My home is on the cusp of Halloween. There are no lit jack-o'-lanterns, yet, no spider webs except the ones I haven't dusted. It is, however, poised on the eve of a movement of masses marching their child-sized heels in my general direction. It's a plain little house in a very family-friendly neighborhood, which will be under siege in less than 24 hours with the cutest packs of ankle biters you've ever seen.
Here it is a celebration of tradition. Tomorrow I expect to see Jack Sparrow and Michael Jackson and a few dozen bogeymen. And, of course, a princess or two will make an appearance.
So in the interest of the fun that awaits me on the other side of that chilled evening wind, I leave you with political cartoons and the hopes my candy will stretch through tomorrow evening.
For when a Peanuts cartoon is a salve to the soul:
For all the life lessons Dorothy didn't get around to: Because for libs, Glenn Beck is more frightening than Osama: For those times when Congress avoids their own reflection like Dorian Gray: Because Michael Moore should be pitied, ignored, and forced to eat his vegetables: So unrealistic. I seriously doubt Obama can drive a stick: For those little lies we tell ourselves...that morph into public policy: You can always count on Congress to bury you in paper: HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Send the peanut butter cups my way.
Perhaps I'm alone here. But I like free speech. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. It is a powerful force to keep those yielding control - Democrats and Republicans alike - in check. And darn it if they don't need a lot of "check".
Then again, we're all mindless buffoons without the brains God gave a cricket. Tell us what to do, oh government. Program us with your thoughts and desires. Let us work our ignorant arses off so that you may spend us into eternal debt. Please, please stop this maddening process we call 'free thought'. We need people with no real business sense, poor moral judgments, lazy work ethics and egos the size of Rod Blagojevich's do to sit in a big room, argue, and pass regulations to control our measly little lives. Perhaps then, and only then, we'll find true harmony with our insignificance. And we'll eat more tofu.
President Barack Obama, right, salutes as an Army carry team carries the transfer case containing the remains of Sgt. Dale R. Griffin of Terre Haute, Ind., during a dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base, Del., Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009. (AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
I'm all for honoring our soldiers. In any way, in every way, they deserve our highest honors, our greatest appreciation, our sincerest respect. What I'm not all about is Obama making this into a photo shoot, especially while our troops in Afghanistan desperately need reinforcements and the current administration sits around thinking about it and then breaking for golf. So no, I don't see this as a Commander-In-Chief who honestly understands or even cares about our military. I look at actions. And his are always about his image.
The media loved this. They nearly wet their pants at the image. This is how the AP reported:
The dramatic image of Obama on the tarmac was a portrait not witnessed in years.
Why haven't we seen this before? Because President George W. Bush met with families in private out of respect. He didn't use it for political credit.
Obama takes the White House press pool, obtains permission from one of the 15 families, and jumps at the chance for a photo op. Would he have made the trip to Dover Air Force Base had that one family not given permission?
Then the media, instead of making this story about the soldiers and their ultimate sacrifice, made the story about Obama. Perhaps this is why President Bush met with families in private.
Liz Cheney responds on the John Gibson radio show. Excellent point: What can a President do for our troops? Win. The. Freaking. War.
This year, I'm making my Christmas list out to Obama. I need a new laptop, some windshield wiper blades, a pair of running shoes, and one knit cap. All together, I'm guessing my "wish list" would cost me north of $1K, south of $1,200. With a few more incentive government programs like Cash for Clunkers, Obama could help me purchase my items for about $6,396. Spread over the taxpayers of the country, I could really make out like a bandit...until April 15th. Then I'll have to sell blood, plasma, and hair to cover it.
The Cash for Clunkers, that raving success of destroying perfectly good cars for cars people don't really want to buy, cost the American taxpayers $24,000 per purchased vehicle.
Government truly can work the miraculous. I can't imagine anyone else turning a $4,500 credit into a $24,000 debit.
American taxpayers paid a lot of cash for those clunkers: $24,000 for each new car sold, according to a study released Wednesday.
That’s a lot of money, especially when the so-called “cash for clunker” stimulus program offered only a maximum $4,500 in cash for each person who traded in an old gas-guzzler and bought a new car.
The government could have done almost as well by just giving away cars for free, instead of creating an elaborate incentive program, according to an analysis by the automotive information firm Edmunds.com in Santa Monica, Calif.
"Why shouldn’t people who steal billions of dollars have to go to jail if the small fry like Bernie Madoff has to go to jail? Madoff is chump change compared to Nancy Pelosi, chump change compared to Barney Frank and Harry Reid. This is generational theft that is going on here."
The Obama Administration are seeing them everywhere, like ghosts of productions past. Jobs haunt the economy as if resurrected out of nothing but government waste. Yet no one can see them except the White House, reporting "created and saved" spooks across the country.
White House officials, under pressure from the economy's continuing job losses, plan to announce Friday that President Barack Obama's $787 billion stimulus plan "has created and saved at least 1 million jobs" since he signed it in February.
If only we could believe that. Alas, we can't. And even CBS, a news network given the President's stamp of approval, is asking the same question: Where are the stimulus jobs?
The last line is the real climax: the government, i.e. the taxpayer, spent $219,000 of stimulus funds to study the sex lives of first-year female college students.
A year ago, in weather warmer than this and a political climate much colder, I sat at this very chair, next to this very window, on this very aging laptop, and tapped out an article for a national and prominent Christian magazine, one I will not name. I had pitched them a story idea: the silencing of Christians in Hollywood. And they bit, full incisors into juicy, journalistic skin. Could I have it to them in ten days? They asked. I could certainly try.
And so I went to work. I interviewed Andrew Klavan and Lionel Chetwynd and Bob Parks and John Nolte and Phyllis Chesler and Andrew Breitbart, just weeks before he launched BigHollywood and eventually BigGovernment, becoming the voice of alternative journalism by exposing ACORN. I even talked to a man my mother has adored since 1957 when he appeared as the handsome romantic lead in "April Love" - Pat Boone, who chatted with me via his motel room while attending the Republican National Convention. I chased these sources down because of two very important interviews that sent the story in a new direction. Two Christian pastors, men who lead large denominations heavily stacked with Hollywood players, explained to me a simple truth: It isn't Christians that are rejected, it's conservative Christians. There is a very simple yet cutting line between what Hollywood embraces and what Hollywood despises. And the cutlery of choice is conservatism.
I submitted my story on deadline. And it was rejected. Why? Here's what they said: "Really appreciate all your work on it. The main issue is that the majority of this article talks about conservatives in Hollywood, as opposed to Christians. As you and I had talked about, those overlap to some extent, but we really want to make the focus on faith—(the magazine) doesn't take a stance on conservative vs. liberal, plus the article almost makes it seem like Christian = conservative, which we certainly don't want to do nor agree with."
So the truth didn't fit into their talking points. I didn't create the meme, I reported it. Conservative Christians are bullied in Hollywood into silence. Liberals are not. I cannot change that fact. I also don't feel self-righteous enough to suppress it. As Christians, do we not want truth? Or do we, instead, crave acceptance?
But the magazine doesn't take a stance. That's why their publisher interviewed Obama and McCain in the next issue, endorsing the liberal candidate. They don't take sides, except when they do.
I've held the story on this very aging laptop, sitting on this very antique desk, next to this very small window, for a very exacting time. Now I'm going to post it here. Why now? I honestly don't know. It simply seems time. And I really need the memory space.
- Religion and conservatism in the entertainment industry: a welcome voice or undeclared war?
Jefferson Smith went to Washington. He arrived on a colorless speeding train into the city of lawyers and legislators, where cotillions are democratic and committees are fanciful, a courtyard of antics where the clowns carry briefcases and entertain youngsters with blatherings. Smith stepped out of the train and into the political jungle armed with his American ideals in one hand and a cage of pigeons in the other. Lincoln called to him. Standing at the toes of the national monument, Smith awed at the gleaming whiteness of it all, the shining brilliance of historic words – like “life” and “liberty” and that harried “pursuit of happiness” – and the gaze of America’s 16th President beckoning every man into the servitude of truth. The Lincoln Monument would call him back once again on an evening of lean shadows and whispered lies when Smith had lost a battle he didn’t even know he was fighting. “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington”, a 1939 film staring James Stewart, was a tribute to American idealism, a call for integrity, and the troubling journey of an average man set with an unimaginable task – to resurrect the conscience of Washington. He would do it. Drenched in sweat and musty hope, Smith would beat back decades long corruption with a passion for American history and a hoarse voice. The movie was three parts patriotism, one part faith, creating a main character who, to filibuster the Senate, would read from his bible and defeat his nemesis by defining the greatest lost cause as “Love thy neighbor”. And perhaps, for many Christians in Hollywood dangling above the chasm between faith and success, he spoke the rallying battle cry with his last chalky rebuke, “You think I’m licked. You all think I’m licked. Well, I’m not licked and I’m going to stay right here and fight for this lost cause, even if this room gets filled with lies like these….somebody will listen to me. Someone.” In Hollywood, many may be listening but are conservative Christians free to speak?
Pop culture religiosity
“In Hollywood, like in any industry, you kind of make your own way,” said Philip Wagner, pastor of Oasis Christian Center in Los Angeles. “If Christians go in waving a bible or pointing a finger, it doesn’t matter if you’re a musician or a carpenter, you’re going to have trouble.” Religion is an open field, full of daisies and milkweeds and land mines. Step lightly and you just might make it. Don’t water down the message, he explained, just control the flow of the approach. “The more you earn their trust, the more you have a right to share what you believe,” said Wagner. Christianity, in and of itself, is tolerable. The image of an all loving, all forgiving Savior of mercy and acceptance is embosomed, said Mel Ayers, former actor and pastor of In His Presence Church in LA. As long, however, as you aren’t a Republican. “It’s more threatening to say you’re a Republican than to say you’re a Christian,” said Ayers, who often sees more evidence of political convictions than religious ones. “If you have faith in Christ, you have a life that looks like Him. Jesus was not just nice to people, helping old ladies cross the street. His life had power.” Political convictions in Christians inside the entertainment industry garner rebuke, Ayers said. “A very well-known actor, someone you’d know instantly if I mentioned their name, said to me, ‘I’ve been labeled a cross-dresser, homosexual, adulterer, but I still get work in the industry all the time. But if I told them I was a Republican, I’d never work again,’” he said. For the industry of glitz and glamour and gossamer convictions, the adherence to passionate conservative belief is outside the line of tolerance. In Tinseltown, your political belief has more authority because “you live life a certain way,” he explained. If you want to be a patriot, work undercover.
Lincoln’s peeps
Lionel and his buddies decided to stop for coffee on their way to a fundraiser. It isn’t an interesting story unless you know the fundraiser was for Republican Rudy Giuliani, the friends were Emmy-Award winner Gary Sinise and Aussie comedian Tom Gleeson, the hero of our story is Oscar and Emmy nominated screenwriter Lionel Chetwynd, and the coffee was just coffee, minus or plus some sugar and creme. The meeting, however, started something all its own. It was the birthplace of an idea, a movement, maybe even a cruscade, called Friends of Abe (FOA). “FOA isn’t a group. It’s an individual, a person who is a friend of Abe,” as in Lincoln, Chetwynd said. “It describes a state of mind, someone who is not a liberal.” Friends of Abe are individuals in the entertainment industry seeking a place, as well as comrades, who want to express their beliefs in a welcoming environment. “We have lunches, and we sit around and talk about common experiences,” Chetwynd said. “I remember when it was sometimes just two of us. Now it’s about 1,000, or 800 last time I checked, and always growing.” He said meetings have attracted names like Jon Voight and Tom Selleck, Kelsey Grammer and Patrician Heaton, James Caan and Pat Boone, and many others who have decided to keep their attendance private. “The first rule of Fight Club is you don’t talk about Fight Club,” Chetwynd said. The meetings are for those in the entertainment industry to seek advice, talk about difficult experiences with confrontational liberals, and find support. “I was invited to a (FOA) luncheon and thought, ‘Man, it’s terrific!’,” said entertainment icon Pat Boone, taking a moment during the Republican National Convention to speak with me. “It was like a vestibule to Heaven. Very heart-warming. Very encouraging. I looked around the room and saw actors I respected, like Jon Voight. You look around and it’s a real ‘who’s who’. A lot of us didn’t know the others were conservative.” The main purpose of FOA, which is not an activist group, is simply to prove conservatives in Hollywood aren’t extinct and aren’t alone. “At the lunches you have 40 to 50 people. Then you get to the dinners. There are all these people around, the sheer numbers are a support group,” said Chetwynd. Other groups, like Hollywood Republicans, have also seen the binding of their members, around 700, clinging to each other like survivors lost at sea. “As Republican organizations go, we’re a younger crowd. We have young people struggling in the business, working for Disney, Warner Brothers, and Universal,” said Mark Basil Vafiades, president of Hollywood Republicans. “We have to be careful about being really outspoken.” During their monthly meetings, it’s a different story. “There’s so many Christians in our group, it’s totally cool to talk about it,” he said.
This day in history
Like our man Stewart, a Brigadier General, many Hollywood legends were also war heroes, like Captain Clark Cable, Flight Officer Gene Autry, and Lieutenant Junior Grade Henry Fonda. Their era of films often reflected tales of moral relevance and American greatness, a time of patriotism and religious stability. Then the scene changed. “If you are a Christian or conservative in Hollywood. You have to be destroyed,” said Bob Parks, of black-and-right.com, who worked as a graphic designer for over a decade in Hollywood. He lost a network job and a post house job, both after his political and moral views became known. “If you are Bruce Willis or Clint Eastwood or Chuck Norris, you’ll be fine. But if you are a lower tier person, you better not open your mouth. That saying, ‘You’ll never work in this town again,’ that is probably the only thing honest in Hollywood,” he said. The sentiments for conservative Christians in Hollywood shifted during the anti-establishment movement of the 60s, said Phyllis Chesler, Emerita Professor and author of 13 books, including bestsellers Women and Madness and The New Anti-Semitism. “There is a devaluation of born-again Christians, evangelical Christians, Baptists, conservatives, Republicans, this is what is happening on the world stage,” said Chesler, an expert on anti-Semitism, jihadic terrorism and Islamic gender and religious apartheid. In the world, Christians are being persecuted. In the West, they are simply victims of “slander and hate speech,” she said, with discrimination against Christians or people of faith most intense “in the academic world, in the world of media, in the world of entertainment, and in the world of Hollywood where dreams are propagated.” She traces the shift in religious perception to changes in American academia starting in the 60s. “They (academia) didn’t start out with evil intentions or communist values or ideas to bring down America. They wanted to improve America, not bring it down,” said Chesler. “All these liberating forces in academia became rapidly Stalinized.” Slowly, belief in God has been pushed out, leaving no basis for principles and no room for dissent, said Chesler, who’s books use to be front-page stories in the New York Times until she wrote, The Death of Feminism, which was only reviewed by conservative publications like the Washington Times and Weekly Standard. “If you have a universal principle that human rights belong to all human beings, and may be even given by a Godly endowment, if you think America is the last best and first best hope for humanity and say, ‘look at what Saddam Hussein did to people, the genocide, the raping of women…,’ if you say that then you are branded a racist by academia secularism, who believe the greatest crime today is racism, not sexism,” said Chesler. Now America is seeing the tainted views of academia in the students matriculated, she explained. However, Chetwynd said in his dealings with youth entering the entertainment industry, there is free thought and rebellion against the academic propaganda. “The new generation tends to be independently thinking and more on our side. It’s very clear, we are the majority in the under 30s,” Chetwynd said. Perhaps more revealing in the root of anti-American sentiments in Hollywood is the fact the industry is no longer an American industry, he said. “My first job was with Columbia in distribution, back in the 70s. Then, 65 percent of our revenue was domestic, the rest foreign. Today, it’s more like 15 to 20 percent is domestic, the rest foreign. It’s shifted dramatically,” he said. And with the movement of money came the movement of ideals. Suddenly, films enjoy a larger foreign market with a broadening of the labor pool, themes made for international audiences, and the integration of international views. “They are opposed to crafting scripts and ideas to the American audience and instead craft scripts and ideas to appeal to the foreign box office,” said Andrew Breitbart, author of Hollywood, Interrupted and founder of Breitbart.com. Foreign bankers and investors are supporting the film industry, with films being hyped and promoted through international film festivals held in Toronto, Venice, and London. The global sentiment has even prompted some entertainers to refer to themselves as “citizens of the world” with a “euro socialist mindset,” Breitbart said. “A lot of Hollywood actors and writers and directors are starting to ask, ‘Did we give it all away?’”
Storming the castle
It isn’t gone yet. And there are subtle hints and movements by conservatives in the film industry to slowly interlace messages of patriotism, as well as Christianity, into the story line. It’s subversive but there, said John Nolte, editor of the up and coming Hollywood blog, BigHollywood.com, a joint project with Breitbart, and blogger at www.dirtyharrysplace.com “Dark Knight, in my opinion, was an open love letter to President Bush,” Nolte said. “Look at the heroism and what he is going through. Gotham City didn’t get the hero they wanted, they got the hero they needed. Whether they wanted him or not.” The parallels are there, he said. You have Joker, a terrorist, saying if they give up Batman, he’ll stop. “The cowards believe Joker. Like they say, just get out of Iraq, we’ll stop. Or get out of Saudia Arabia, and we’ll stop. The idea is if you stop fighting terrorist they will not be a terrorist and do something like join a community college,” Nolte said. “You know the Joker wouldn’t stop and terrorists won’t stop either.” The appearance of various messages is a movement appearing more and more, he explained. “300 was very conservative,” Nolte said. “It talks about how you have to stand up for freedom, not only by facing the overwhelming evil – the Persians – but also facing the Senate who wanted to appease the enemy.” Then you have Juno, which portrayed abortion clinics as ugly and uncomfortable, or I Am Legend, whose heroin was driven by Christianity and convinces Will Smith’s character some things are worth dying for. Or, you have Spiderman, who always seems to swing past a massive and pristine American flag on his way to save the day. “Themes showing up in films are all very subtle. If you do it outright, they make you take it out,” Nolte said, explaining the ‘they’ could be producers, actors, or even the directors not wanting to be tagged patriotic, conservative, or Christian. One bold movie, An American Carol, debuted Oct. 3, with actors Kelsey Grammer, Jon Voight, James Woods, Dennis Hopper, Robert Davi, and even a special guest appearance by Bill O’Reilly, is using a no-subtlety-here approach to anti-American and anti-Christian films. It could be the first of many or the last of one.
Roll the credits
The fat lady hasn’t sung yet, though she’s been warming up her lungs for generations. Instead, an opening is broad and wide and ready for conservative Christians to enter. “The industry, not wanting to violate the code of multi-culturalism – which is a bad thing – and political correctness – which also is a very bad thing, it’s hamstrung Hollywood into an inability to make firm, moral statements,” said Andrew Klavan, Edgar award-winning author of Don’t Say A Word and True Crimes, both adapted into movies. “There is real hostility in approaching religion in a serious and definitive way.” That leaves a large, gapping, unfilled hole for intelligent films about Christianity to step in and step up. “One of my real pet peeves with Hollywood is not what movies say or where they start or end. It’s the underlying assumptions from the left. Anyone truly religious is small minded, bigoted, deceptive and evil. I use to watch Law and Order. And after awhile, you knew if a guy walked in carrying a Bible, he was guilty,” Klavan said. “To have an evangelical who is a good guy, thoughtful, and decent person, doesn’t happen.” The audience, however, is there, even if the films are not. Passion of the Christ proved that beyond question. “The Passion of The Christ woke some studio executives up to the fact that they were leaving billions of dollars on the table by ignoring the interests and values of the American heartland,” said Mark Joseph, a multi-media producer, columnist and author who produced the rock soundtrack for the Passion of the Christ and has marketed 18 films including The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. When done right, from production to marketing, the success is astronomical. The movie made Mel Gibson $610 Million, a feat that could happen several times a year for the phenomenally filmed Christian movie, Joseph said. “The key thing is for people who understand the heartland values of America to come up with great stories and then get into positions of influence where those stories can be brought to market,” he said. One major blunder in major Hollywood productions to entice the conservative Christian base, Joseph explained, is the basic lack of knowing them. “Christians are not stupid. They see a project dear to their hearts is in the hands of people and it’s being disrespected,” Joseph said. Breitbart took it one step further, saying the impression of Hollywood concerning conservatives is polarized into a stereotype from an 80s movie. “The Hollywood Left does not understand what being a conservative is. They believe a conservative is the movie, Footloose, and the town elders won’t let Kevin Bacon dance,” said Breitbart.
Braveheart
It might just take a movement, or at least a major gamble, to change the message emanating from the big screen. “The Left works through vindictiveness, seclusion and disdain,” said Klavan. “They’re bullies. Punch them in the nose and they run away.” For an accurate representation of conservative Christian values in Hollywood, Klavan said it’s going to take courage from individuals in the industry. “We can’t creep about and whisper like we’re saying something naughty,” he said. “It’s scary. It may make it harder for you to get work…but we’re just going to have to take it.” And then it takes support. When patriotic, conservative, Christian films are produced, money still talks and the language is universal. “Too many conservatives write Hollywood off. They don’t like Hollywood people. I understand that, by the way,” said Chetwynd. “But it’s wrong to write it off. There are good films out there and it’s important to talk about them, sensitize people about them and embrace them.” In the middle, with the industry pulling in one direction and their beliefs the other, many conservative Christians in the entertainment industry are isolated, separated from the country by misconception, separated from Hollywood by conviction. They are outsiders in and out of the industry, not knowing if their convictions are welcome or shunned, not knowing when to speak or just shut up. “There is a general sense of isolation from the rest of the country, like no one knows we’re here. It’s a feeling of aloneness,” said Chetwynd. Conservatives and Christians are out there, behind that camera, writing that line, directing that shot, slipping in a mysterious ingredient of optimism and American exceptionalism. The truth is out there, though it may come first in understated pieces. “This is joy, just joy to watch this happen,” Chetwynd said, concerning the growing conservative base. “Gary’s (Sinise) efforts are just fantastic. Things are really changing. There’s change in the industry, in the profile, in the attitude, but in it’s approach to the world? I don’t know.”
What happens when you sink your teeth into the veins of the rich and inhale deeply? They swat you away like the blood-sucking mosquito you are and move. Why stay? They have the means and the financial guidance to pack up and go where the goings good. I'd do it, too. The freewill of man, however, never filters into those big and glorious government plans to dupe the rich into forking over their belongings. It would be more honest to go in with guns and steal it like respectable thieves. One glitch: Rahm has too unique a face. Masks will be necessary.
Until the government locates those automatic weapons they've been banning, the rich are on the move. And here I thought nothing mattered outside of New York. Isn't the rest of the country a mere backdrop?
New Yorkers are fleeing the state and city in alarming numbers -- and costing a fortune in lost tax dollars, a new study shows.
More than 1.5 million state residents left for other parts of the United States from 2000 to 2008, according to the report from the Empire Center for New York State Policy. It was the biggest out-of-state migration in the country.
The vast majority of the migrants, 1.1 million, were former residents of New York City -- meaning one out of seven city taxpayers moved out.
You mean people can choose to pay fewer taxes? How selfish! We've got unions to support, people. Don't be greedy.
I'll let the international community, the ones who love us so greatly now that we've elected the Great Unifier and Citizen of the World as our President, speak for themselves.
The whole article is worth a read. But here's the part that makes you want to sit back and grit your teeth for the next 3 years and 3 months:
If we look down the history from 1900 to 2009, we will find only one person who was extremely popular and talked about like President Obama. That person is Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party and chancellor of Germany.
Despite both men’s popularity; there are more scary similarities between these two leaders:
Both Obama and Hitler share similar ancestries: Obama German, Hitler Austrian.
Both leaders had been surrounded by many controversies concerning birth certificate, citizenship and religion.
Both had the father figure issues. Obama’s parents separated when he was two years old and they divorced in 1964. His father returned to Kenya and saw him only once more before dying in an automobile accident in 1982. Hitler had a troubled relationship with his tradition-minded authoritarian father, who frequently beat him.
During their teenage years both leaders had problems with alcohol. Obama called the alcohol phase "greatest moral failure", Hitler called it “most humiliated experience in life”.
Both are unloved by the Jewish, for Hitler is well known why, for Obama, well, his victory in Presidential elections was not received with welcome in Israel.
Time magazine named Obama person of the year in 2008, Hitler in 1938.
Both had bestseller books: Obama had “Dreams of my Father” (memoir) and “the Audacity of Hope” (political convictions), Hitler had “Mein Kampf (My Struggle) in Volumes 1 and 2. It combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitler's political ideology.
Obama was influenced by Martin Luther King, Hitler by Martin Luther.
Both Obama and Hitler came to power during the recession-depression; Obama in 2009, Hitler in 1933.
Both are personality cult leaders, portrayed as saviors of political and economical depression; Obama as an American savior, Hitler as German. A cult of personality arises when a country's leader uses mass media to create an idealized and heroic public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise.
Both are/were very gifted orators, having ability to attract great interest in their speeches. Both have/had hand gestures when giving a speech.
Both leaders had initiated health reforms, environmentalism and animal protection rights, among others.
It's called a Cult of Personality. And it only, ever, and forever, leads to national destruction. Thus, the American governmental system, a system not based on rulers or dictators but on the law of the land. On the Constitution. And that establishes the Republic. Our past success came due to the respect and adherence to a set of rules which keeps all men equally free and independent to govern their own lives in as many avenues as possible. And in all else, to have a voice.
It's not that individual freedom may or may not survive in America. It's that if it doesn't survive in America, it doesn't survive at all. If men cannot be free from burdensome government, from economic tyranny, in America, then where?
President Barack Obama has only been in office for just over nine months, but he's already hit the links as much as President Bush did in over two years.
CBS' Mark Knoller — an unofficial documentarian and statistician of all things White House-related — wrote on his Twitter feed that, "Today - Obama ties Pres. Bush in the number of rounds of golf played in office: 24. Took Bush 2 yrs & 10 months."
That Obama. He's a worker - out there breaking records from his dropping approval ratings, his massive government spending, and his frequency of golf playing. What a champ.
Glad our troops in Afghanistant aren't dying while awaiting his answer on reinforcements.
Oh those greedy Tupperware parties. Making profits while soups and leftovers die. This is America. No one should be without Tupperware in America. But not everyone can afford it. Many find themselves in the aftermath of a dinner party without a way to keep that quiche alive. It's going to die, you know. Saran Wrap won't cover it. What we need is Universal Tupperware Coverage.
Shame, shame on those making a profit on selling Tupperware. It's immorale, really. Did you know they make more profit than health insurance providers? That simply can't continue. Obama, Pelosi, even Will Ferrell and his politically brilliant b-list celebrities, along with self-professed witch and coven member Heather Graham, have fought to stop these atrocious health insurance providers getting fat and obese and thus sick on their own profits. Yet, has anyone told them about the Tupperware? Or Yahoo? Or, I hate to say it, Hershey's chocolates? Or shown them their own W-2?
Greed is rampant, as are profit margins. Only not in the health insurance business. Here's the truth, finally reported by the AP.
Quick quiz: What do these enterprises have in common? Farm and construction machinery, Tupperware, the railroads, Hershey sweets, Yum food brands and Yahoo? Answer: They’re all more profitable than the health insurance industry. In the health care debate, Democrats and their allies have gone after insurance companies as rapacious profiteers making “immoral” and “obscene” returns while “the bodies pile up.”
Ledgers tell a different reality. Health insurance profit margins typically run about 6 percent, give or take a point or two. That’s anemic compared with other forms of insurance and a broad array of industries, even some beleaguered ones.
Profits barely exceeded 2 percent of revenues in the latest annual measure. This partly explains why the credit ratings of some of the largest insurers were downgraded to negative from stable heading into this year, as investors were warned of a stagnant if not shrinking market for private plans.
Ed Morrissey from HotAir has another number you might find interesting. Who are Democrat's best friends? Not unions but you're close. And what are their profit margins?
In comparison, trial lawyers showed a profit margin of almost 14%, six times that of the health insurers. Do Democrats scream about villainous trial lawyers and windfall profits taxes on those that exploit the legal system and drive prices up across all American industries? No, because the trial lawyers share a good portion of their filthy lucre with Democrats.
And the truth shall set you free. It also might pinch a bit if you try to clasp it into silence. I wouldn't try it. It'll leave a nasty mark.
Awesomely awesome. Alfonso Rachel's new video goes musical. The lyrics are precise and the guest appearances perfectly fitting. Tell me when you spot James O'Keefe, our conservative video journalist who exposed ACORN's true colors.
Good for the other news networks. Our Gestapo President was unable to dictate to the free press. And you won't believe how he tried. Watch for yourself.
Krauthammer nailed it. The administration attempted to dictate to the free press and the free press said, 'no'. So Obama will meet with terrorist dictators without preconditions, but he's going to censor a national network? One that has been a part of the White House Press Panel since 1997. Someone needs to tell him that means they've covered a Democrat before.
Actually, he is losing sleep over it. If not, the two heavy White House hitters - Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and top advistor David Axelrod - wouldn't have appeared on Sunday programs bemoaning a news network. Also, the American people are concerned about the economy? That's right, Mr. President. And how do you think we learn about what you are doing to the economy? Through the news. And how do you think we find out the whole story? Through FoxNews. And when did it become the job of government to tell us what is news? Never here. Check Iran.
Precious few other media outlets will even report the job loss numbers. Or in doing so, they will talk about how things are really quite good out there, with nearly 10 percent unemployment, calling it the "new normal". This, in itself, is a notation of their liberal bent. Bush's five percent unemployment meant he was destroying the country.
And third point, they are taking the news as it comes? Uh, no, Mr. President. The White House, via Rahm and Axelrod both, are urging other news networks to shun FoxNews and get on board, to band together against any voices of dissent.
The entire reason for journalism, the entire purpose of it's creation, is to keep power - namely government - in check. And now we have the ultimate power trying to shut down the remaining media who haven't pledged their integrity at Obama's pitter-pattering-toward-total-domination feet.
Geez. He's like an evil superhero: The Controller, if a Marvel comic; the Controlux, if from Transformers.
Michelle Malkin responds to O's comments and has three excellent questions he needs to answer.
The names have been released concerning those who attended that private meeting in the White House. They are being called Presidential Approved Punditry. Since the White House already has a press secretary and PR department, doesn't that make them pretty much useless?
Here's a curious turn in the White House vs. Fox News fight.
There has been a sharp decline over the past year in the percentage of Americans who say there is solid evidence that global temperatures are rising. And fewer also see global warming as a very serious problem -- 35% say that today, down from 44% in April 2008.
Bummer. This is not what Gore wanted for Christmas.
Now, let's talk about that Climate Change Treaty, Mr. President. Put down your pen.
I won't sugarcoat this one. If you aren't frightened yet, you should be. Lord Christopher Monckton gave a presentation on Oct. 14 in St. Paul, MN on the subject of the Climate Change Treaty and the upcoming Copenhagen meeting in December. The treaty has been drafted. And once signed, which spineless Obama is certain to do, our Constitution will be under the authority of a world government. I'm not making this up. I can't even make this up. It's too unsettling.
Glenn Beck interviews Lord Monckton who says "we only have weeks" to stop this, while going into further detail about the ramifications.
Does it sound more serious because of his British accent? I think not. But it does make it enjoyable. So we'll be lulled into smooth, chocolaty acquiescence with his charm and tongue while the world burns around us.
I'm a glass half full kind of girl.
So will this happen? I don't know. It isn't worth the risk of complacence to find out. Anyone in the marching mood? And just a side note from yesterday's post about the lunatic climate freak who held the fake chamber meeting, now do we see the danger crazies running loose can cause? I should have used more "insane" words.
Time to step up production on straight-jackets and stop this ridiculous global warming boondoggle, which carbon-glutton Gore doesn't even believe. (A man who believes carbon is killing the world wouldn't burn it so piggishly. Actions over words. Always watch their actions over their words.)
"I always look at the violence (in a script). I don't want it to be gratuitous because I do believe that has an effect on people's behavior. I really do believe that and I have turned down movies because of that."
Matt Damon actor, political activist, Ghandi
PS That, of course, doesn't include the roles he didn't turn down in the Bourne series, his role in The Departed, his role where he bludgeoned Jude Law to death in The Talented Mr. Ripley, or his role in Saving Private Ryan.
You're in the sand business. You probably didn't know that. Out of the goodness of your heart and the useless battle against the tide, you are spending $2.3 million on replenishing beaches in Delaware. Not that that is anything new. Heck, you spent $24.7 million on one single beach in Cape May, New Jersey, to replenish it ten times. You're quite tenacious about battling nature, aren't you?
One Delaware resident sums it up.
"In my opinion, beach replenishment is a tragic waste of tax money," said Lewes resident Rich Anthony. "You're trying to overcome God. You can't do it. And you have taxpayers in Utah who will never see the ocean in their lives paying for some ... businessman who wants to risk his fortune or business and home to have an ocean view."
You may not have ocean front property, but you're paying for it.
-Washington, DC, city government steered $4.5 million in federal funds to an AIDS housing group that never filed federal tax returns and has been plagued with service and cost complaints
And all I can wonder is, when do we start slashing politician pay and cutting government jobs?
They've taken over our car companies. Now they are cutting police and fire jobs. When do we revoke their vehicles and security detail?
They want to take over the food industry, taxing soft drinks and juice, increasing the cost of snack foods, and limiting fast-food restaurants. When do we take away their funds to cover expenses, like eating out?
They want to limit private company pay. When do we slash their compensation?
They are trying to take over our health care, decide who gets treated and how. When do we stop providing their Cadillac health care coverage plans?
Their incompetence is costing Americans their 401K's and investments. When do we yank away their retirement?
They are spending every dime of supposed "stimulus" money to fund pork projects to their campaign donors while 49 out of 50 states are having continued job loss. When do we lay them off?
The Obama administration reached a new agreement Wednesday with top Polish government officials to place a new generation of missile interceptors on Polish soil, a surprising turnabout from just a few weeks earlier when it had appeared the U.S. was ready to abandon its missile defense program in Eastern Europe.
Ed Morrissey from HotAir reports, this has been one major Hokey-Pokey:
In April, Barack Obama offered his support for missile-defense systems in eastern Europe, especially based in Poland and the Czech Republic. Last month, without warning American allies, Obama reversed himself and said the US would not be pursuing land-based missile defense systems in eastern Europe..... And now it appears that the US has reversed itself again.
UPDATE: She's a witch, and not just for Halloween. Not kidding.
"The public option is our best shot at affordable health care for all, and I was honored to portray the public option."
Heather Graham, actress from Boogie Nights and Austin Powers
At least they chose a spokesperson who always represents classy characters.
The add, if you can stomach it, says competition is as American as apple pie. That's absolutely right. The public option, however, isn't a fair competitor. Let's look at this with some honesty. Instead, think of Heather Graham, since she is portraying the public option, as a cheat.
She steps up to the line, flexes her muscles a bit to look good, waves to the adoring crowd, and then saunters over to the winner's circle and waits. She didn't even break a sweat.
The other runners, those greedy companies actually providing health insurance, are held to different standards. They have to wait for the shot. They have to actually run the race. They have to compete and offer incentives to customers and lower their prices beyond what is profitable. In the race of a free market, they have to make money. They can't, however. No matter what they do, even if they beat out all the other private company runners, in the end they know they still can't win.
Companies and individual customers will opt out of private care and opt in for health coverage they believe is paid by the faceless rich. In other words, they think Heather Graham is free, even though she's a cosmetically enhanced mirage made to look pretty while costing them their future and their health.
That's the public option. I'm glad she felt so proud.
"If you're reading this then you -- or the male you have bought it for -- are the worst man in history. No ifs, no buts -- the worst man, period...As a class we are in fact the sorriest cohort of masculine Homo sapiens to ever walk the planet."
Australian anthropologist Peter McAllister, quoted from his book "Manthropology: The Science of the Inadequate Modern Male."
PS Golly. I don't need to go that far. I'd be fine if they'd just be a bit bolder.
This weekend, I attended the U2 concert in Norman with a friend. On the drive there, my friend (a male) is talking to me about some of his other male friends. It seems even other men notice when men can't walk across the room to communicate with a woman. "I guess they've had a lot of rejection," he said. Here is where I'm often not all that sympathetic. "So what?" I said. "Big deal. They were rejected. Get over it. Your a man, act like it."
Yes, I know rejection is difficult. I'll never say it isn't. But is "difficult" an excuse? Are men okay not being that strong symbol the world so desperately needs because things are "difficult"? When did "difficult" mean "impossible"?
Sorry. I'm tired of sorry excuses for myself. And I'm tired of sorry excuses for anyone else, too. It's time we suck it up and stop expecting life to be easy, sweet, and fair. It isn't and won't be. Deal with it. Move on.
NOW, before I'm hated or dismissed as being callus, let me make a clear declaration: I LOVE masculinity.
Absolutely adore it. Unless you are a woman, I don't think men can even understand how much women crave the company of masculinity. It is indescribable to explain how it affects me. Can't do it. All I can say is, I love it. It is inherently embedded into my DNA to absolutely cherish it. I also cannot explain the sadness and mourning I feel when I meet an effeminate male.
Because I love the masculinity of men so much, because I have such high regard for it, feel so desperate it continue, I refuse to baby, coddle, and pamper the ridiculousness of this touchy-feely culture where men are to be treated like little girls. Masculine men are different. They are tougher, stronger, independent, and a force to be honored, not treated as weak. And I never want that strength philosophized away in an attempt to make men more "sensitive". I want men exactly as God designed them - as his boldest, strongest, most ferocious entity. And I want that respected.
So, yeah, rejection? So what. That is nothing to a man. He's stronger than that.
Our uncover pimp and prostitute unearthing ACORN's filth isn't done. And here I thought the fun was over. Oh, not so. And this time, they are calling out the Washington Post, Media Matters, the Philadelphia Inquirer, as well as ACORN director Bertha Lewis and many others for their lies. This video is the best, yet.
Will there be retractions? Corrections? Mea culpas? Will journalists start being journalists again? Will the liars admit they lied? Will the media demand the truth?
The story continues....
I'll post more video as it is released. Way to go Hannah and James! Conservatives are so freakin' cool.
This isn't about Rush. It's about conservatism. If you have a voice, if you are conservative, if you are relevant, you must be destroyed. Liberals silence dissent. None can be uttered. Ever. And they are the tolerant ones. Yeah, okay.
To talk about the recent attack on Rush Limbaugh concerning his NFL bid, his good friend Rev. Ken Hutcherson appeared on the O'Reilly factor with Juan Williams and it is a must see. You think liberals are for minorities? Think again. Juan is.
The money quote is at the end from Juan:
"I find this so unbelievable, as someone who sees himself on the liberal side, that the minute that you disagree, you get put down."
Exactly. EXACTLY. Welcome home, the Reverend said. Welcome home.
If you are a liberal, watch your step. Toe the propaganda line. And make certain even the pinkie toe doesn't stray. Otherwise, you're off the high wire and there is no net.
This is just too weird to describe. See for yourself.
On the YouTube description, it asks: "Which one legitimately represents the right way for American business?" In other words, who should we really be listening to, the real chamber representative or the cuckoo impostor?
Should we side with the man who is empowered to actually speak for the chamber, i.e the man who wasn't lying. Oh, and the sane one. Or...should we side with the nutty as a fruitcake guy behind the podium, the deranged one who emailed news organizations, rented a room, made up a name, held a press conference telling the world that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce had incomprehensibly switched their position from being pro-business to being pro-business killer, aka for climate control legislation. The one with a screw loose who then, once confronted with the real chamber representative and not a cardboard cutout, belligerently accused the real guy of being the demented false guy. The lunatic who then would not give his name, didn't have a business card, oh! and, darn it, if he didn't have his ID because they leave their ID "wherever we...(shrug, no explanation, expression that says 'fill in the blank because my mind's a blank)". Whatever that meant.
And throughout it all, the bananas guy actually punked the media, not the chamber, like the media - if still capable of the human emotion of "shame" - wants you to believe.
But let's get back to that all gnawing, all important question posted on the YouTube description: "Which one legitimately represents the right way for American business?"
I'm going to take a gamble here and answer that.
The out to lunch guy is from the Yes Men group. What I've seen, they are basically out of work actors willing to pimp their loco talents for an audience who doesn't realize these people are walking around wearing business suits pretending to be someone of importance because they have nothing better to do with their time. They pretend to be professionals, speaking for them, attempting to...I don't know what, possibly get a gig on One Tree Hill. They want to change America. Yet I've yet to understand how their antics accomplish anything, other than making them look, well, bananas.
Although, I do enjoy laughing and pointing...at them. So perhaps they are spreading joy.
I'm not going to link to their website. I avoid the clinically mad whenever possible, even electronically. And yes, they are probably in need of a med refill about now.
They supposedly partnered in this hoax with the groups behind "Climate Pledge of Resistence," a group of batty fringe activists who encourage people to break the law to bring about climate change laws. Is that oxymoronic?
At least we know they don't care about laws. That way, should climate change legislation pass, they'll totally support my right not to follow it.
(As a game for the kiddies: can you count the number of words I used which mean "crazy"? Here are a few I wanted to include but ran out of bandwidth: mad, out of one's mind, unhinged, mad as a hatter, off one's rocker, not right in the head, raving mad, bonkers, loopy, ditzy, loony, loco, touched, gaga, not all there, crackers, nutso.)
Time for the Norwegians to revoke that Nobel Peace Prize. Obama's going to war. No, not Afghanistan. Don't be silly. Those 60,000 troops begging for reinforcements can wait. He's got to destroy the evil machine Fox News. All hands on deck. Here's a few speeches given by his generals during the Sunday talk shows.
David Axelrod, "They're not even a news station....it's pushing a point of view. Other news organizations, like yours, ought not to treat them that way, and we're not going to treat them that way." Next up, he had a slumber party at Olbermann's house. Chris Matthews showed up in his SpongeBob pj's large enough to allow thrills to run up and down his leg.
Passing thought: Did Axelrod just give Stephanopoulis his marching orders on live TV? "Other news organizations, like yours, ought not to treat them" like a news organization. In other words, get on board George. We know you're in our pocket so we're jiggling the change. I wonder if George is concerned this war against FoxNews is increasing their ratings? If not, he should be.
Rahm Emanuel: "It's not a news organization so much as it has a perspective...And more importantly, is not have the CNNS and the others of the world being led and following Fox."
Yet again, more directive to the other stations. Don't follow Fox. Don't report on ACORN. Don't report on the deficit spending. Don't report on the pork projects in the stimulus. Don't report on the job loss. Don't report on the troops in Afghanistan dying. Don't report on anything coming our of Biden's mouth. Don't report on communist czars. They have talking points. And Fox isn't following them.
Wow. What a bunch of frivilous cowards. When you see someone promoting the qualities of a muzzle, know it's because they've got dirty-little secrets they want silenced. The most tranparent White House ever has now taken "cover up" to a whole new level. Let's silence an entire news organization. Oh, and talk radio, too.
Jake Tapper, yet again, standing alone in actually doing his job - journalism. This morning he asked Robert Gibbs, WH press secretary, a priceless question, one that goes far beyond Fox News and into the mindset of this administration toward their entire governing policy.
Tapper: It’s escaped none of our notice that the White House has decided in the last few weeks to declare one of our sister organizations “not a news organization” and to tell the rest of us not to treat them like a news organization. Can you explain why it’s appropriate for the White House to decide that a news organization is not one – (Crosstalk) Gibbs: Jake, we render, we render an opinion based on some of their coverage and the fairness that, the fairness of that coverage. Tapper: But that’s a pretty sweeping declaration that they are “not a news organization.” How are they any different from, say – Gibbs: ABC - Tapper: ABC. MSNBC. Univision. I mean how are they any different? Gibbs: You and I should watch sometime around 9 o’clock tonight. Or 5 o’clock this afternoon. Tapper: I’m not talking about their opinion programming or issues you have with certain reports. I’m talking about saying thousands of individuals who work for a media organization, do not work for a “news organization” -- why is that appropriate for the White House to say? Gibbs: That’s our opinion.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the President of the United States have more important issues to deal with than being obsessed with his bad press? And if he doesn't like the press, perhaps he should think twice about aligning himself with communist czars and sex slave promoting organizations. An honest man has nothing to fear from lies, as Axelrod, Rahm, and O claim they are. Lies cannot last forever. They're ephemeral and eventually powerless.
Truth, however, that's not something you want to tangle with. And there is the origin of their fear.
Talking about our deficit always reminds me of the Barenaked Ladies song, "If I had a $1000000".
"If I had a 1,000,000 (If I had a 1,000,000) I but you a fur coat( but not a real fur coat that's cruel) If I had a 1,000,000 (If I had a 1,000,000) I'd buy you an exotic pet(like a llama or an emu)"
Take Chicago as the example, in nearly every facet, of what not to do.
More ridiculous news from the President's hometown where his significant accomplishment in life consisted of working as a "community organizer". I suppose, if you argued semantics, you could say this is organized.
Report: 1 in 8 Female Students Pregnant at Chicago High School
Friday, October 16, 2009
The number of teenage moms has increased in recent years — and one Chicago high school has reportedly become a shocking example of that, revealing that one in eight of its female students are pregnant.
Of the 800 female students at Paul Robeson High School in Chicago, Ill., 115 are expectant mothers, CBS2Chicago.com reported Thursday.
They didn't get free condoms. That's what happened. Passing out condoms at schools stops this. It's been proven...er...uh...well...what are results, anyway?
Let the pundit wars begin. Liz Cheney's group, Keep America Safe, is pro-military, pro-strong national defense. They're warriors. Do you really think Olbermann's going to threaten them? Hold on. I feel a chuckle coming on.
My friend Paulo de Tocqueville is at it again, the poetry writer of all facets. He writes love sonnets to Sonic, bitter diatribes about my sarcastic mouth, and here, in it's rhythmic originality and as a TaraLynnThompson.com exclusive, a few thoughts on political ignorance.
Much like Doritos, once you start consuming a Paulo poem, you can't stop.
Once upon a midnight dreary
I chanced upon a fembo, teary
What do I do with this hapless young female?
Except extol her on the virtues of a free capitalist society
Weep not, sweet young thing
We’re not done yet.
Although the forces of anti-freedom democratic socialist losers
Have rallied strongly
And placed one of their own in office
I feel the heartbeat of the country
And although it’s clogged with McDonalds plaque
It’s still beating
Albeit raggedly
A little exercise
Some serious diet changes
And we’ll be running 5Ks again in no time.
And kicking names
And taking butt
I’m really just pissed
Because of the rampant stupidity
And gullibility
Of the voters in general
Doesn’t anybody read any more
Are they incapable of thought?
Frickin’ idiots
Put down the remote
Read a magazine
Listen to something besides NPR
You brainless programmed fools
ESPN won’t matter
If your country goes broke
Comedy Central
Might not be that funny
If you can’t afford cable
Don’t get me wrong
I like college football
And Comedy Central, sort of
I’m just ticked
At you and your lack of thought
Your blank mindless look
Your inherent coolness
Because you’re tuned in to pop culture
Which is vapid and useless
Except to keep you occupied
While big things are happening
Right beneath your brainless nose
Perhaps you should ask yourself
What if your credit card debt
Was exactly equal to your gross income
For the entire year.
Not net –
Gross.
That means, how much you make every year
Before taxes, insurance, etc.
How are you going to pay that off?
It’s called Gross National Product
And we now owe as much national debt
As the value of what our country produces each and every single year.
That’s the value of every single good, product, or service
That was produced this entire last year
By every living being in the country.
And corporation.
And government entity, although I don’t actually think they count
As they don’t produce anything
Good stuff, huh?
Does this bother you?
Does this make you want to skip Game Day tomorrow?
For all the life lessons Dorothy didn't get around to:
Because for libs, Glenn Beck is more frightening than Osama:
For those times when Congress avoids their own reflection like Dorian Gray:
Because Michael Moore should be pitied, ignored, and forced to eat his vegetables:
So unrealistic. I seriously doubt Obama can drive a stick:
For those little lies we tell ourselves...that morph into public policy:
You can always count on Congress to bury you in paper:
