Great Flood was caused by man’s “disrespect” for the environment. Paramount, the studio behind Noah, remains adamant that it will sail on to success.

  What. Noah didn't drive a Prius?
  Oh, wait. The Prius is worse for the environment than a Hummer.
  I mean, a smart car.
  I remember when A & E tried to replicate Duck Dynasty's success with that horrible Dads show. Great premise. Looked funny in the promos. Watched 10 minutes and turned it off in disgust. Bad language. Bad examples. Mean stuff. Blech.
  I admit I'll keep an open mind because I enjoyed The Bible series.
  But, eh.
  There's always the problem with the SOB behind the curtain. 
  They just don't get it.
  From a sympathetic Christian who read an undated script:

Noah paints the primeval world of Genesis 6 as scorched arid desert, dry cracked earth, and a gray gloomy sky that gives no rain – and all this, caused by man’s “disrespect” for the environment. In short, an anachronistic doomsday scenario of ancient global warming. How Neolithic man was able to cause such anthropogenic catastrophic climate change without the “evil” carbon emissions of modern industrial revolution is not explained. Nevertheless, humanity wanders the land in nomadic warrior tribes killing animals for food or wasteful trophies.
In this oppressive world, Noah and his family seek to avoid the crowds and live off the land. Noah is a kind of rural shaman, and vegan hippy-like gatherer of herbs. Noah explains that his family “studies the world,” “healing it as best we can,” like a kind of environmentalist scientist. But he also mysteriously has the fighting skills of an ancient Near Eastern Ninja (Hey, it’s a movie, give it a break).

  Environmental wack a doodles are already trying to use the script to further their own images of an apocalyptic world where unhappiness is the order of the day, bewailing the "selfishness" of Noah saving only himself and 2 of each kind of animal rather than hoards of dogs. We need to rise to a "higher standard than Noah" and take "social action."
  You "misguided" "Christian nuts" demanding accuracy! You just don't get it!
  Scheduled to be released in March, Paramount thinks the movie, unlike Aronofsky, should be closer to The Bible, which has fans around the world.
  They have time to fix this. We'll see.
  Just a reminder before you watch:

¹¹ Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. ¹² God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. ¹³ So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. ¹⁴ So make yourself an ark of cypress^[c] wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. ¹⁵ This is how you are to build it:^.....17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. ¹⁸ But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁹ You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. ²⁰ Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive.

Jesse Jackson: Phil Robertson speaks from "white privilege"... Really?

   The Phil Robertson brouhaha isn't over Duck Dynasty or even homosexuality. 
  It's about the Left's opportunistic attacks on people who disrupt the false images the Left has created, images like the benevolent gay tv character, the coming climate apocalypse and the inequity of incomes in this country, where our poor live better than the elite of many countries.
  ( I mean, complaining about a 1% reduction in your welfare benefits with a picture of your large DOG and HD tv in the background? Seriously.)
  Sure enough, Jesse Jackson has come riding in on his, um, Black horse in time to condemn Phil Robertson's lack of Christian credentials with regard to Black people who lived in poverty 60 years ago in Phil's neighborhood.
  Let's make clear here we aren't talking about former Congressman Jesse Jackson Junior who is currently in jail for stealing campaign money to Build-a-Bear and buy a mink cape.
  The Reverend Jesse Jackson isn't really a reverend considering that his divinity degree was actually conferred from a seminary on whose board his not-yet-incarcerated congressman son sat. 
  But I'm sure the Reverend speaks ex cathedra with spiritual authority regarding others' spiritual conditions,
  Jackson lived under Jim Crow laws, according to his Wikipedia bio, but lived in the home of his post office worker stepfather while growing up. Offered the privilege of a football scholarship, Jackson discovered the grievance industry early in college, realizing that all he had to do was PUSH companies to contribute to his political machine so he would shut up about their racial prejudice, animus and bias.
  Discover the Networks has the extensive list of companies who have acquiesced to Jackson's demands for compliance with his PUSH organization, from which he continues to benefit greatly. He himself is worth at least $10 million, not to mention the government grants his organizations receive.
  Heck, Jesse and Jesse Jr. have even written a book with the ninety nine percenter title, " It's about the Money!" The most helpful critical of the 11 reviews on Amazon is entitled "Where is the chapter on stealing campaign funds?" an idea whose time has come and gone, apparently, at least for Jr. At this writing, one wonders if the reviewer was joking or sincerely seeking shakedown advice from the experts.
  So we come to the current demand of Jesse Sr, who has numerous communist known ties and comrades, current demand to meet with A & E and Cracker Barrel about Phil Robertson's comments about his neighborhood Black friends.
  (We might sneak in a comment here also that Jackson's opportunism regarding the death of Martin Luther King was pretty despicable. Read it here.)
  Here's what Phil, who was born in 1946, said. 

I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once. Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash. We’re going across the field .... They’re singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word! ... Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.

  The writer at that link , who does not deny the truth of Phil's experiences, goes on to claim that Phil's experiences sound like a cartoon he saw once, and critics can take Phil's life experiences seriously without considering the experiences of other, more miserable folks who lived earlier than Phil.

Buried under the firestorm of media and public outrage over Robertson’s comments on sexuality is his stunning insinuation that blacks were quite happy in the Jim Crow South:

  Phil doesn't say ALL Blacks were happy; he simply says before the entitlement mentality took hold firmly in the minds of the Black people he knew, they were happy to work in the fields next to him. 
  Discover the Networks lists the impact of the entitlement mentality:

The rise of the welfare state in the 1960s contributed greatly to the demise of the black family as a stable institution. The out-of-wedlock birth rate among African Americans today is 73%, three times higher than it was prior to the War on Poverty. Children raised in fatherless homes are far more likely to grow up poor and to eventually engage in criminal behavior, than their peers who are raised in two-parent homes. In 2010, blacks (approximately 13% of the U.S. population) accounted for 48.7% of all arrests for homicide, 31.8% of arrests for forcible rape, 33.5% of arrests for aggravated assault, and 55% of arrests for robbery. Also as of 2010, the black poverty rate was 27.4% (about 3 times higher than the white rate), meaning that 11.5 million blacks in the U.S. were living in poverty.

  Could Phil be right, in addition to attesting to the truth of his own experiences? 
  Yet Jesse Jackson finds the truth offensive; his criticism of Phil is this:

"These statements uttered by Robertson are more offensive than the bus driver in Montgomery, Alabama, more than 59 years ago," Jackson said in a statement obtained by ABC News.

"At least the bus driver, who ordered Rosa Parks to surrender her seat to a white person, was following state law. Robertson's statements were uttered freely and openly without cover of the law, within a context of what he seemed to believe was 'white privilege.'"

  Knowing nothing about the Robertson past, Jesse Jackson Sr, shakedown artist, feels free to claim that Phil was speaking from "white privilege."
  Except when we go to Phil's Wiki bio page, we learn that Phil's childhood "white privilege" wasn't very privileged, considering he didn't have electricity, toilets or running water.
  Phil, an excellent football player also had the privilege of being offered a scholarship, but he chose to embrace hunting and reject the celebrity lifestyle and big bucks of professional football.
  Could Phil have a point that many "community organizers" have a knack of standing for little but stirring up trouble? 
  The Jesse Jacksons of the world aren't about helping "white trash" like the young Phil Robertson unless they can themselves benefit or use racial tension as a leverage.
  Thus Jackson resorts to criticizing Phil's childhood observations as invalid, regardless the truth.
  Christ Himself said the poor will always be with you; this is certainly evidenced by the numbers of people, unlike Star Parker, who have been given chance after chance to rise from poverty but instead choose to wallow in it.
  Yet the hootiest comment GLAAD & Jackson make about Robertson's comments is this:

Jackson and GLAAD said they believe it's not right for a personality with such a large platform to benefit from such comments.

  Um, yeah. So GLAAD and Jackson are NOT personalities with "large platforms" benefiting from their own comments? Yeah no.
  The worm has turned, I think, as more and more folk are speaking out online about the machines that are the homosexual and racial lobbies.
  Just read the comments under any article about Phil and you'll see where the American public is on this, also evidenced by A & E's Duck Dynasty marathon.
  I was reading a Facebook posting about the A & E western program "Longmire," and the overwhelming number of comments of people saying they would NOT watch A & E anymore stated "Not til Phil is back" or cryptically "I'm not watching A & E anymore."
  Booyah! 
  We've had enough, my friends!

Hallelujah. Christ is born.

Lyrics by Cloverton

I've heard about this baby boy
Who's come to earth to bring us joy
And I just want to sing this song to you
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
With every breath I'm singing Hallelujah
Hallelujah

A couple came to Bethlehem
Expecting child, they searched the inn
To find a place for You were coming soon
There was no room for them to stay
So in a manger filled with hay
God's only Son was born, oh Hallelujah
Hallelujah

The shepherds left their flocks by night
To see this baby wrapped in light
A host of angels led them all to You
It was just as the angels said
You'll find Him in a manger bed
Immanuel and Savior, Hallelujah
Hallelujah

A star shown bright up in the east
To Bethlehem, the wisemen three
Came many miles and journeyed long for You
And to the place at which You were
Their frankincense and gold and myrrh
They gave to You and cried out Hallelujah
Hallelujah

I know You came to rescue me
This baby boy would grow to be
A man and one day die for me and you
My sins would drive the nails in You
That rugged cross was my cross, too
Still every breath You drew was Hallelujah
Hallelujah

End of an era; dawn of a new

  I don't know how you can claim that Christmas is not under attack.
  I also don't know how you can claim that Christians are not under attack. Around the world, the treatment of Christians is severe and punitive, some would say apocalyptic.
  One doesn't have to wonder which religion is persecuting Christians. It goes without saying.
  Yet as bleak as the outlook may be for traditional Christians, I personally sense something bigger is happening....something so under the radar that traditional sources are not noticing (as if they'd want to anyway).
  I've attended church services in Perrysburg, Chicago and San Bernardino this Christmas season; there is a wild energy I have not felt in years past. The traditional 150 white person church that sinners cannot attend is passing; you know the kind I mean. 
  The lukewarm churches who purport to know everything about Christianity, yet take all the church donations for their denomination and their sound systems, finding little reason to actually seek out or support the poor and lame.
  Good riddance to that kind of church.
  After all, the first bed The Christ---the Messiah---slept in was a rickety manger meant for animals. Even as he lay in the hay, his human eyes opening for the first time on the world he had created, the shadow of the cross fell his tiny body. 
  Today for many people, there is no "guest room" available for even a tiny baby such as he; their homes are filled with so much stuff, junk and disposables that they do not have an inclination to welcome the One--the real One--whose grace we all experience every day.
  Oddly, the Duck Dynasty controversy has drawn a focal point to Christianity, which probably makes sense since so much of our daily comings and goings are determined by pop culture.
  While I personally may not agree exactly with the way Phil Robertson expressed himself, it's clear that the primary reason he is being attacked is his Christian faith and his citation of The Bible as justification for his moral views. 
  GLAAD claimed Phil, who was at a prayer meeting when the whole story exploded, was a "liar" who had no idea what a "true Christian" thinks. 
  This is a typical attack method of the Left. Once again, the "wisdom" of the Leftist agenda supercedes the knowledge of Christians themselves and even The Bible itself, which Phil clearly quoted.
  This time it seems to have backfired.
  Even several gay writers have accused GLAAD of bias and discrimination, the most articulate and notable of whom is Paglia:

"I speak with authority here because I was openly gay before the 'Stonewall Rebellion,' when it cost you something to be so," she said. "And I personally feel as a libertarian that people have the right to free thought and free speech. In a democratic country, people have the right to be homophobic as they have the right to support homosexuality -- as I 100 percent do. If people are basing their views against gays on the Bible, again they have a right to religious freedom there … to express yourself in a magazine in an interview -– this is the level of punitive PC, utterly fascist, utterly Stalinist, OK, that my liberal colleagues in the Democratic party and on college campuses have supported and promoted over the last several decades. It's the whole legacy of the free speech 1960's that have been lost by my own party."

  American Thinker has an excellent perspective on the political justification of the vicious attacks on Robertson. Indeed, gay characters are everywhere on television & movies, sanitized & sweetened versions who are much wiser than their straight counterparts. Here's a snippet:

In recent years such gay characters have been everywhere on TV and in movies. There are also shows that actively promote the fallacy that straight people need gays to teach them how to be sexually attractive. This barrage has driven the gay political agenda. Thanks to the proliferation of gay characters on TV in recent years many Americans vastly overestimate the percentage of the population that is gay.

  The whole thing is definitely worth reading here.
  Lloyd Marcus takes encouragement from the Duck Dynasty brouhaha:

Since the recent controversy surrounding the show, I learned that Duck Dynasty is huge -- the highest-rated show in cable history.

So what does the show's popularity tell me?  It tells me that, instinctively, people are drawn to things wholesome and good.  To traditional principles and values.

  But this whole kerfuffle is not what I wish to dwell on this Christmas Day post.
  Back to that energy thing.
  It certainly won't be NBC News that will tell the world of a real spiritual revival. 
  Probably not even "a great company of heavenly host" appearing with an angel will tell you.
  It's your own heart, that and the thousands of people seeking the truth, going to worship in Perrysburg, Chicago and San Bernardino which will speak to spiritual movement in this country.
  I believe something big is happening, by my own witness and several miracles I have witnessed.
  I've always been a skeptic, somewhat cynical, not about my faith or God but that in my lifetime I would actually witness the power of God in everyday life or see the end of days.
  I heard a missionary to the African continent say once that strange events are quite common where he ministered because the people who live there daily saw evidence of the prince of the power of the air. 
  Here in the United States our attacks are of a different nature.  Such tricks did not work because we are so caught up in the clutter and greed of modern culture.
  Instead that clutter was seductive enough to entice us away from seeing the Almighty around us.
  This year, that has changed. There's a realization that nothing here is permanent; that our freedoms are fragile; that the wonderful life we have needs to be tempered with charity, spirituality and an eye toward eternity.
  I believe we are entering a new era, an era that requires introspection and prayer.

Is Love Making a Comeback?

New York City has always had a romantic charm despite its esthetic defects, rude citizenry, and incompetent and ever so corruptible politicians. West Side Story opened on Broadway in 1957. It was based on a book written by Arthur Laurents. The lyrics were written by Stephen Sondheim and the music by the legendary Leonard Bernstein. From Broadway it went to film and won 10 of 11 Oscar nominations including best picture with Richard Beymer and Natalie Wood in the leading roles. To this day I can still remember some of the lyrics. Enchanting! Truly enchanting!

All that seems so long ago to the many of us who have become jaded, to the many of us who have lost our way, and to the many of us who no longer believe that love exists outside our private worlds. But there is passion in New York and it gives one a sense of steadfastness and continuity to know that there are still those who will dare all for love.
Perhaps there is a new West Side Story being written right now. There is only a slight geographical adjustment to the script, shifting the scene from roughly Hell's Kitchen to SoHo and the characters may be a bit shopworn and the Sharks and the Jets are no more but when love beckons fear and fidelity don't have a chance. It doesn't make mayor elect Bill De Blasio look very good either. The upshot of the plot is client number 9 is shacking up with His Honor's spokeswoman, Lis Smith. That's hooker loving Eliot Spitzer in the hoodie, outside of Smith's walk-up and doing a damn good job of blending in with the homeless.

Without Smith's being able to attend the press conference because of scandal, De Blasio demonstrated how badly he needs a spokesperson;
“I respect Lis as a professional but I also respect her right to privacy. So I’m not going to get any further into it,” De Blasio said.
See we still have chivalry.
“This, to me, is like any other personal question. This is not something I want to go into detail on. We’re here to talk about very serious matters facing our city. I’m just not going to get into individual personal matters,” he said. We’re in a transition – we have a way of doing things. When we’re ready to make an announcement, we’ll make an announcement and so with all the folks being looked at and being considered, when the times comes we’ll have an announcement about everybody. But I don’t get into the process. I don’t get into how the process is done. When it’s announcement day you’ll know.”
Part of the way process is done, your Honor, is people unwind their marriages before starting another romance but it's hardly news that Spitzer in not into marital fidelity. Smith seems to like her par amours a little on the trashy side. She dated ex-Missouri state Sen. Jeff Smith from 2005 to 2009, before he was locked up in a federal pen for obstruction after a probe of the state’s 2004 election.
On second thought, maybe West Side Story was just an adult fairy tale.

Tour bus safety; a scary disgrace

What is the most dangerous activity you can think of? How about riding a casino tour bus? Original Pechanga first called my attention to the danger with this blog post. Over 100 Injured in FIVE CA Tribal Casino Tour Bus Crashes in The Last FOUR MONTHS.
A Google search of bus crashes finds that just today 13 more were injured as Fox reported; 13 hurt as tour bus crashes on California freeway. On December 19 California recorded a double as one died and 44 were injured in two separate bus crashes. Both buses were headed to or coming from Indian casinos. On September 19, UTSandiego .com head lined ; 8 injured in casino bus crash The post states: "It was the second crash of a casino-bound bus in North County this month."
What goes on here and where is Governor Brown? Over 100 injured and two killed in 5 buses all bound for Indian casinos in a single year and the State of California can't discern a pattern to the mayhem?
To be fair to Governor Brown and the California casinos this appears to be part of a long time epidemic of casino bound bus accidents with plenty of blame to go around in New York, New Jersey and elsewhere. The AP compiled this list way back in 2008.

Some crashes involving casino buses in the past decade:
— Oct. 5, 2008: A casino-bound charter bus from Sacramento, Calif., crashes near Williams, Calif., killing eight people.
— Aug. 11, 2008: A shuttle bus swerves off a freeway near Las Vegas and slams into the center divider, injuring 29 casino and mall employees.
— Aug. 10, 2008: A casino bus full of tourists flips over in a median in Tunica, Miss., killing three people and injuring several others.
— May 17, 2008: A charter bus heading to the gambling town of Laughlin, Nev., overturns on a Mojave Desert freeway near Ludlow, Calif., killing a woman and injuring 22 other people.
— Jan. 17, 2008: A bus carrying workers to a casino on the Nevada-California line crashes into a guardrail and catches fire, injuring 25 people.
— Sept. 23, 2006: A bus returning from a casino rolls onto its side in a construction zone in Wright Township, Mich., injuring 11 passengers.
— Feb. 6, 2006: A bus from New York City to an Atlantic City, N.J., casino crashes through a guardrail and plunges 25 feet, injuring many of 53 passengers.
— March 15, 2005: A bus heading to a casino in Indio, Calif., smashes into a fire truck on a highway, killing one person and injuring 57.
— Oct. 9, 2004: A charter bus crashes in Marion, Ark., killing 14 people who had been headed to a Mississippi casino.
— May 24, 2004: A chartered bus
carrying people back to Houston from a casino at Lake Charles, La., slams into a tractor-trailer near Anahuac, Texas, killing a woman and injuring many other people.
— Feb. 7, 2003: Tour bus taking passengers from New York City to Atlantic City, N.J., falls on its side on a slushy highway, killing two passengers and injuring 28.
— June 4, 2001: A bus carrying senior citizens to an Atlantic City, casino rams into a car on a New Jersey highway, killing the two people in the car and injuring dozens of bus passengers.
— April 9, 2001: A bus traveling from Mexico to a casino in Southern California swerves to avoid an accident, then overturns on a highway east of San Diego, injuring all 35 passengers.
— May 9, 1999: A bus heading to a casino in Bay St. Louis, Miss., runs off a highway on Mother's Day, killing 22 people. Investigators said the driver was impaired by severe medical conditions and use of marijuana and an antihistamine.
— Dec. 24, 1998: A bus headed for Atlantic City casinos skids off a highway and flips over in a ravine on Christmas Eve, killing eight people and injuring 15 others.

One would think by now some politician or some organization would have made an issue of this.

Merry Christmas, Private Slovik, It's time to talk about getting health insurance

Before talking about getting health insurance this Christmas season one may want to forego the hot chocolate and head straight to the liquor cabinet. The latest CNN/ORC poll is not exactly a wellspring of tidings of comfort and joy to Obamacare supporters. Perhaps reading aloud Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus before bringing the subject up might get you past the skeptics in our skeptical age and if the listeners have ingested sufficient volumes of high proof spirits the conversation might be conducted in civil voice tones at least until the sky high deductibles are mentioned.
Who in the family likes Obamacare? Practically nobody. Only 35% support the law while 62% oppose it. Support among both men and women is 35% while women oppose it slightly less than men 60% to 64%. White people? Remember that group? Only 27% of white respondents support Obamacare and 71% oppose it. Among the young-the 18 to 29 group-support is 38% while 59% state opposition.
The poll also finds that 63% think Obamacare will make health care more expensive and only 7% think it will make it more affordable. Bah! Humbug!

Obamacare Hunger Games continue: now, the Photo Op

  We await breathlessly the photo op of Obama descending from his Hawaii vacation luury perch long enough to "sign up for Obamacare."
  Another trick, designed to fool encourage the Pajama Boys around the country into giving their personal information and credit cards over to an insecure website that is selling health insurance plans far more expensive than any in history.
  If any dopey Pajama Boy actually thinks Obamacare will ever extend to the Obamas, I gotta bunch of old family VHS tapes to sell you for a million bucks. Mediaite:

They have four doctors and several more nurses on staff in the White House who travel with the president’s motorcade. Air Force One has an on-board operating room. And if Obama or any members of the First Family need to be treated in a hospital they are given priority treatment in military facilities

  Why do these people even play this game? How stupid do they think we are?
  More and more, the current administration is acting the part of The Capitol in the Hunger Games while the rest of the country suffers.
  We're not the only ones who've noticed the similarities.
  Revolution is coming?
UPDATE: I see it went well. Smirk.

Chicago's Black community rises up!

    I'm trying not to be too impressed with this Rebel Pundit/Breitbart video of South Side Chicago residents who have had it with the "progressive" movement that has destroyed their community and encouraged lawlessness, modeled by the current administration.
  This video is remarkable for any number of reasons, not the least of which is an elderly gentleman's suggestion that what the Black Chicago community needs is a rousing town hall like the "Republican" Tea Party community meetings.
  (Well, maybe they haven't figured out yet that the Tea Party isn't traditionally Republican but rather is trending more sensible economy and even Libertarian.)
  What I'm suggesting, however, is that the progressive aka regressive movement is imploding with great fanfare and right in front of its most ardent admirers who are in complete denial.
  So I don't have to even mention Obamacare, then, k.
  Watch and wonder: At an Al Sharpton NAN event, Chicago's Black community 1) wants to know why the Obama administration hates them so much to send Rahm Emanuel to govern their city.  2) wants to know why they continue to vote for the same people who not only do nothing for them but put into place laws that are harmful to their community  3)  asks themselves why they've been so dumb for so long.  4)  suggests that they need to participate in more Tea Party events.
  The end of the world, n'est ce pas?
  Or perhaps simply the end of an era.
  Watch, wonder and hope that we will all be united in the preservation of this great Republic. 
  What's remarkable is this community doesn't really know that a Tea Party is what they just had! This is how it starts.

Cracker Barrel flips then flops

Does anyone at Cracker Barrel have a clue? Do they get their political advice from the guy who raises the catfish? There is a lot to be said for simply keeping one's mouth shut. For some reason their management seemed to think the safest place to be in the Duck Dynasty controversy was no man's land. Yes, they would continue selling DD merchandise but they were culling the stuff that might offend some of their customers. After all they were about pleasing people. One wonders if they can identify a single person they pleased.
Today they are full square behind Phil Robertson and hoping they didn't outright gut the sale of their gift cards this Christmas season.

Dear Cracker Barrel Customer:
When we made the decision to remove and evaluate certain Duck Dynasty items, we offended many of our loyal customers. Our intent was to avoid offending, but that’s just what we've done.
You told us we made a mistake. And, you weren't shy about it. You wrote, you called and you took to social media to express your thoughts and feelings. You flat out told us we were wrong.
We listened.
Today, we are putting all our Duck Dynasty products back in our stores.
And, we apologize for offending you.
We respect all individuals right to express their beliefs.
We certainly did not mean to have anyone think different.
We sincerely hope you will continue to be part of our Cracker Barrel family.

Cracker Barrel goes squishy. Pulls "offensive" Duck Dynasty merchandise

I haven't eaten at Cracker Barrel since I was served a plate of chicken livers that oozed blood. I had intended to let that matter pass until today when the restaurant chain announced that it would continue to sell Duck Dynasty but it had removed a few items that might be offensive. That announcement evoked the same visceral reaction. Their Face Book post reads;

Cracker Barrel’s mission is Pleasing People. We operate within the ideals of fairness, mutual respect and equal treatment of all people. These ideals are the core of our corporate culture.

We continue to offer Duck Commander products in our stores.

We removed selected products which we were concerned might offend some of our guests while we evaluate the situation.

We continually evaluate the products we offer and will continue to do so.

That seems to have gone over like a pregnant pole vaulter.
"After you are done removing the selected products, go ahead and remove a bunch of tables and chairs......you won't be needing them any more." wrote one commenter.
"Well while you are evaluating this "Problem" I will be eating across the street..... I stand on the Bible, along with the Robertson family." posted another.
What would Cracker Barrel find offensive? One assumes they mean items that have Phil Robertson's likeness on them.
To hell with them. If I have to eat every meal out at Cheeseburger in Paradise and buy all my clothes from Rural King I will not patronize any business that kowtows to GLAAD or advertises on A&E.

A&E Plotted Duck Dynasty Uproar

And now the plot thickens. We are beginning to learn that the Duck Dynasty uproar was carefully crafted by A&E to cajole the Robertson family into a more politically correct posture. Phil did not just happen to stumble in GQ's office. The interview was arranged by A&E and its personnel were present at the interview. According to a family friend who spoke to the Daily Mail A&E was uncomfortable with Phil's uncompromising Christianity and thought by marginalizing him it could whip the rest of the family into happy subservience. The cable channel had envisioned a reality series that would showcase a moronic clan of backwoods red necks. But it picked the wrong family. The Robertson family's principles were admired by the TV audience which saw nothing funny about saying grace before meals.

‘You have to ask yourself, why this interview happened and why it ever became public. Someone from A&E was there and was aware of the kind of answers Phil was giving.
‘But despite that, they didn’t ever try to stop it or control it. Instead, they let it hit the headlines and then released a statement condemning it.
‘It is our belief that they knew what was going to happen and then used the situation to exercise control over Phil.
‘It is our understanding that when the TV executives came up with the concept for the show they wanted it to be a case of people laughing at a bunch of backward rednecks.
‘But when it didn’t turn out like that and people actually started identifying with the way the family behaved and were laughing with them, not at them, they became uncomfortable. It did not sit will with the New York TV types.
‘We believe they were also uncomfortable with the family’s insistence that there would be a strong religious presence in the show. They knew Phil was the driving force behind this and we think they have used this situation to bring him in line so they could steer the show back down the path they originally intended for it.
‘But they may have underestimated how united the family are and how committed they are to their beliefs. They also didn’t realize how much support Phil would get from the public, so things have backfired on them.’

Remember what your mother told you about playing with fire? It really does cause bed wetting. Just ask anyone working at A&E. Boycotts targeting A&E and its sponsors are being organized, Phil Robertson is called the Rosa Parks of our time, liberal Camille Paglia without calling GLAAD by name has denounced its "Stalinist tactics.
This is one of those crises that is too good to waste. Governor Mike Huckabee said the evangelical community erred when it had everyone gathered at Chick-fil-A it didn't bring voter registration forms. The evangelicals, for all their fervor, do not vote their numbers. A voting block of 80 million adamant Christians that would call out those it who it deems as hateful would be a force to be reckoned with. As my partner here pointed out it's time to unbundle our cable packages so we don't have to pay for channels as disgraceful as A&E. Finally it is time to boycott the corporations that contribute to GLAAD just as GLAAD bullies compliance through threat of boycott of those who disagree with it.

Ohio home schoolers win one

   Ohio home schoolers won a big one this week.
  A union-supported Democrat--naturally--had proposed restrictive "mental health" assessment for home schooling student and their parents.
  If this bill had been successful, the state would have had control over who could home school their children based on a "mental health professional's assessment of the parents.
  The legislator--as usual, a Democrat--proposing the onerous legislation had only the best intentions for Ohioans, naming it "Teddy's Law," after a child who was abused and ultimately died by the hands of an abusive parent, who chose to home school to hide her behavior.
  Such intrusions always start this way, usually with the hoping of "saving even one life" and in some way curtailing the freedoms of thousands under the guise of "saving even one life."
  Schools themselves are often guilty of this, for example, banning students from carrying water bottles because one student ten years ago was guilty of putting vodka in a water bottle.
  This source explains the impact of the law:

This legislation replaces the authority of a child’s parent in determining if home education can be pursued under 3301-34 regulations (tagged to Revised Code 3321.04) or if students should have access to eSchools by designating public children’s service agencies the sole authority to allow the “application” to proceed.

This proposed state mandate would require the public children’s service agency to meet with the person submitting the application (the parent) and would require an in-person interview with each child for whom the application is made. The stated purpose of these interviews would be for the agency to determine if it is “in the best interest of the child to grant admission” to the eSchool or to grant the excuse from public school attendance to home educate.

The legislation further requires that the children’s service agency conduct in person interviews two additional times during the school year.

  So many people howled in protest that this law has been withdrawn. Maggie Thurber at Ohio Watchdog has a rundown of the withdrawal of the bill:

After coming under fire for what many were calling the “worst ever” home schooling bill, an Ohio state senator has decided to withdraw a controversial bill that would have required background checks for parents who decided to home-school their children.

  In contrast, Columbus City Schools spent "more than $3 million" trying to pass a school levy in excess of 9 mills. Dispatch:

The group that pushed for passage of the Columbus schools levy raised $800,000 more in the last few weeks of the campaign, putting it over the $3 million mark.
It appears to be one of the most-expensive school-levy campaigns — if not the most costly — in Ohio. Final campaign-finance reports, released late last week, show that $100,000 donations were coming in days before the polls opened.

  The extraordinary amount of money was unsuccessful in achieving its goal; indeed, detractors suggested supporters of the levy should have funneled the money back into the school system. Based on test results, Columbus Schools score 4/10 on the Great Schools website.
  Columbus scores, available here, speak for themselves:

The results from Columbus City Schools are:
Performance Index: D
Performance Indicators: F
Overall Value-Added: F
Gifted Students' value-added: F
Students With Disabilities' value-added: C
Bottom 20 percent of students: C
Four-year Graduation: D
Five-year Graduation: D
Annual Measurable Objectives (closing achievement gaps)F

 UPDATE: And from Matt Walsh, before this was resolved, an observation that Senator Cafaro was "exploiting" the death of a child for her own means and that the child's (Teddy's) abuse had been documented and ignored by children's services before the mother took him out to home school:

In keeping with the government’s long tradition of being incompetent in every possible facet of existence, this young child’s abuse was already reported to Social Services. Social Services failed to act, and now, in response to THEIR OWN failures, politicians want to give them MORE power. This is a brand of mania that you can only find in government: an agency bungles its authority, and the solution is to give them more of it. 

  Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Let the sentinels in the watch-tower sleep not.

White House Down

   HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
  The Leftist academics writing in the WaPo this week:

Both liberals and conservatives believe they are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with the Affordable Care Act. With the HealthCare.gov Web site running more smoothly, liberals are confident that Obamacare will soon be entrenched. Just as Republicans in the 1950s came to accept Social Security to avoid electoral defeats, ACA supporters insist that conservatives are courting political disaster if they continue to oppose the law.

  Earlier today:

The White House will allow.....

What's wrong with this headline?

White House Will Allow Some To Buy Catastrophic Health Plans

The Judicial Branch
The Executive Branch
The Legislative Branch 
  And here's a reason the White House will allow--in the runup to the 2014 elections--

Uh, A & E, the Duck Commanders don't need you

  Phil Robertson is a "character" on Duck Dynasty, the cable show that has 14 million viewers, more than the 10 million garnered by the Breaking Bad finale.
  By character, I mean character.
  He's prickly, irascible, rarely smiles, loves his wife & family and highly ethical. A devout Christian, you're never quite sure what will come out of his mouth.
  Or any of the mouths of the Dynasty characters.
  What you hear come out of their mouths is the kind of foul profanity exhibited on most other programs.
  Isn't this reality tv? It's who they are. 
  Lots has been written and spoken about Phil's remarks today. 
  For me, what it all boils down to is this.
  While it is true that public opinion has changed concerning public mores, how can anyone say where we are now is light years better than thirty years ago? Yes, some changes are good but the crap we witness on our air waves year after year is absolutely disgusting and appalling.
  We have become inured to the disgusting bare anatomy, the "slips" of language and body revelations, the intimate discussions of personal habits, the foul behavior of misguided indulgent parents, the low, low, low events of dissolute meaningless lives who peer into our homes day after day if we let them.
  And yet Phil Robertson quotes the Bible and the world comes undone.
  Sorry, A & E, we're not buying it this time. You've said Phil does not reflect your "values," though that word seems particularly inappropriate given that Phil is a religious family man.
  Your values lie with the Left, as so many garbage channels on the tube do.
  What we want is to unbundle cable channels so we could pick what we want.
  We did notice you're running a Duck Dynasty marathon this weekend.
  Since the Robertson family will not continue without their patriarch, we're pretty sure you'd better milk those "values" for all you can get for now. 
UPDATE: I should have mentioned The Blaze has been courting the Robertsons; many other options are available. Whatever. A & E stand to lose $400 million a year when they depart.
  It's not only the Southern Christians who are pushing back. Twitchy has a roundup of the disgust even Leftists are showing for A & E's move.
UPDATE II: Heh. Always ahead of the story, the People's Cube has something to say about the situation:

A message released by A&E’s Department of Tolerance stated, “We have long been strong and proud supporters of adultery, bestiality, idolatry, drunkenness, greed, slander, and swindling. We deeply regret Mr. Robertson’s slanderous libel against our minority citizens and urge him to shut up until he learns a little tolerance.”

Completely unrepentant, Mr. Robertson says he’s “happy, happy, happy” to take a stand for Christ. -

72% View Big Government as a Major Threat

A record 72% of Americans view big government as the largest threat to the country's future. Notice that fear of big labor has declined since the 1960's in proportion to the decline in union membership and influence. Fear of big business seems to have peaked with the Enron scandal and is now viewed as the major threat by only one in five people. Notice when the fear of big government accelerated. It coincides with the election of Barack Obama. What a strange coincidence! The poll was released by Gallup yesterday.

Basking in the warmth of President Selfie's Victory Fund tapestry

  President Selfie's situation continues to deteriorate, Selfie himself apparently unaware of what a bad job he's doing. 
  Nobody told him. Obviously he doesn't watch any news networks because if he did, he might realize that the whole Obamacare debacle is turning into a circus of not-as-funny Monty Python skits.
  We learn that Obamacare officials are willy-nilly withdrawing money from enrollees' accounts.
  Tens of thousands of applicants' papers have not been touched, and those who have had contact with Unaffordable Care Act officials have been encouraged to lie and cheat on applications.
   In fact, the UCA is utilizing untrained "Navigator" volunteers to pass the information from one portal to another.
  Some have had their personal information released into the wild, an increasingly dangerous wild, that is, along with confidential Navigator documents.
  Even New York elite artists and musicians, those condescending privileged tony few who avoid the unwashed masses, are concerned that their health care policies are being trashed, only to be replaced by very expensive policies that benefit gasp! the unwashed masses.
  Who knew?
  Meanwhile, is Obama scrambling? 
  Is he concerned about his drop in popularity? 
  His Rasputin Valerie Jarrett apparently is, so much so that she's booked him to appear in an interview with a Family Feud comedian sycophant.
  Obama himself, not so much.
  In fact, he's installed at the US Embassy in London an image of himself, an image which some call creepy, and an image which the Obamabot sycophants praise. 
  The always kind, compassionate and reasonable Obamabots snark that criticizing their Chosen One reveals that the criticizer is probably "stupidest man on the internet."
  What.
  Apparently they don't read David Brooks.
  The artist originally created the tapestry for the Obama Victory Fund, making a limited number available, also noting that Obama was glad to spend an hour and a half--he hung around longer than required-- being photographed, which is more than he spent with Sebelius regarding Obamacare. 
  The artist's tapestry method is described by Wikipedia as "each image is composed of thousands of combinations of woven colored thread."
  Apparently Obama and his people were so taken with it that they decided to acquire one so people in other countries can bask in the warm wonder of Selfie President.
  From ArtInfo:

The President’s sitting is also the subject of a “Talk of the Town” feature in this month’s New Yorker, where Close divulges that Obama willingly stayed 50 minutes later than planned (perhaps in order to avoid a picnic with Congress in the White House backyard) and made a wisecrack about needing to wear his American flag pin, or else people might think he was a socialist.

  So here's the image President Selfie chose to put in the US London embassy a day ago. Judge for yourself, particularly considering PS's place in history.
  The Embassy itself notes that the portrait "casts a warm smile over guests." Note also that the portrait sits between Lincoln and Washington. 
  Fits right in.
  A bit undersized, I'd say.

Ohio Drilling Permits Top 1000

Ohio's Utica Shale has passed another mile post. It has been just over two years since I began posting on the potential and progress of Ohio's contribution to the nation's energy supply. On November 26, Ohio issued drilling permit number 1000. The latest total is 1015. The Ohio DNR has issued 565 permits in 2013 passing the projected 525 nicely. Of the 1,015 permits, 250 are producing and 294 are drilled but not yet producing which leaves 83 that are being drilled and 388 that have been permitted but not drilled.
Carroll County has the most permits with 358, followed by Harrison County, 154; Columbiana County, 94; Noble County, 74; and Guernsey County, 64.
While it's hard to be gloomy about the progress to date a little perspective is in order. Aubrey McClendon judges the Utica to be richer than Texas' Eagle Ford Shale but the Eagle Ford is strictly an oil play and has progressed much further than the Utica. Currently there are 229 rigs working the Eagle Ford. Ohio has 35 working rigs. With 294 wells drilled but not producing there is little chance that Ohio can expect a dramatic up tick its rig count in the near term. It must first build the infrastructure to separate the natural gas from the condensates and the pipelines to transport both as well as oil pipelines.
Condensates, mostly propane and butane, exist in a gaseous state when under well pressure but condense into what we used to call "drip gas" at atmospheric pressure. They are more valuable than natural gas (methane) and are sold separately. They have a variety of different uses; including enhancing oil recovery in oil wells, providing raw materials for oil refineries or petrochemical plants, and as sources of energy. MarkWest Energy Partners LPA has begun construction of cryogenic processing plant at its Seneca complex in Noble County and others will follow ( and create more jobs) but in the meantime the Utica will endure growing pains.

Is there a NSA spook in your XBox?

At least when we played Pac-Man at the arcade we knew who our friends were. Yes, all our friends were younger and some of them were weird, and all of them smoked and a few even whispered that the Village People were gay but at least we knew they were genuine people. They weren't avatars or bots or NSA spies. As if recent revelations rendering irrelevant our expectations of privacy in our emails, chats, and cell locations were not bad enough it's especially disconcerting to learn that government is in the XBox. Is there any area of our personal lives that is not subject to government scrutiny?
NSA and its UK sister agency GCHQ have infiltrated the massive communities playing online games, according to secret documents disclosed by whistleblower Edward Snowden. Blizzard Entertainment, the producer of World of Warcraft said neither the NSA nor GCHQ had sought its permission to gather intelligence inside the game. "We are unaware of any surveillance taking place," said a spokesman. Microsoft has refused to comment but if it ran to form in this instance there is probably a back door in the XBox.
Given that gaming consoles often include voice headsets, video cameras, and other identifiers, the potential for collecting biometric information is boundless as well as the potential for abuse. While nanny state Democrats in Congress were wringing their hands over cyber-bullying on Facebook and being caught sexting on Twitter a virtual army of spooks, not only from the NSA, but also from the CIA, and the FBI were chatting up gamers.
Not being content just to snag an occasional terrorist which apparently the program has not, the NSA ventured into the politically correct realm and fretted that games could be used to "reinforce prejudices and cultural stereotypes". God forbid bigots are buying XBoxes!
You can read the whole sad story here.

Amnesty for Snowden?

The intelligence officer in charge of assessing the damage done to US intelligence by Edward Snowden says the government should consider amnesty in exchange for the documents Snowden holds. In a 60 Minutes interview Richard Ledgett stared;
"So, my personal view is, yes, [granting Snowden amnesty] is worth having a conversation about. I would need assurances that the remainder of the data could be secured, and my bar for those assurances would be very high. It would be more than just an assertion on his part."
Ledgett's boss, general Keith Alexander does not agree.
"This is analogous to a hostage-taker taking 50 people hostage, shooting 10 and then say, "If you give me full amnesty, I'll let the other 40 go." What do you do,' Alexander says.
More

NWOCC rescheduled because of snow

We got snowed out from the Findlay meeting.  We have re-scheduled.
Last weekend,  150 Leaders from Conservative groups  across Ohio meet in Columbus to formulate the strategy for the upcoming 2014 elections.
Unfortunately, for this strategy to work, we must start NOW.  We have about 6 weeks before the Primary Election filing deadline (Feb 5th), and a lot of commitments need to be made.
If every Leader, Group, and Activist does a small part, you are going to see something happen in Politics that you have never, ever seen before.
Please attend this very important meeting. Your group, your members, your activists must do a very small part.
Monday, Dec 16
7:30 p.m.  - 9:00 p.m.
Maumee Senior Center
2430 Detroit Ave
Maumee, OH 43537
Between River Rd and Anthony Wayne Trail
John McAvoy
NW Ohio Conservative Coalition
419-787-9585
Cheryl Blakely
OLC NW Board member
419-722-0534
 

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Krauthammer on the Obamacare disaster

Rational people keep wondering: how can it get any worse? And yet it does.

Caribbean fever hits Minnesota health care exchange

It's a bit awkward posting kind words about Kathleen Sebelius but give the woman credit. At least she does stay on the job. On the state exchanges dereliction of duty seems to be a way of life for the highly paid administrators. In an earlier post I reported that the Cover Oregon administrator had taken sick leave and that the Maryland administrator had been cashiered out following an extended Thanksgiving holiday in the Caribbean. Now MNsure, Minnesota's new health insurance exchange, which has already enrolled 4,478 out of a projected 67,000 total is caught up in another Caribbean vacation controversy. MNsure director April Todd-Malmlov took a two-week vacation to Costa Rica around Thanksgiving while her glitch prone website struggled to maintain a pretense of functionality.
What is it with these ladies and the Caribbean? Sure nobody in their right mind would want to spend the winter in Duluth but she wasn't conscripted into the job. There are only 14 state exchanges and 3 have lazy and incompetent administrators. Heavy on the noblesse and awfully light on the oblige! Unlike her counterpart in Maryland Todd-Malmlov will probably keep her job.

Obamacare "spoof" gets owned

  Get Covered America, one of the many organizations funded to promote Obamacare,  has a new video promoting signing up for the Unaffordable Care Act; it's supposed to be a "parody" or "spoof" of Snoop Dog's "Drop it like it's hot" video. 
  The "Obama" performer is talented, to be sure, but apparently the message isn't going over too well with the people watching it over at YouTube.
  The comments are not only hilarious but revealing of the mindset of the American people; oh, there are probably a few diehard Republicans posting over there, but most of the comments appear to be from formerly non-political low information voters who have been sadly transformed into highly informed by their latest bills for insurance.
  One poster named "Brilliance to Spare" (naturally) is an unrepentant shill for the government but the posters have caught on to him. 
  Look:

Can I send you the bill for my health insurance cost tripling because of this law?......my plan....that I like...that I wanted to keep, did not want any changes to my coverage, did not need any changes to my coverage.....TRIPLED!! to meet the requirements of this law...because some politician thinks they know what is best for me. 

++++++++

I just lost my health insurance and Obamacare website is offering me a deal which it costs 3 times more money and less coverage...how m'i going to pay that ???????
++++++++
 nobody switches 'to' Democrat unless they are sick of working and being productive and just want to be provided for by the government.
++++++++
Less than 400k have signed up through the federal and state exchanges combined in two months.  These numbers are from the administration not some right wing blog or left wing talking points like yours are. If your old plan didn't offer birth control for free it was disqualified and HAD to drop you.  So your new plan adds birth control but you have to pay 10k more in deductibles before it pays squat how is that more coverage?
++++++++
Oh aren't you the good little propagandist. The same thing happened to me. I will be paying at the least 10k more a year for that free birth control that I don't need any more. With the higher deductible and higher co-pay it could cost me a lot more if I end up actually needing to use it. My healthcare coverage wasn't junk. Your Obamacare is the junk.
++++++++
This is hilarious, and I definitely enjoyed watching it!
But no, I'm not signing up for Obamacare. I don't have the money to pay the outrageous prices and I'm not going to take money from someone else's wallet via subsidies to pay for something I'll barely use and can't afford myself. I'll let the rest in my generation continue to do that via all these ponzi scheme social programs that will eventually cave in on themselves.......then, when people are crying on the streets wondering why their freebies/foodstamps/welfare checks stopped coming, gas is 10 bucks a gallon, milks 8-10 bucks a gallon, unemployment shoots pasts 20%, and so on, i'll remind them that they chose to vote for politicians based off of how cool and "nice" they thought they were and how they decided to take freebies thinking that it wouldn't catch up to them.......sigh #DumbestAmericanGenerationYet #EveryoneShouldLearnMandarin   #NothingIsFree #PrepareToAcceptChinaAsTheWorldsNewPower #ChinaWillBeWayWorseThanYouCryBabiesThinkAmericaIs

And from "Brilliance to Spare":

Don't believe you 飛馬座 X. Fact is, your insurer wouldn't have dropped a plan that complied with the law, so you won't get less coverage with an Obamacare plan, so you're called out as a rank liar on that. You may pay more, though - after all, you had junk insurance in the first place with no benefits and there are no free lunches, so suck it up. You will get a policy or you'll pay a penalty which eventually will cost you more than a policy - that's how you have to deal with stubborn children, after all. Again, calling you a propagandist liar.
Sign up, folks! There are incredible deals out there and millions of Americans who have never had insurance before and who couldn't get insurance after getting sick (preexisting condition) are getting covered and getting healthy. healthcare.gov is saving lives, saving money and changing America from one of the least healthy countries to one of the healthiest. #getcovered! 

"Brilliance" gets owned:

 Wrong. Literally millions of people who are happy with their plans (because they shopped for them and picked them out AND PAY for them) are getting drop letters from their insurance companies for the beginning of the year. A few people will benefit from Obamacare but millions of middle class people will and are being negatively affected by absolutely astronomical increases in their premiums

And:

Oh aren't you the good little propagandist. The same thing happened to me. I will be paying at the least 10k more a year for that free birth control that I don't need any more. With the higher deductible and higher co-pay it could cost me a lot more if I end up actually needing to use it. My healthcare coverage wasn't junk. Your Obamacare is the junk.

And:

How much are you getting paid to spread your propaganda Spare? Please spare us.

And here ya go:

Media Matters Declares Victory Over Fox News

Maybe in the Through the Looking Glass world of left wing Media Matters words don't matter. Maybe? Maybe this is just too subtle for us to grasp but they have declared victory in their war on Fox News.
"The war on Fox is over," said Media Matters Executive Vice President Angelo Carusone. "And it's not just that it's over, but it was very successful. To a large extent, we won."
Yeah, just like Ho Chi Minh at Dien Bien Phu ot Sitting Bull at the Little Big Horn.
"We've always said, 'Media Matters watches Fox, so you don't have to,'" said Bradley Beychok, the group's president. "That remains true. Fox News isn't going to stop lying, so we'll stay on that beat. But, our success regarding Fox News means that our talented team will carry out our mission in different ways consistent with a new strategic vision responsive to the transforming media environment."More

Media Matters declaration of victory comes as Fox News marked month 143 at the top of news channels. It is the second most watched outlet on all of cable behind only ESPN The two newest additions to Fox's line up have grown their respective audiences. Megyn Kelly has increased her viewers by 30% since her prime time debut and Howard Kurtz's Sunday morning Media Buzz is up 73% since its inception. All news channels have seen their numbers decline from their election year highs but Fox has fared better than its competition.
Total views:

• FNC: 1,201,000 total viewers – down 18%; (248,000 in 25-54 – down 30%)
• CNN: 335,000 total viewers – down 48%; (100,000 in 25-54 – down 59%)
• MSNBC: 401,000 total viewers – down 45%; (124,000 in 25-54 – down 52%)
• HLN: 213,000 total viewers – down 7%; (81,000 in 25-54 – down 14%)

Prime time:

• FNC: 2,011,000 total viewers – down 21% (338,000 in 25-54 – down 41%)
• CNN: 481,000 total viewers – down 54%; (153,000 in 25-54 – down 62%)
• MSNBC: 645,000 total viewers – down 50%; (190,000 in 25-54 – down 57%)
• HLN: 278,000 total viewers – down 2%; (90,000 in 25-54 – down 17%)

Obama wins liar of the year award

While many carped that Obama did nothing to win his Nobel Peace Prize no one can deny that his "if you like your health insurance you can keep it" falsehood rightly deserves to be called the Lie of the Year, making its author the Liar of the Year. What can I add? Read my lips I did not have sex with that woman? Politifact explains why it honored the words of Obama with its award.

Sebelius out of touch with reality

  In addition to the incredible incompetence of this administration in the rollout and administration of Obamacare, the lack of transparency is laughably like an old comedy skit series I used to watch called SCTV.
  Characters on SCTV were often insincere cartoonish parodies of Hollywood types. One character was a blonde Hollywood actress emulating Mother Teresa, who was more than confused by the actress's phony aping.
  Watching Kathleen Sebelius, who has to be one of the dumbest people on the planet, move her mouth toward the microphone to utter a bald lie and then move away with pursed lips and shaking head is truly entertaining.
  She was interviewed by Illinois Rep. Shimkus who tried to get her to admit that health care bills have and are going up because of Obama's policies.
  She simply refused to acknowledge that having an item in a shopping cart was not the same as actually purchasing it.
  Shimkus asked:

Now, you cannot say, as you have numerous times, that these preventative care services are quote/unquote free-of-charge, can you?”
Sebelius said, “They are free to the consumer, yes sir.”

  Shimkus argued that it was absurd to contend that prices are lower when they simply are not but Sebelius refused to admit it, claiming that purchasers will have no deductible and no co-pay, even in the face of reality.
  The entire insincere cartoonish exchange is below. It's really not to be believed.
  But then, our lyin' eyes have been deceiving us for over 5 years, eh?

Now, you cannot say, as you have numerous times, that these preventative care services are quote/unquote free-of-charge, can you?”
Sebelius said, “They are free to the consumer, yes sir.”
- See more at: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/michael-w-chapman/shimkus-sebelius-it-s-talking-republic-korea#sthash.bxsNDVzI.dpuf

Now, you cannot say, as you have numerous times, that these preventative care services are quote/unquote free-of-charge, can you?”
Sebelius said, “They are free to the consumer, yes sir.”
- See more at: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/michael-w-chapman/shimkus-sebelius-it-s-talking-republic-korea#sthash.bxsNDVzI.dpuf

Obamacare will sell itself. Sure it will.

Americans are not eager for subsidized insurance. Forget what they tell the pollsters. Actions speak louder than words and the unspoken refrain is no thank you. Even in liberal California political dogma is subordinated to personal finance. The Obama administration boasts that 107,000 have enrolled in Cover California. Big deal. As of January 1, 800,000 Californians will lose the insurance they were promised they could keep. Another Obama promise that failed to materialize is that most purchasers of health insurance on the exchanges would get a subsidy. The state has 2.5 million uninsured and one study estimates that 1.4 million would qualify for a subsidy This begs the question why if subsidized insurance is so great are only 107,000 people are taking advantage of the plentitude. Maybe Adam Levine can help them sort that out but in the meantime left without the sagacious advice from the glitterati Californians evidently prefer to be uninsured.
California is not alone in its rejection of Obamacare and the wonderful subsidies. Kentucky has 646,000 uninsured and an estimated 132,000 eligible for subsidies but it could only write 13,000 policies. New York has enrolled a whopping 45,000 with an uninsured population of about 2 million with some 600,000 eligible for subsidies. The state of Washington reports similar dismal numbers. It enrolled 17,000 out of 960,000 uninsured with about 220,000 eligible for subsidized insurance.
To say that Washington is out of touch with the rest of the nation in understatement. It's not even on the same planet. The dogs will not eat the dog food! Most people, even Californians, understand their personal finances better than even Barbara Boxer or Nancy Pelosi. A few may be smarter than even Barack Obama. It is an inescapable fact that the subsidies are too small to make an impact on many family budgets. If the policy premium has doubled a 10% subsidy won't close the deal.
Does a policy that costs $500 per month with a $6,000 deductible even make sense? One can almost hear people say that they are afraid to commit to a policy as they may get sick and not be able to afford it. If a family must first burn through a $6,000 or even a $12,000 deduction before it gets to use its insurance barring a hospitalization it's an extravagance. The public is rejecting Obamacare on its merits. It knows a good deal when it sees one and it knows Obamacare is for the uninsurable and suckers.

Congressman Paul Ryano?

Can we call him Congressman Ryano? I feel as David Stockman does. The budget agreement is a total capitulation on the part of Republicans. No one ever expected Paul Ryan to find himself to the left of Mitch McConnell who will vote against the compromise. The congressman from Wisconsin will no longer be seen as the Republican's expert on all matters budgetary, something he has been able to do notwithstanding his vote for TARP. At the risk of appearing pollyannaish there may be a silver lining in the dark clouds if House Democrats can be tricked into blowing up the budget deal. They seem willing to do anything to distract the public from Obamacare and assume that the public will blame Republicans for any shutdown but that to me at least seems less than certain.
Suddenly it seems the extension of unemployment benefits were overlooked in the negotiations and must be included in any deal. Blowing up the deal may not necessarily redound to the good of the Democrats. The media, which always fawns over any deal as if any deal is a positive good, has trumpeted the Ryan-Murray pact as the greatest agreement for the good of the republic since Appomattox. The Democrats start from behind if they try to un sell the deal which one must assume has the blessings of Harry Reid and the White House. Doesn't Obama care about the unemployed?
If House Democrats take the bait and shutdown the government Ryan will probably be viewed as a shrewd political tactician but not much of a conservative which I suspect he has been all along.