tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-104299812024-03-13T05:38:55.254-07:00L.N. Smithee's REACTORMy reaction to others' actions, with an emphasis on unspinning mainstream media biasL.N. Smitheehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11424396762369226149noreply@blogger.comBlogger140125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10429981.post-59675011107761137642017-10-18T01:50:00.001-07:002017-10-18T01:50:16.934-07:00VIDEO FROM 2012: HARVEY WEINSTEIN GUEST HOSTS ON CNN, WELCOMES "FRIEND" BILL CLINTONPart 1:
<iframe width="640" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen src="https://archive.org/embed/CNNW_20120601_070000_Piers_Morgan_Tonight?start=18.6&end=181.5" webkitallowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true"></iframe>L.N. Smitheehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11424396762369226149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10429981.post-11663216079143556902017-10-10T10:11:00.001-07:002017-10-10T10:48:38.057-07:00HARVEY WEINSTEIN ON "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE," FEBRUARY 28, 2012
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<iframe width="640" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen src="https://archive.org/embed/WMAR_20120228_050000_Jimmy_Kimmel_Live?start=3336.6&end=3475.8" webkitallowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true"></iframe>
<iframe width="640" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen src="https://archive.org/embed/WMAR_20120228_050000_Jimmy_Kimmel_Live?start=3472.5&end=3506.2" webkitallowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true"></iframe>L.N. Smitheehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11424396762369226149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10429981.post-80475491488485073092016-04-21T08:02:00.000-07:002016-04-21T08:02:36.748-07:00FROM 1991: NPR's "JOURNALIST" NINA TOTENBERG WENT HYSTERICAL AFTER BEING SCHOOLED BY SEN. ALAN SIMPSON ON NIGHTLINE<div style="text-align: center;">
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L.N. Smitheehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11424396762369226149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10429981.post-28957707217857298002015-09-22T17:08:00.000-07:002015-09-22T17:19:12.516-07:00GLORIA STEINEM, HYPOCRITE: The 1998 Op-Ed Neither The Uber-Feminist Or the New York TimesWants You To Read<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_toWbugcIYgY/Sk432ykTVVI/AAAAAAAAAjk/7bj77nhl-1A/s1600-h/Edequity+On+Line_+Re_+Steimem%27s+op-ed+piece+in+the+Times.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="200" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354278421416596818" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_toWbugcIYgY/Sk432ykTVVI/AAAAAAAAAjk/7bj77nhl-1A/s200/Edequity+On+Line_+Re_+Steimem's+op-ed+piece+in+the+Times.jpg" style="float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 157px;" width="98" /></a>What you see to your left (click to enlarge) is a 17-year-old screencap of what was -- until now -- the only place on the World Wide Web where you could see for yourself a crass op-ed piece that legendary '70s feminist leader Gloria Steinem wrote for the <i>New York Times</i> on March 22, 1998. <a href="http://www2.edc.org/WomensEquity/edequity98/0561.html">It is, as I type, still up on the Edequity On Line (sic) newsgroup</a> (this was before the age of the modern blog).<br />
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In the wake of still-fresh allegations against then-President Bill Clinton by former secretary Paula Jones and former Clinton campaign volunteer Kathleen Willey, Steinem stated her (supposedly) sincere belief that women in the workplace should have to endure one "sexual pass" from a male superior before they can call it "sexual harassment."<br />
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In so stating, she drew the line of demarcation for male bosses at grabbing, kissing, and groping a grieving widow seeking an opportunity to do more work to pay off her late husband's debts, and inviting a secretary to sit beside him, stroke her leg, and drop his pants to reveal an erection that he invited her to kiss. Here's a preview of Steinem's reasoning:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"><i>"...[E]ven if the allegations are true, the President is not guilty of sexual harassment. He is accused of having made a gross, dumb and reckless pass at a supporter during a low point in her life. She pushed him away, she said, and it never happened again. In other words, President Clinton took "no" for an answer...</i></span></blockquote>
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That's right, ladies -- according to no less an authority than Gloria Steinem, your boss -- be he your office manager in his tiny start-up or, say, The President of the United States of America -- he has the legal right to do all of that before you can legally and credibly say you're being sexually harassed -- <i>as long as he takes "No" for an answer the first time</i>. And Steinem said so out loud, in public, and in the pages of the most respected daily newspaper in the country.<br />
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However, either the <i>Times</i> or Steinem herself (or both) don't want you to remember that Steinem wrote it, because in its online archives -- which are searchable going back to the 19th century -- it cannot be found.<br />
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What <i>can</i> be found in the archives is a letter to the <i>Times</i>' editors in response to Steinem's piece, penned by William S. Frago of Lake Forest, Ill. (click to enlarge):<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_toWbugcIYgY/Sk42epcBuRI/AAAAAAAAAjc/K-pW1x2Jj5s/s1600/Anti-Steinem+Letter+To+The+NYT+Editor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="400" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354276907137480978" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_toWbugcIYgY/Sk42epcBuRI/AAAAAAAAAjc/K-pW1x2Jj5s/s400/Anti-Steinem+Letter+To+The+NYT+Editor.jpg" style="height: 320px; margin-top: 0px; width: 303px;" width="378" /></a></div>
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Here is the editorial, complete and unedited.<br />
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____________________________________________________________</div>
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">The New York Times</span><br />
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">March 22, 1998, Sunday, Late Edition - Final</span><br />
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">HEADLINE: Feminists and the Clinton Question</span><br />
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">BYLINE: By Gloria Steinem; Gloria Steinem is a founder of the National </span><span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">Women's Political Caucus and Ms. magazine.</span><br />
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">BODY:</span><br />
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">If all the sexual allegations now swirling around the White House turn out to be true, President Clinton may be a candidate for sex addiction therapy. But feminists will still have been right to resist pressure by the right wing and the media to call for his resignation or impeachment. The pressure came from another case of the double standard.</span><br />
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">For one thing, if the President had behaved with comparable insensitivity toward environmentalists, and at the same time remained their most crucial champion and bulwark against an anti-environmental Congress, would they be expected to desert him? I don't think so. If President Clinton were as vital to preserving freedom of speech as he is to preserving reproductive freedom, would journalists be condemned as "inconsistent" for refusing to suggest he resign? Forget it.</span><br />
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">For another, there was and is a difference between the accusations against Mr. Clinton and those against Bob Packwood and Clarence Thomas, between the experiences reported by Kathleen Willey and Anita Hill. Commentators might stop puzzling over the President's favorable poll ratings, especially among women, if they understood the common-sense guideline to sexual behavior that came out of the women's movement 30 years ago: no means no; yes means yes.</span><br />
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">It's the basis of sexual harassment law. It also explains why the media's obsession with sex qua sex is offensive to some, titillating to many and beside the point to almost everybody. Like most feminists, most Americans become concerned about sexual behavior when someone's will has been violated; that is, when "no" hasn't been accepted as an answer.</span><br />
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">Let's look at what seem to be the most damaging allegations, those made by Kathleen Willey. Not only was she Mr. Clinton's political supporter, but she is also old enough to be Monica Lewinsky's mother, a better media spokeswoman for herself than Paula Jones, and a survivor of family tragedy, struggling to pay her dead husband's debts.</span><br />
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">If any of the other women had tried to sell their stories to a celebrity tell-all book publisher, as Ms. Willey did, you might be even more skeptical about their motives. But with her, you think, "Well, she needs the money." For the sake of argument here, I'm also believing all the women, at least until we know more. I noticed that CNN polls taken right after Ms. Willey's interview on "60 Minutes" showed that more Americans believed her than President Clinton.</span><br />
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">Nonetheless, the President's approval ratings have remained high. Why? The truth is that even if the allegations are true, the President is not guilty of sexual harassment. He is accused of having made a gross, dumb and reckless pass at a supporter during a low point in her life. She pushed him away, she said, and it never happened again. In other words, President Clinton took "no" for an answer.</span><br />
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">In her original story, Paula Jones essentially said the same thing. She went to then-Governor Clinton's hotel room, where she said he asked her to perform oral sex and even dropped his trousers. She refused, and even she claims that he said something like, "Well, I don't want to make you do anything you don't want to do."</span><br />
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">Her lawyers now allege that as a result of the incident Ms. Jones described, she was slighted in her job as a state clerical employee and even suffered long-lasting psychological damage. But there appears to be little evidence to support those accusations. As with the allegations in Ms. Willey's case, Mr. Clinton seems to have made a clumsy sexual pass, then accepted rejection.</span><br />
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">This is very different from the cases of Clarence Thomas and Bob Packwood. According to Anita Hill and a number of Mr. Packwood's former employees, the offensive behavior was repeated for years, despite constant "no's." It also occurred in the regular workplace of these women, where it could not be avoided.</span><br />
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">The women who worked for Mr. Packwood described a man who groped and lunged at them. Ms. Hill accused Clarence Thomas of regularly and graphically describing sexual practices and pornography. In both cases, the women said they had to go to work every day, never knowing what sexual humiliation would await them -- just the kind of "hostile environment" that sexual harassment law was intended to reduce.</span><br />
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">As reported, Monica Lewinsky's case illustrates the rest of the equation: "Yes means yes." Whatever it was, her relationship with President Clinton has never been called unwelcome, coerced or other than something she sought. The power imbalance between them increased the index of suspicion, but there is no evidence to suggest that Ms. Lewinsky's will was violated; quite the contrary.</span><br />
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">In fact, her subpoena in the Paula Jones case should have been quashed. Welcome sexual behavior is about as relevant to sexual harassment as borrowing a car is to stealing one.</span><br />
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">The real violators of Ms. Lewinsky's will were Linda Tripp, who taped their talks, the F.B.I. agents who questioned her without a lawyer and Kenneth Starr, the independent prosecutor who seems intent on tailoring the former intern's testimony.</span><br />
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">What if President Clinton lied under oath about some or all of the above? According to polls, many Americans assume he did. There seems to be sympathy for keeping private sexual behavior private. Perhaps we have a responsibility to make it O.K. for politicians to tell the truth -- providing they are respectful of "no means no; yes means yes" -- and still be able to enter high office, including the Presidency.</span><br />
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">Until then, we will disqualify energy and talent the country needs -- as we are doing right now.</span><br />
<br />L.N. Smitheehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11424396762369226149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10429981.post-56858896215356622982014-06-19T07:41:00.004-07:002014-06-19T21:17:08.960-07:00MORE FREE SPEECH DECAY: FEDS IGNORE NATIVE AMERICANS, PUNISH THE WASHINGTON #REDSKINS FOR POLITICAL INCORRECTNESS<div class="tr_bq">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Azs9K_1R9Pw/U6OxvQNDVJI/AAAAAAAABYs/cR8pZXMCi38/s1600/TM-Red-Skins-590-LI.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Azs9K_1R9Pw/U6OxvQNDVJI/AAAAAAAABYs/cR8pZXMCi38/s1600/TM-Red-Skins-590-LI.jpeg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.legalinsurrection.com/">A.F. Branco cartoon courtesy LegalInsurrection.com</a></span></td></tr>
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The following is my reaction to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's ruling that the Washington Redskins' long-established logos and trademarks should not have federal registration that helps them legally protect counterfeiting of their merchandise, <a href="http://patterico.com/2014/06/18/patent-office-revokes-redskins-trademark/#comment-1650165">as posted at Patterico.com</a> [and amended or corrected with brackets]:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;"> From the</span> <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/us-patent-office-cancels-redskins-trademark-registration-says-name-is-disparaging/2014/06/18/e7737bb8-f6ee-11e3-8aa9-dad2ec039789_story.html"><i>Washed-up Post</i> article</a>:
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<blockquote>
<i>Federal trademark law does not permit registration of trademarks that “may disparage” individuals or groups or “bring them into contempt or disrepute.” The ruling pertains to six different trademarks associated with the team, each containing the word “Redskin.”</i></blockquote>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ot04TYq18uY/U6KKw13avzI/AAAAAAAABYA/PDNIE-FkAQY/s1600/bslug.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ot04TYq18uY/U6KKw13avzI/AAAAAAAABYA/PDNIE-FkAQY/s1600/bslug.JPG" height="200" width="195" /></a></div>
<span style="color: yellow;">Who said that the name "Redskins" "bring[s Native Americans] into</span> <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/contempt">contempt</a> <span style="color: yellow;">or</span> <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disrepute">disrepute</a>? <span style="color: yellow;">I contend that in the cases of all but a handful of team names, the purpose is NOT to adopt a name or a mascot that has <i>as its goal</i> making the team seem</span> <a href="http://www.ucsc.edu/about/mascot.html">weak</a> <span style="color: yellow;">or</span> <a href="http://ucirvinesports.com/inside_uci/history/traditions">silly</a>, <span style="color: yellow;">but one that inspires determination, strength, even fear.
In the case of the Washington Redskins, the intent was certainly <i>not </i>to demean natives, but to honor them in the same way as did the owners of the first patch of grass the team played upon: The Boston Braves, later known as the Milwaukee Braves, and now known as the Atlanta Braves.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">In the early days of the NFL -- back when baseball really <i>was </i>"America's pastime" -- pro football teams were the stepchildren of the Major League Baseball teams that hosted their games. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">From the</span> <a href="http://prod.static.giants.clubs.nfl.com/assets/docs/pdf/giants-history.pdf">New York Giants history webpage</a> <span style="color: yellow;">(italics mine):
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<blockquote>
WHY GIANTS? HOW THE NEW YORK FOOTBALL GIANTS GOT ITS NAME
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</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote>
[Original Giants'] Owner Tim Mara “borrowed” the Giants’ name from the city’s Major League Baseball team of the same name. <i>This was not unusual among early day pro football franchises. At one time or another there were NFL franchises named the New York Yankees, Brooklyn Dodgers, Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds, and Detroit Tigers.</i></blockquote>
<span style="color: yellow;">Such was the case with the then-Boston Braves football team, who played at the National </span><br />
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<span style="color: yellow;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-30nNINygx8E/U6KBrwOoeoI/AAAAAAAABXs/muMasfh-zYg/s1600/DietzRedskinsrenamed.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-30nNINygx8E/U6KBrwOoeoI/AAAAAAAABXs/muMasfh-zYg/s1600/DietzRedskinsrenamed.png" height="320" width="280" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: yellow;">League Boston Braves' Field in Boston. So where did "Redskins" come from? When the football Braves moved out of the baseball Braves' stadium to the stadium built by the Boston Red Sox of the rival American League -- Fenway Park. They couldn't use the Braves' name while playing in the Red Sox's park, so they changed the name of the team from "Boston Braves" to "Boston Redskins" [which also could have been inspired by the phonetic similarities of "Red Sox" and "Redskins."] The team retained the nickname when they moved to D.C.
</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;"><i>It's that simple.</i> No "contempt." Zero "disrepute." There was no purpose in the switch from "Braves" to "Redskins" of reminiscing about the days when there were bounties put on the severed scalps of natives, or any other story that the detractors are using to ply their arguments.
</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">Speaking of which: In answer to the earlier question of who said "Redskins" brings anyone into contempt or disrepute, the answer is five activist Native Americans who filed the complaint with the Patent and Trademark Office. But <i>they are</i> representative of the majority of the people they claim to represent, aren't they?
In 2004, the Annenberg Public Policy Center (yes, from Walter Annenberg, the guy behind FactCheck.org and who was responsible for putting Barack Obama and Bill Ayers in charge of a Chicago education reform project) published their election-year survey of Native Americans asking this question (verbatim):</span><br />
<blockquote>
<b>“The professional football team in Washington calls itself the Washington Redskins. As a Native American, do you find that name offensive or doesn’t it bother you?” </b></blockquote>
<span style="color: yellow;">As it turned out, the answer from the Native Americans was crystal-clear. A whopping 91% said that "Redskins" <i>was</i> offensive.
</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">WHOOPS! Check that -- 91% said that the "Redskins" was NOT offensive. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">Let me repeat that for emphasis:</span> <a href="http://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/Downloads/Political_Communication/NAES/2004_03_redskins_09-24_pr.pdf">NINETY-ONE PERCENT OF NATIVE AMERICANS SURVEYED SAID THAT "WASHINGTON REDSKINS" WAS <i>NOT, NOT, NOT</i> OFFENSIVE TO THEM!</a> <span style="color: yellow;">With a margin of error of 2%, only 9 percent of the respondents were bothered by it.</span></blockquote>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ifsp5fr-yHU/U6KQZ44JNcI/AAAAAAAABYM/5WAS3MSoPIY/s1600/redskins+survey.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ifsp5fr-yHU/U6KQZ44JNcI/AAAAAAAABYM/5WAS3MSoPIY/s1600/redskins+survey.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: yellow;">Oh, but it must have been some white conservative guy who was in charge of that survey, right? Well, you've got the white part right. See if this name rings a bell: <b>Adam Clymer,</b> listed in the press release as the "political director" of the survey.
If you used to frequent Free Republic as I did in the late nineties, you know who he is: He's the former <i>New York Times</i> reporter that then-candidate Governor George W. Bush referenced</span> <a href="http://youtu.be/M8w7Yz1Htz4">in an unfortunate "open-mic" moment.</a></blockquote>
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<span style="color: yellow;">Maybe one of the reasons why Bush was so moved to that description is because he (or his father) was the victim of Clymer's "Major League" hackery, which in later years produced</span> <a href="http://lnsmitheeblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/well-isnt-this-interesting.html">this aromatic nugget about Ted Kennedy:</a> <br />
<blockquote>
<i>[His] achievements as a Senator have towered over his time, changing the lives of far more Americans than remember the name Mary Jo Kopechne..."</i></blockquote>
<i>
</i>
<span style="color: yellow;">Even though he presided over the survey, Clymer has recently been dismissing it as irrelevant. Here he is quoted in a</span> <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/redskins-name-goes-before-federal-trademark-board-but-for-this-writer-theres-no-debate/2013/03/10/6e64c508-8906-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394_story_1.html">March 10, 2013 column by <i>Washed-up Post</i> sports scribe Mike Wise:</a>
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<blockquote>
<i>"Look, let’s suppose my numbers were 100 percent right, that 90 percent of American Indians were okay with it and that the people on the other end of the phone were actually what they said they were,” he said. “Given that, what if you had a dinner party and you invited 10 people. And by the end of the night it’s pretty clear that nine of them have had a tremendous time and really enjoyed the food and company. But one of them you managed to completely insult and demean, to the point where people around them noticed and it was uncomfortable. So, ask yourself: Were you a social success that night?”</i></blockquote>
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<span style="color: yellow;">That is a lame, silly simile, since</span> <a href="http://youtu.be/-mmNiN-jHnk?t=1m33s">this is not a matter of whether everybody had a great time at a dinner party.</a> <span style="color: yellow;">It ultimately is about whether or not an extreme minority opinion about a trademark is sufficient to make it a priority of the President of the United States to create a First Amendment crisis out of whole cloth.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: yellow;"><i>*Exhale* </i></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: yellow;">This raises another question for Clymer: If it doesn't matter what the results of the survey were, why the hell did you bother conducting it in the first place? Seems to me that you invested eleven months (October 2003 - September 2004) in the hopes that your pre-conceived notions of tribal outrage would be confirmed, perhaps making it suitable for a divisive campaign issue.When it wasn't, you pretended it was meaningless that your point-of-view came up the loser.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: yellow;">Lucky for you, <i>Clymer</i>, you have a fellow "major-leaguer" in the White House, who doesn't care what the facts are. Screw the First Amendment. He's got a pen, and he's got a phone, and he's going to what he wants on his own. And from your remarks about Kennedy, we know you don't mind if a few rules are broken on the way to policy changes you desire. </span></blockquote>
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L.N. Smitheehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11424396762369226149noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10429981.post-57608795894805796952014-04-04T10:11:00.000-07:002015-07-14T07:40:17.098-07:00FIRED-FOX: TECH CORPORATION THAT BOASTS ABOUT ITS "DIVERSITY" DUMPS CO-FOUNDER OVER BEING TOO DARN DIVERGENT<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">From <i>Fox and Friends</i>, April 4, 2014:</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/gohzhyU4XFE" width="480"></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here is my contribution to <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/04/03/mozilla-ceo-brendan-eich-steps-down-from-role/">Fox and Friends' Facebook post on the topic:</a></span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="color: yellow; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mozilla is run by duplicitous, hypocritical cowards.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: yellow; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is from the <a href="https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/04/03/brendan-eich-steps-down-as-mozilla-ceo">blog post announcing Brendan Eich's resignation,</a> written by Executive Chairwoman Mitchell Baker: </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"Our organizational culture reflects diversity and inclusiveness. We welcome contributions from everyone regardless of age, culture, ethnicity, gender, gender-identity, language, race, sexual orientation, geographical location and religious views. Mozilla supports equality for all...</span></i></blockquote>
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<blockquote>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">We have employees with a wide diversity of views. Our culture of openness extends to encouraging staff and community to share their beliefs and opinions in public. This is meant to distinguish Mozilla from most organizations and hold us to a higher standard."</span></i></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">Sounds good, right? Well, it's a crock. To paraphrase George Orwell in <i>Animal Farm</i>, Mozilla supports equality for all, but some Mozillians are more equal than others.</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: yellow; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mozilla was co-founded by Eich, and he was apparently able to function just fine working for a decade and a half with people who were ready to stab him in the back. Even Baker, in an interview with tech blogger Kara Swisher, said [this was her reaction upon learning] that Eich supported Prop 8 [...]: </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“That was shocking to me, because I never saw any kind of behavior or attitude from him that was not in line with Mozilla’s values of inclusiveness...”</span><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> </span></i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">So, then, <i>what the hell was the problem?</i> He had already proven he WASN'T a Bible-thumping zealot who would tell his workmates they would burn in hell for tolerating homosexuals getting married. He respected others at Mozilla in line with its "culture of diversity." But when it came time for others to respect <i>his </i>diverse viewpoint, they couldn't take it. Their heads exploded.</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: yellow; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Baker, in the interview, went on to babble some <i>non sequiturs</i> about how the world is "heading into a period of global mass surveillance and the role of those fighting against will be more important than ever.” Oooh, heady stuff. And they can't fight against it with a guy who doesn't believe in same-sex marriage? What kind of nonsense is that? For someone in the high-tech business, Ms. Baker says a lot of things that do not compute.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: yellow; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Eich was a threat to nobody. Mozilla's culture was untouched by his personal stance on the definition of marriage, and there not only was no indication that he was going to change it, he said he would not. It didn't matter -- they didn't want to be in the presence of someone whom they knew thought so differently than them. The facts can bring us to absolutely no other conclusion.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: yellow; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mozilla's mascot is a dinosaur. I'm hoping it will become extinct.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have stopped using Firefox, because I can't stand to look at it any longer. It's a shame because it IS the best browser around. But if Mozilla feels like it can just dump the man who brought it so far over having a belief that I share, it's almost my obligation to dump their product.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">More coming on this subject. Stay tuned.</span>L.N. Smitheehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11424396762369226149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10429981.post-13717635731049746502014-03-31T16:10:00.000-07:002014-03-31T18:02:59.270-07:00"WHY NOT A NATIONAL HOLIDAY FOR CESAR CHAVEZ?" HERE'S WHY NOT.Today is Monday, March 31, 2014. In 2013, March 31 was also Easter Sunday, arguably the holiest day of the year for most practicing Christians. So when people fitting that description visited Google that day, they were surprised and pleased to see that contrary to the web behemoth's reputation of being anti-everything religiously Christian, a serene, Christlike figure was gracing its home page. After all, the only previous note Google took of Easter Sunday was in 2000, <a href="http://www.google.com/doodles/happy-easter-2000">when it presented its iconic logo with two decorated eggs for the "oo."</a><br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n1sBUma9bGk/UzneBCwuAPI/AAAAAAAABVM/b__rgdl_-U0/s1600/Chavez+Doodle+www.google.com_2014-03-31_14-19-50.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-n1sBUma9bGk/UzneBCwuAPI/AAAAAAAABVM/b__rgdl_-U0/s1600/Chavez+Doodle+www.google.com_2014-03-31_14-19-50.png" height="121" width="320" /></a><br />
Upon a second glance, however, it was clear the saintly, white-clad person Google featured on the day designated to celebrate Christ's rising was not Christ. It was Mexican-American labor activist Cesar Chavez (d. 1993), honored on the 86th anniversary of his birth on March 31, 1927.<br />
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On the official Google Doodles page, <a href="https://www.google.com/doodles/cesar-chavezs-86th-birthday">this is how the portrait (as opposed to animated, more playful past doodles) was described (bold mine):</a> <br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
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<i><span style="font-size: small;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-716f5b94-7ad0-6e56-616c-d1b50f2d9c00" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At times the simplest answer is the best answer. Early, more complicated
compositions struggling to encapsulate the magnitude of Chavez’s contributions fell away to a simple portrait, hoping to provide <b>a serene tribute to one of the great progressive figures of our time.</b></span></b></span></i><b> </b></blockquote>
<br />
Google chose not to mention the fact that it was also Easter Sunday. To many people, it seemed as if it was a conscious decision by Google to choose Chavez over Christ, since Chavez's birthdate and Easter Sunday would not intersect again until 2024. If the Doodle people at the Googleplex wanted to avoid controversy it <i>had </i>to know was coming (Google didn't get to be what it is because stupid people are running it), it could have waited until today, Monday, March 31, 2014, with Easter three Sundays into April. What was the rush? It is not as if Chavez was going to be more deceased this year than he was last year.<br />
<br />
Here in California, I wanted to visit a state building today and was surprised to find it locked and nobody inside. Chavez's birthday is a state holiday. Government agencies are closed. It had totally slipped my mind that this was passed in California's Democrat-dominated legislature and signed by Governor Moonbeam. But if some people have their way, none of us will forget Chavez's birthday.<br />
<br />
Judi Gerber, who describes herself as<i> </i>"a University of California Master Gardener with a certificate in Horticultural Therapy," wrote a piece that popped up in my news links today called <a href="http://www.care2.com/greenliving/why-cesar-chavez-deserves-a-national-holiday.html?fb_connected=3#comment-6218572">"Why Cesar Chavez Deserves a National Holiday."</a> It read, in part (bold mine):<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">President Barack Obama has signed a proclamation declaring March 31<sup>st</sup>
as Cesar Chavez Day in the United States to “observe this day with
appropriate service, community, and educational programs to honor Cesar
Chavez’s enduring legacy.” I would argue that we need to go even further
and, once and for all, declare it a federal holiday. <b>For that to
happen, Congress has to pass the resolution recognizing it as a national
holiday.</b></span></i></blockquote>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4MwuDj4honk/UznZBMOZoaI/AAAAAAAABU8/ckMum7maXQQ/s1600/www.care2.com_2014-03-31_14-06-18.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4MwuDj4honk/UznZBMOZoaI/AAAAAAAABU8/ckMum7maXQQ/s1600/www.care2.com_2014-03-31_14-06-18.png" height="320" width="316" /></a>The proclamation explains the important role Cesar Chavez played in
helping farm workers: “They were exposed to dangerous pesticides and
denied the most basic protections, including minimum wages, health care,
and access to drinking water. Cesar Chavez devoted his life to
correcting these injustices, to reminding us that every job has dignity,
every life has value, and everyone — no matter who you are, what you
look like, or where you come from — should have the chance to get
ahead.”</span></i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Further, his cause, the rights of immigrant laborers is still
relevant today, even more so in many states. The declaration of Cesar
Chavez Day, along with the release of the feature film from actor and
filmmaker Diego Luna about his life, simply titled </span></i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.cesarchavezmovie.com/#landing" target="_blank">Cesar Chavez</a><i></i></span><i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i>,</i> which is now playing, <b>will hopefully do a lot to make his work and legacy as recognizable as that of <a href="ttp://www.care2.com/greenliving/5-ways-to-honor-dr-martin-luther-king-jr.html" target="_blank">Dr. Martin Luther King Jr</a>.</b></span></i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">His family is also calling on President Obama to make Cesar Chavez’s
March 31 birthday a National Day of Service. It seems only fitting to
take action, because as Chavez once responded: “If you want to remember
me, organize!”</span></i></blockquote>
My comment, posted minutes ago, was as follows:<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="color: yellow;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Until the elevation of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday to federal holiday status in 1983 (signed into law by President Ronald Reagan), there were only two persons whose birthdays were recognized as deserving of such observation: George Washington, the first President of the United States, and a guy named Jesus Christ. I personally don't believe a King holiday was appropriate for national status because I don't believe that King was more deserving than Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday NEVER was a national holiday. (At this point, let me interject that I am a black man - twice as black as Barack Obama.)</span></i></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: yellow;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">But, now that for all intents and purposes, Rev. King's existence has been elevated to the status of perhaps the third most important person in the centuries since the pilgrims first arrived at Plymouth Rock, every multi-culti "social justice" type is whipping up a campaign to force everyone to acknowledge her or his own secular patron saint. Chavez, commonly spoken of as the Latino-American version of King, is the next logical activist up at bat; then, we'll likely have some drive to create a holiday in honor of a great American woman, maybe Susan B. Anthony. Then, get ready for the campaign to give everyone in government a day off to reflect on the greatness of gay rights martyr Harvey Milk (don't laugh, that nonsense is already underway in California). Of the four figures whose faces are carved on Mount Rushmore, only Washington has his own holiday. Move over, Abe, Tommy, and Teddy, here comes Harv.</span></i></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: yellow;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Am I implying that Cesar Chavez was some sort of villain? Of course not. The bottom line is this: There are only as many as 366 days in a calendar year; we can't honor the lives of every significant American unless we want to close D.C. down forever (and NO, that wouldn't be a good idea). Billions of Americans have existed since 1776, and [only] the greatest of the great ones are [more than] brief mentions or mere footnotes in contemporary history books; many great ones are anonymous and have been lost to future generations altogether. It's short-sighted -- and frankly ridiculous -- to suggest that anyone whose activities were not integral to the formation and/or survival of the United States of America ought to be honored in the same manner as those whose lives match that description beyond any shadow of doubt.</span></i></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: yellow;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">To any rational person, Chavez falls well short of that standard.
</span></i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Watch the video below. If you're familiar with director George Stevens' 1952 classic film <i>Shane</i>, you know what it's about. If you haven't seen <i>Shane</i>, take a look, and <u>pay close attention.</u></span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/u4qQtWjXPv4" width="640"></iframe><br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The legend of <i>Shane </i>is set in a valley in late 19th Century Wyoming where, as the story goes, the closest law enforcement was three days' travel away. However, I'd like to know your answer to this hypothetical question: </span></div>
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<u><span style="font-size: large;">What if the laws of current-day Florida were in place in <i>Shane</i>?</span></u></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I'm not kidding. </span><span style="font-size: large;">If what you just saw had taken place in Florida, could Jack Wilson, </span><span style="font-size: large;">(Jack Palance) </span><span style="font-size: large;">the grinning, black-hatted shooter, be convicted of a crime? Or was he simply defending his own life against hot-tempered so-called sodbuster Frank "Stonewall" Torrey (Elisha Cook, Jr.), who <i>clearly </i>drew a gun on him in front of plenty of witnesses?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I want to know what you think. I've got Disqus on my blog now, so it's easy to comment. Knock yourself out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">By the way, <i>Shane </i>is well worth watching if you've never seen it. It's not #45 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 Classic American Movies for nothing. You can see it on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=shane">Amazon </a>or Netflix, and the Blu-ray is being released in August 2013.</span></div>
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L.N. Smitheehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11424396762369226149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10429981.post-56961622318145725492013-07-03T15:44:00.000-07:002013-07-04T23:40:21.986-07:00WATCH: REP. HANK JOHNSON (D-GA) INSULTS PARENTS OF AMERICANS KILLED BY ILLEGAL ALIENS TO THEIR FACESYou know who Hank Johnson is, don't you?<br />
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No?<br />
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What if I told you he <i>has </i>to be the least intelligent member of Congress currently in office, bar none? Would that help you? <br />
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What's that? You say he can't be as dumb as that guy who expressed his concerns to a Navy Commander about <a href="http://armedservices.house.gov/index.cfm/files/serve?File_id=2aaf3607-1c86-4410-8920-0a9de6b0639b">putting a Marine base on the South Pacific island of Guam</a> because it might cause the island to capsize? <br />
<br />
That was Hank Johnson!<br />
<br />
From a March 26, 2010:<br />
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Here's a portion of the transcript of his comments in the video; <a href="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-111hhrg58295/pdf/CHRG-111hhrg58295.pdf">the hearing's transcripts can be found here</a> (Johnson's questions to U.S. Pacific Commander Adm. Robert Willard, U.S. Navy begin on page 26). </div>
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When the video of Johnson's "capsize" comments went viral, he claimed that he was using humor to make a larger point about the potential damage a new military base could cause to Guam's infrastructure and environment. </div>
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Let's talk about that. </div>
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It's true that Johnson did voice those concerns, but his unsteady inquiries about the length and width of the island (although, shockingly, he couldn't get the words "length" and "width" out of his mouth) indicate to me he had in mind that the adding a naval base to the island might tip it over much like an unbalanced canoe would. Hank should have no such fears; an additional 25,000 more residents shouldn't put Guam at risk of sinking under the weight of approximately 200,000 residents. After all, there is an island property of the United States that does just fine with one-ninth the acreage of Guam and 1,600,000 residents. What's the name of that island again? It seems to have slipped my mind. </div>
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Oh, I remember. <a href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/census/popcur.shtml">It's called "Manhattan."</a></div>
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Now, that's comedy ... kind of. I'm no comedian, but I know I'm funnier than Hank Johnson for the simple fact that I know this: <i>If you're the only one who gets it, you're not doing it right.</i> Good humor may at times be complex, but it's never so obscure that people have no idea what is being talked about. Funny people learn this at a young age. As we get older, the stakes get higher. When a mature adult flubs at telling a riddle much like kindergarten kids often do, it's not cute. It's embarrassing at the least, and at the worst it's pathetic. People wonder if you're just bad at being funny, or if you're dense. Maybe Hank, in his own mind, thinks he's Bill Cosby or Richard Pryor. I think not. Try <a href="http://youtu.be/AQl2GoEbPys">Stepin Fetchit.</a> That, of course, is predicated on the notion that Johnson wasn't being dead serious.</div>
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Johnson is also on the House Judiciary Committee. In the run-up to so-called comprehensive immigration legislation passed in the Senate with the aid of moderate Republicans of the "Gang of Eight," border hawk <a href="http://lnsmitheeblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/example-7389-of-something-stewart.html">Trey Gowdy</a> (R-SC) proposed the <a href="http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr2278/text">"SAFE Act,"</a> a bill that authorizes and funds the enforcement of federal immigration statutes by state and local governments. On June 13, 2013, hearings were held regarding the bill.<br />
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You're about to watch one reason why I don't give Hank Johnson the
benefit of the doubt when he offers explanations for appearing to be
totally clueless. <br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--PUANJ2P9cw/UdXq7TFWEVI/AAAAAAAABQw/R5LmRZTrnVs/s634/shawfamily.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="208" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--PUANJ2P9cw/UdXq7TFWEVI/AAAAAAAABQw/R5LmRZTrnVs/s320/shawfamily.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Out of the nine persons seated before the HJC that day, two Californians had compelling accounts to relate. Jamiel Shaw Sr. (right, with his late son, Jamiel Jr.) testified about how local governments' refusal to deport undocumented criminals -- in this case, a young gangbanger who had just been released from jail -- led to his teenage son being murdered as he was walking home from high school. Ironically, Shaw Sr.'s wife and Jamiel Jr.'s mother was serving in Iraq at the time of his killing. She survived a war zone in the Middle East. Her son died in the war zone in his own neighborhood. <a href="http://www.c-spanvideo.org/clip/4457802">Here's a link to video of Shaw Sr.'s statement.</a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JWJUWgUMRlI/UdT56ZAl8lI/AAAAAAAABQg/PYA4Nwtg3KA/s567/Durden+-+W_SENTENCE_0404A_3R40ZPEHE.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JWJUWgUMRlI/UdT56ZAl8lI/AAAAAAAABQg/PYA4Nwtg3KA/s320/Durden+-+W_SENTENCE_0404A_3R40ZPEHE.JPG" width="320" /></a>Sabine Durden (left, middle, following a court appearance) testified before the Committee about how laxity in deportation of undocumented criminals led to her adult son Dominic being killed in traffic by an illegal immigrant on probation for GTA & armed robbery and 2 DUIs. <a href="http://www.pe.com/local-news/riverside-county/moreno-valley/moreno-valley-headlines-index/20120716-moreno-valley-dispatchers-grieve-everyones-plus-one.ece">Dominic Durden</a> was a well-respected volunteer firefighter and police dispatcher who had been recognized multiple times by government officials and politicians everybody has heard of. <a href="http://www.c-spanvideo.org/clip/4457804">Ms. Durden's statement can be seen here.</a> </div>
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Now, watch and listen to the way Hank Johnson wasted his five minutes to question the panel, and zeroed in on Mr. Shaw and Ms. Durden. Then, watch as Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) responded, how HJC Chair Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) intervened, and how Shaw & Durden returned fire.</div>
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Although Shaw and Durden got to say their peace, I don't think either of them believes Johnson got it or gets it. The frustration of Durden was evident on her face as Johnson finally stopped talking. I was alerted to this situation after I heard Durden in an interview on The John and Ken Show on KFI-AM, Los Angeles. She made note of the "rude gentleman from Georgia." </div>
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I am in the Congressional District of Nancy Pelosi. She's not much sharper than a butter knife either, but she neither has a law degree nor practiced law for a quarter-century. Apparently, Hank Johnson does and did. I'm trying to imagine Johnson in court, and just thinking about it is excruciating. I
don't know if he's had a motorcycle accident without a helmet or
something, but there's nothing that has come out of that dude's mouth
lately that indicates he can do anything more than read and regurgitate
talking points he can barely grasp (thus the specious mumblings about
the corrections industry and ALEC). </div>
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Certainly whatever sector of his
brain from which compassion should originate has been rendered
inoperable.</div>
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L.N. Smitheehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11424396762369226149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10429981.post-58116374381929007242013-06-20T14:07:00.000-07:002013-06-20T14:48:25.204-07:00OPENING FOR THE SUPREMES, HERE'S MARGARET CHO WITH A SONG ABOUT LOVE AND TOLERANCE (...not)Before the world is rocked by whatever the Supreme Court has decided regarding same-sex marriage in the cases regarding Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act, I just want to remind people of how loving and tolerant the advocates of gay marriage have been over the years.<br />
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Here's alleged comedienne Margaret Cho, a San Francisco native, at the annual Gay Pride celebration in June 2008 (NSFW; language warning):<br />
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<i>She</i> was a Sunday School teacher? Well, you know what they say: "...those who can't teach." <br />
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Fast forward a few months to November, 2000; Barack Obama was elected President, but Proposition 8 was victorious in California largely because of African-American voter turnout. Exit polls say that 70% of black voters approved of Prop 8. So naturally, gay activists came out in droves and marched on the black community.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Psych!</i> </span><br />
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Of course they didn't go after blacks. They went after Mormons, who were among the most generous and vociferous donors toward the cause of reaffirming traditional marriage as the norm. If you march on a Mormon Temple, you're pretty sure there will be no pushback. You can't necessarily say that about your typical inner-city Baptist church. And when you're a minority group that is overwhelmingly white, the optics of going into a black neighborhood to protest are <i>really</i> bad.<br />
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Anyway, here's Cho again, making an appearance in Cincinnati, Ohio at what seems
to be a gay rights rally the morning after the election. She's written a song for the occasion targeting Mormons. The lyrics are below. The crowd was wildly supportive of all the lyrics, even singing along at the end.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">What ever happened to democracy?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Everything equal and fair?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Mormons deny our humanity</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And they wear weird underwear</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">All that we ask for is family</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Free from homophobic complaints</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Spare me your holy insanity</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I protest the Church of Latter-Day Saints</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">(Chorus) </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Don't let the Mormons get away with it</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Don't let their legislation pass</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Why do you think that they give a $#!+</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Shove Proposition 8 up their ass</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Maybe we can get them audited</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Cut the whole church down to size</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">They hate gays 'cause they're closeted</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Protect our kids from their lies</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I want them to suffer for what they've done</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">What would the Lord on high say?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">A true Christian tries to love everyone</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And Jesus was probably gay</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">They've flooded our airwaves with blasphemy</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Distortion and misuse of wealth</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">They try to deny their polygamy</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Oh Mormons, go #U¢< yourselves</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">(Chorus)</span></div>
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As I typed these lyrics, the line "Maybe we can get [the Mormons] audited..." Hmmm. Cho seems to be suggesting using the tax code as a weapon against ideological opponents...<i>in Cincinnati!</i> Were there any IRS employees in that crowd?<br />
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Dun-DUN-DAAAAAAH!<br />
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But seriously: More interesting is the way Cho refers to polygamy,<a href="http://ilovehistory.utah.gov/time/stories/polygamy.html"> which was abandoned by the LDS church as a condition of Utah Territory being awarded statehood.</a> Only dissident Mormons (such as the ones loyal to <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/j/warren_s_jeffs/index.html">convicted felon Warren Jeffs</a>) continue to openly practice polygamy, daring state and federal governments to prosecute them. It sounds as if Margaret -- who is married, but counts herself among the gay community because she beforehand <a href="http://www.pr.com/article/1106">"went through seriously slutty phases" as a "trisexual"</a> -- thinks polygamy is objectionable; I can't think of another context in which it enters the discussion.<br />
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Most of the time, same-sex marriage advocates don't talk about polygamy. They don't want to get into a conversation about how it's the next logical restriction on marriage to fall. Once it is stipulated that men are no longer limited to marrying women and vice versa, for what fathomable reason should the law limit the number of marriage mates to two? What about "trisexuals," like Cho? Why can't she marry a woman in addition to her man? Why can't her man marry another woman? Why can't her husband marry another man? Why can't the man her husband also be married to another woman? Or another man? And so on, and so on.<br />
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When it comes to plural marriage and other laws based solely in common standards of morality, if both Prop 8 and DOMA are overturned, expect Justice Scalia to find a scholarly way to say "I told you so on <i>Romer</i>. I told you so on <i>Lawrence</i>. And I'm telling you now."<br />
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Mark my words.<br />
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P.S. I'm happy to announce that REACTOR has switched to Disqus comments, which are much more user-friendly than Blogger's, which don't allow blockquotes and have those annoying captchas. So please COMMENT!L.N. Smitheehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11424396762369226149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10429981.post-10427501786438511772013-05-23T20:20:00.002-07:002013-05-23T20:20:18.823-07:00COLLAPSED SKAGIT RIVER BRIDGE CALLED "STRUCTURALLY SAFE" IN 2008 WASHINGTON STATE DEPT. OF TRANSPORTATION REPORTFrom the document <a href="http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/B67CFC77-DD3D-4C15-A42E-9D82D30FDB4A/0/AllSections_CCFinalReportWEB.pdf">"Conway to Cook Interstate 5 Master Plan,"</a> published by the Washington State Department of Transporation in November 2008 (page 3-6)<br />
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<h3>
AGING BRIDGE STRUCTURES AND PAVEMENTS </h3>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fHjzUf6j72k/UZ7ZvvKVZiI/AAAAAAAABO0/MpjRu-rUhlI/s1600/Skagit+River+Bridge+Page+3-6+WashDOT+C-C+IMP+11-10-08_Endorsemt_ExecSum_TOC_Finalv2+.pub+-+AllSections_CCFinalReportWEB.pdf_20130523-195752.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fHjzUf6j72k/UZ7ZvvKVZiI/AAAAAAAABO0/MpjRu-rUhlI/s640/Skagit+River+Bridge+Page+3-6+WashDOT+C-C+IMP+11-10-08_Endorsemt_ExecSum_TOC_Finalv2+.pub+-+AllSections_CCFinalReportWEB.pdf_20130523-195752.png" width="404" /></a><span style="font-size: small;">I-5 was constructed through Skagit County in two segments beginning in the mid 1950’s and on into the mid 1960’s.Several more bridges were built in<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>the 1970’s as interchanges were added to I-5 at Conway (SR 534), Old Highway 99 South, Anderson Road and George Hopper Road. The 2nd<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>Street bridge in Mount Vernon was replaced with a new bridge that opened to traffic in 2006. Twelve of the 17 bridge structures in the I-5 corridor<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>from Conway to Cook were built between 1953 and 1964 and are still in use today. <b>All of the I-5 bridges are structurally sound and safe. Washington State has a meticulous inspection system which rates the primary components of bridges. </b>The age and design of most of the oldest bridge structures in the corridor makes it economically unfeasible to modify them to accommodate I-5 widening for ramp or lane improvements or to accommodate wider arterial streets crossing I-5. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I-5 pavement in the Conway to Cook corridor is primarily asphalt in both directions of travel except for a short section in the southbound lanes in the</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span>vicinity of the Cook Road interchange where the pavement is made of Portland cement. Through the years sections of pavement have been repaired or replaced on the mainline lanes and the interchange ramps. The pavement is generally in good<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>condition but there is some rutting and cracking at a number of locations. Replacement and repair of state highway pavements, including I-5 from Conway to Cook, is prioritized regionally and statewide to ensure pavements remain safe for travel and that their useful life is optimized in order to make the best use of limited funds. </span> </div>
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L.N. Smitheehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11424396762369226149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10429981.post-35242940783995614622013-03-31T23:24:00.000-07:002013-03-31T23:24:02.464-07:00THE SCHWARTZ IS WITH US! MEL BROOKS PLANS SPACEBALLS_SEQUEL AFTER STAR WARS_REBOOT<div style="text-align: left;">
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Mel Brooks, a comedy fixture for over six decades and an award-winning producer of movies, television shows, and Broadway musicals and plays, announced that after the revival of the<i> Star Wars</i> saga by The Walt Disney Company, he's going to embark on a sequel to his hilarious 1987 sci-fi satire, <i>Spaceballs. </i></div>
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<i>Spaceballs </i>starred<i> </i>Bill Pullman, the late John Candy, Rick Moranis, Daphne Zuniga, the voice of Joan Rivers and, of course, himself. Front-runners to take up Candy's role as "Barf" include Seth Rogen and <i>Modern Family</i>'s Eric Stonestreet. </div>
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Here he is announcing the good news on the <i>Monday, March 32, 2013</i> edition o<i></i>f <i>Jimmy Kimmel Live.</i></div>
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L.N. Smitheehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11424396762369226149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10429981.post-43102201244127871202013-03-29T18:42:00.000-07:002013-03-30T05:36:58.066-07:00THE "PAUSE" AVATAR: A CIVIL RESPONSE TO THE VIRAL "EQUAL" SIGN<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zBekm3GWnJI/UVVFTnQDSjI/AAAAAAAABM8/Ewwu6I60l20/s1600/LNS+Pause.+2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="183" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zBekm3GWnJI/UVVFTnQDSjI/AAAAAAAABM8/Ewwu6I60l20/s200/LNS+Pause.+2.gif" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">On March 2<span style="font-size: large;">7, the evening <span style="font-size: large;">after the <span style="font-size: large;">Supreme Court he<span style="font-size: large;">ard oral arguments<span style="font-size: large;">, you may have noticed a symbol popping<span style="font-size: large;"> up as avatars all over social media: A re<span style="font-size: large;">d b<span style="font-size: large;">ox with a pink <span style="font-size: large;">equal sign signif<span style="font-size: large;">ying solidarity with the Human Rights Campa<span style="font-size: large;">ign, the nation<span style="font-size: large;">'s premier gay rights lobbying group. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Those of you with a presence <span style="font-size: large;">in social media </span>who <span style="font-size: large;">don't </span>believe in same-sex marriage may w<span style="font-size: large;">ant to make your<span style="font-size: large;"> views known as well. I certainly did. Because I didn't want to attach myself to the views of someone<span style="font-size: large;"> prone to</span> saying something I <i>wouldn't</i> want to say (including but not <span style="font-size: large;">limited to the<span style="font-size: large;"> vi<span style="font-size: large;">le, blasphemous Westboro Baptist Church)</span></span></span>,<span style="font-size: large;"> I last night decided to creat<span style="font-size: large;">e my own symbol<span style="font-size: large;"> for my Twitter account. I hated to part with my t<span style="font-size: large;">ribute to Andrew Br<span style="font-size: large;">e<span style="font-size: large;">itbart<span style="font-size: large;"> after a year, but felt like <span style="font-size: large;">I had something else to say<span style="font-size: large;">. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">For people who haven't fig<span style="font-size: large;">ured out what I<span style="font-size: large;"> mean by the above graphic: <span style="font-size: large;">Before you make the def<span style="font-size: large;">initive statement<span style="font-size: large;"> that marr<span style="font-size: large;">iage of a man and a woman is the <i>equivalen</i><span style="font-size: large;"><i>t</i> of that of a man and a man or a woman <span style="font-size: large;">and a woman, pause....and think. <i>Wh</i><span style="font-size: large;"><i>y </i>do you believe that? Is that because this is what you were<span style="font-size: large;"> told by your peers<span style="font-size: large;">? Or what you've<span style="font-size: large;"> learn<span style="font-size: large;">ed from<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;">entertainers<span style="font-size: large;">? Or <span style="font-size: large;">from</span></span> your religious leaders<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">? <span style="font-size: large;">Did teachers, pr<span style="font-size: large;">ofessors, politici<span style="font-size: large;">ans, </span>or <a href="http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2010/11/24/gay-censorship-update-sex-columnist-berates-cnn-cnn-letting-conservative">self-styled "experts"</a></span><a href="http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2010/11/24/gay-censorship-update-sex-columnist-berates-cnn-cnn-letting-conservative"> tell you that you were a mean or <span style="font-size: large;">cruel person <span style="font-size: large;">if you thought otherwise?</span></span></a></span></span></span> Or did people who love you <span style="font-size: large;">intimate that you d<span style="font-size: large;">on</span>'t <i>really </i>love them unless you accept their point of view on the matter?<span style="font-size: large;"> After all, i</span>t seems lately li<span style="font-size: large;">ke every<span style="font-size: large;"> other day, a famous person who either was vocally opposed </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">to or silently dismissive of </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">same-sex marr<span style="font-size: large;">iage is coming forward to announ<span style="font-size: large;">ce that they are </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">(now that <span style="font-size: large;">some opinion polls indi<span style="font-size: large;">cate more p<span style="font-size: large;">eople approve than disapprove) </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">just <span style="font-size: large;">okey-dokey </span>with it<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">. </span></span></span></span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">What changed their minds<span style="font-size: large;">,<span style="font-size: large;"> <i>if </i>in fact th<span style="font-size: large;">eir minds were changed? One popular assertion is they say they've observed f<span style="font-size: large;">riends or family who were gay, and that did the trick of changing their perspective. This raises a question<span style="font-size: large;">:</span> <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">W</span>as their previous stance based mostly on <span style="font-size: large;">their </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">lack <span style="font-size: large;">of a </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">personal <span style="font-size: large;">point<span style="font-size: large;"> o<span style="font-size: large;">f re<span style="font-size: large;">ference rat<span style="font-size: large;">her than <span style="font-size: large;">their</span> hard-and-fast <span style="font-size: large;">principle</span></span>s? As of the moment I <span style="font-size: large;">write this, I <span style="font-size: large;">can't recall <span style="font-size: large;">a<span style="font-size: large;">n "evol<span style="font-size: large;">ution" by a pub<span style="font-size: large;">lic official </span>on <span style="font-size: large;">same-sex marriage </span>tha<span style="font-size: large;">t truly fits the meaning of the word; such actions are more akin to descriptions like "about face," or the dreaded "flip-flop." </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vhaThnPWB0A" width="420"></iframe> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-181obiU3nD8/UVY8wGLKpYI/AAAAAAAABNI/Zy_yQUC5gek/s1600/US_TeenMom2_20101215.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-181obiU3nD8/UVY8wGLKpYI/AAAAAAAABNI/Zy_yQUC5gek/s320/US_TeenMom2_20101215.png" width="240" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">I also <span style="font-size: large;">inc<span style="font-size: large;">l<span style="font-size: large;">uded the "<span style="font-size: large;">Fast Forwa<span style="font-size: large;">rd" symbol to spur debate about what is commonly refer<span style="font-size: large;">red to as "progress" when <span style="font-size: large;">it comes to issues such as these. Peopl<span style="font-size: large;">e <span style="font-size: large;">speak of "being on the ri<span style="font-size: large;">ght side of history" as if that means what happens in the future is necessari<span style="font-size: large;">ly beneficial to the nation on <span style="font-size: large;">the</span> whole. <span style="font-size: large;">But as i<span style="font-size: large;">s true with new "miracle" pre<span style="font-size: large;">scription drugs, there <span style="font-size: large;">is </span>always the potential for unpleas<span style="font-size: large;">ant side effects. </span></span></span> For example: when Americans generally let go of the idea that premar<span style="font-size: large;">ital pregnancy <span style="font-size: large;">was </span>scandalous, one would have been "on the right side of history<span style="font-size: large;">" to say a couple of decades later, <span style="font-size: large;">teenage girls with no d<span style="font-size: large;">iscern<span style="font-size: large;">ible skill but fertility would be regularly be featured on the cover of <i>fan magazines</i>. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">It is <span style="font-size: large;">my belief that once the S<span style="font-size: large;">upreme Court </span>door is flung open to same-sex marriage, there is <i>no </i>valid reason why <span style="font-size: large;">faith<span style="font-size: large;">-based <span style="font-size: large;">plural m</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">arriage <span style="font-size: large;">and li<span style="font-size: large;">bertine </span>pol<span style="font-size: large;">ygamous marriage <span style="font-size: large;">wouldn</span>'t follow on it<span style="font-size: large;">s heels. Intellectually honest people<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> like</span> George Washington Univer<span style="font-size: large;">sity <span style="font-size: large;">Law Professor Jo<span style="font-size: large;">nathan Turley -- no<span style="font-size: large;"> right-winger he -- admit this is true<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">, and </span></span><a href="http://lnsmitheeblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/in-which-i-congratulate-los-angeles.html">I blogged about his representation of a reality show polygamist in 2011.</a><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-size: large;">So I believe that rathe<span style="font-size: large;">r than charge fast forward into exchanging the bedrock of American society <span style="font-size: large;">for a sinkhole, we <span style="font-size: large;">all ou<span style="font-size: large;">ght to hit the Pause button.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Unfortunately, in between the time I created my animated </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Breitbart </span></span>avat<span style="font-size: large;">a</span>r, </span></span>Twitter <span style="font-size: large;">prevented </span>new anigifs from being <span style="font-size: large;">used<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">;</span> </span>I guess I was "grandfathered" in up until the moment I <span style="font-size: large;">replaced it</span>. So I just went with t<span style="font-size: large;">he <span style="font-size: large;">"Pause" frame of the .gif<span style="font-size: large;">, pictured at the top of th<span style="font-size: large;">is </span>page.</span> <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">F</span>or you people who would like to <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">use the animat<span style="font-size: large;">ed Pause avatar (</span><i>without</i> <span style="font-size: large;">my personal logo)<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">, it's below. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">But <span style="font-size: large;">-- not so fast.</span> </span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I don't want </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">the Pause Avatar</span></span> to become a symb<span style="font-size: large;">ol of attitudes that I find abhorrent. So, for the record<span style="font-size: large;">: B<span style="font-size: large;">eing it<span style="font-size: large;">s origina<span style="font-size: large;">tor and having</span></span></span></span> proffered it<span style="font-size: large;"> for <span style="font-size: large;">your use</span></span>, <span style="font-size: large;"><i>if</i> you choose to use it, you<span style="font-size: large;"> </span>agree with me in principl<span style="font-size: large;">e that:</span></span></span> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><br />
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<li><i><span style="font-size: large;">Pejoratives reasonably accepted as offensive in debates such as this are counterproductive;</span></i></li>
<li><i><span style="font-size: large;">All of us are sinners who are in need of redemption;</span></i></li>
<li><i><span style="font-size: large;">No mortal individual can stand in the place of the Almighty and say who is irredeemable and who is not;</span></i></li>
<li><i><span style="font-size: large;">Nobody ought to be threatened simply for expressing their opinion on the internet, and... </span></i></li>
<li><i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he people who do that sort of thing are jerks.</span></i></li>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Everybody got that? Good. Here it is.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1jSAnxOmvWY/UVY9T7IS74I/AAAAAAAABNQ/s59BGK-AvBI/s1600/Public+Pause+Ani.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1jSAnxOmvWY/UVY9T7IS74I/AAAAAAAABNQ/s59BGK-AvBI/s1600/Public+Pause+Ani.gif" /></a></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Let me know what you (and your friends) think about it.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">(<span style="font-size: large;">E<span style="font-size: large;">di<span style="font-size: large;">ted for clarity<span style="font-size: large;">).</span></span></span></span></span> </span></span><br />
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<br />L.N. Smitheehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11424396762369226149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10429981.post-35195385682142987412013-01-31T07:58:00.000-08:002013-03-04T00:06:32.423-08:00WHAT DIDN'T_SUCK ABOUT 2012 (Part IV of IV)<div class="videoplayer" style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="tags"><i>Note: I am tard<span style="font-size: small;">y in comple<span style="font-size: small;">ting this <span style="font-size: small;">four<span style="font-size: small;">-part series, <span style="font-size: small;">and I've got other thin<span style="font-size: small;">gs I wan<span style="font-size: small;">t to speak out about. So I'm posting this final part with<span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="font-size: small;">a few things left to include. I reserve the right to <span style="font-size: small;">update it further.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></i></span></span></div>
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<span class="tags" style="font-size: large;">3. POLITICS: </span></h2>
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<li style="text-align: left;"><span class="tags"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>2012 Democratic Convention delegates' voice vote rejects re<span style="font-size: small;">-</span>inserting "God" and support for Jerusalem as I<span style="font-size: small;">srael's capital </span>in its platform, and even MSM can't pretend it didn't happen. </b></span></span><span style="color: yellow;"><span class="tags"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">On the first day of the convention, <span style="font-size: small;">V<span style="font-size: small;">ice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan made mention of th<span style="font-size: small;">e <i>specific </i>deletions of the words "<span style="font-size: small;">G</span>od-given potential" <span style="font-size: small;">and </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span class="tags"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">a</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span class="tags"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: yellow;"> declaration that<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: yellow;">the disputed city of Jerusalem is recog</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: yellow;">n</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: yellow;">ized by <span style="font-size: small;">both Dems and <span style="font-size: small;">t<span style="font-size: small;">he GOP</span></span></span> as Israel's c</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: yellow;">apital city.</span> <a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=78283">Both were </a></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=78283"><span class="tags"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">i<span style="font-size: small;">n the </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span class="tags"><span style="font-size: small;"> Dem platform </span></span><span class="tags"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">in 2008.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></a></li>
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<span style="color: yellow;"><span class="tags"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">I</span>n this opening-day interview with Fox News' B<span style="font-size: small;">ret Baier, </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span class="tags"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Senate Majority Whip Dick Du<span style="font-size: small;">r<span style="font-size: small;">bin (D-MI) tripped all over h<span style="font-size: small;">imself <span style="font-size: small;">insisting </span>that the exclusion was not deliberate<span style="font-size: small;">, and fumbled through <span style="font-size: small;">strawman talking points alleging <span style="font-size: small;">that Fox<span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="font-size: small;">News <span style="font-size: small;">was casting aspersions on the party:</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> </div>
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<span style="color: yellow;">Ironically, as this contentious interview was conducted, Newark, NJ mayor Cory Booker was shouting on stage extolling the virtues of the Dems' platform. </span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: yellow;">To put an end to the issue, the first order of business the second day of the convention was to formally insert "God" and "Jerusalem" back into the platform. Here is the scene as captured by C-SPAN, featuring Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the scourge of the John & Ken Show::</span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: yellow;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dem<span style="font-size: small;">ocrat hacks</span> had to use t<span style="font-size: small;">heir strongest powers of denial in making believe you d<span style="font-size: small;">idn't see wh<span style="font-size: small;">at<span style="font-size: small;"> you just sa<span style="font-size: small;">w</span></span></span></span></span></span></span>. Enter DNC Chairperson Debbie Wasserman<span style="font-size: small;">-("I know nothing!") Schultz<span style="font-size: small;"> (D-FL):</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: yellow;">It's a scene almost as blatant as this one from the 1967 motion picture <i>A Guide For The Married Man,</i> in which philanderer Robert Morse (<i>Mad Men</i>) is giving advice on two-timing to faithful husband Walter Matthau:</span></blockquote>
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<li><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker defeats recall attempt</b> <span style="color: yellow;">after signing bill limiting collective bargaining for public employee unions, leading one sad-sack progressive to whine "Democracy's dead." After November, I'm sure his faith was renewed.</span></span></li>
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<li><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Tea Party Republican Tim Scott selected to be first African-American Senator from South Carolina</b> <span style="color: yellow;">and <i>only </i>black Senator in D.C. after the resignation of Jim DeMint. Mind you, he was appointed by South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, the nation's first female Indian-American Governor. This, of course, didn't stop people from suggesting that Republicans are racist (more about that in the Internet section).</span></span></li>
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<ul style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QV3Zkcsr99g/UOOb-4zvTAI/AAAAAAAABG8/aZkhvtZZ81c/s1600/I+knew+Dan+Quayle.+Son+youre+no+Dan+Quayle.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QV3Zkcsr99g/UOOb-4zvTAI/AAAAAAAABG8/aZkhvtZZ81c/s320/I+knew+Dan+Quayle.+Son+youre+no+Dan+Quayle.png" width="251" /></a></span>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Arizona Republican Congressman David Schweikert</b> <span style="color: yellow;">won election to a newly drawn district after first defeating Rep. Ben Quayle, son of former Vice President Dan Quayle, in the GOP primary. I expressed my skepticism about the seriousness of Quayle <i>fils </i>in</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDUQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Flnsmitheeblog.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F08%2Fi-knew-dan-quayle-son-youre-no-dan.html&ei=QJrjUIyNEYPCigKrnIH4Dw&usg=AFQjCNGAq3T9jZpIqN9k1rkc3ewf7TjOsA&bvm=bv.1355534169,d.cGE">this 2010 post</a><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: yellow;">outlining <span style="font-size: small;">his invo<span style="font-size: small;">lvement in the creation of TheDirty.com, a sal<span style="font-size: small;">acious website that solicits <span style="font-size: small;">revealing photos of ex-girlfriends.</span></span></span></span></span></span></li>
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<li><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Michele Bachmann survives the 2012 election</b> <span style="color: yellow;">despite financial abandonment by GOP establishment, which Mark Levin predicted even after earlier badgering Reince Priebus into saying that Bachmann would receive the help she didn't receive two years ago. It was fun to see the di<span style="font-size: small;">sappointment </span>of Twitter haters who jumped the gun and though<span style="font-size: small;">t she had been defeated.</span></span></span></li>
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<li><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Fortney "Pete" Stark</b> <b>is finally defeated after 20 years.</b> <span style="color: yellow;">The biggest Congressional tool from the Bay Area</span> <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444273704577637694122468310.html">(yes, that <i>includes</i> Nancy Pelosi)</a> <span style="color: yellow;">is beaten by fellow Democrat Eric Smalwell (aka "Who?")<b> </b>. What made the difference? Due to the new "top two" system in place in California, voters had a choice between Stark and <i>someone </i>who wasn't a Republican. Baa, baa, baa.</span></span></li>
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<li><span style="font-size: small;"><b>The San Francisco Board of Supervisors didn't cave to the city's nuttiest elements</b> <span style="color: yellow;">(for once) and banned total nudity in public (except in the cases of events that traditionally allow it).</span></span></li>
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<span style="font-size: large;">2. SPORTS: </span></h2>
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<li><span style="font-size: small;"><b>My San Francisco Giants won the World Series for the second time in three years.</b> <span style="color: yellow;"> This is an incredible and unprobable turn of events for the Giants, a franchise that before 2010 hadn't won a single World Championship since 1954. There is <i>no </i>feeling like being a fan the very first time a team wins a world championship, and I've experienced that three times with the Giants, the Warriors (1974-75), and the 49ers (1981-82). But this win was special because nobody (even me) really thought it was possible. The rotation was missing a decent Tim Lincecum, who was the worst starting pitcher in the National League for most of the season, and the team's best offensive player (Melky Cabrera, 2012 All-Star Game MVP) was suspended for the entire second half of the regular season after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. Left for dead by fair-weather fans as the Dodgers surged, the team gelled despite the circumstances. Facing two elimination games, the was team rallied into a frenzy by newly-acquired Hunter Pence. They swept the last three games of both the National League Division Series (over Cincinnati) and the National League Championship Series (over defending Champion St. Louis). There was no such drama in the World Series, which they swept from Detroit in four games.</span></span></li>
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<li><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Buster Posey</b>, <span style="color: yellow;">the team's first-round draft pick in 2008, won the National League batting title in only his second full season in the Major Leagues. Posey also was named NL MVP. Regardless of whether young Buster turns out to be a Hall-of-Fame inductee like all other Giants with retired numbers, I say that he ought to be the last Giant to wear #28. Posey is the undisputed team leader of a Giants club that has won two World Championships. The last Giant who could make such a claim is Hall-of-Famer Frankie Frisch (1921 & 1922).</span></span></li>
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<li><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Giants pitcher Matt Cain threw the first perfect game in the 129-year history of the team</b> <span style="color: yellow;">(dating back to its roots in Troy, New York). Think of it: Giants Hall of Fame pitchers Christy Mathewson, Carl Hubbell, Juan Marichal, and Gaylord Perry didn't do what Cain did last June; retire all 27 batters without allowing one to reach first base safely. After the Giants didn't get to the postseason in 2011 and as they trailed the resurgent Dodgers for the two months into the 2012 season, I thought Cain's perfecto would be the highlight of the year. As it turned out, the best was yet to come! Here are all 27 outs, and the celebration afterward:</span></span></li>
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<li><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://youtu.be/5G1Fd1x_4OY"><b>Petaluma, CA's Little League Team,</b></a> <span style="color: yellow;">champions of the United States' West region, made it to the U.S. Championship game in Williamsport, PA. They fell to the Southeast region champions from Goodlettsville, TN by a score of 22-16 in extra innings (and yes, this is baseball, not football). Down 16-6 in the bottom of the sixth (and final) inning, the boys from the West region refused to quit, scoring a Little League World Series record ten runs to tie the game. The Tennessee boys had plenty of offense left to finally put California away, but the comeback strained their pitchers. The length of the U.S. final probably sealed the fate of whichever team emerged to play in the next day's World Championship game; a fresh Japanese team that qualified earlier in the day won all the marbles. Remember the name Lorenzo Butler, though; he hit three jacks in the game for Tennessee, and looks like he knows what he's doing. Below is a local S.F. station's coverage of one of many tributes to the Petaluma boys, and how it took a Buttermakerish turn.</span></span></li>
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<li><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Hockey returned to San Francisco</b> <span style="color: yellow;">(technically, Daly City) in the form of a ECHL (AA) team, the</span> <a href="http://www.sfbulls.com/">San Francisco Bulls</a>, <span style="color: yellow;">playing at the archaic</span> <a href="http://www.cowpalace.com/">Cow Palace.</a> <span style="color: yellow;">The team is not as good as the IHL (AAA) San Francisco Spiders that played the Palace for one season (1995-96), but Bulls' founder/co-owner/GM/head coach Pat Curcio gifted the 70-year-old white elephant with an amenity commonly found in some high school stadiums nowadays:</span> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmc-stl/8210361704/">Video replay screens.</a> </span></li>
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<li><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Uganda's Little League World Series team</b>, <span style="color: yellow;">the first from Africa to play in Williamsport. The team from Lugazi, Uganda first qualified to attend the Little League World Series in 2011 after defeating the powerhouse</span> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhahran#Little_League_World_Series">Dhahran, Saudi Arabia team</a> <span style="color: yellow;">(made up greatly of the sons of American oil industry contractors), but they couldn't enter the United States due to lack of proper documentation. This year, with the papers they needed to make it across the Atlantic, they squeaked out a win over an squad of boys from Oregon in their final consolation game. Ringing in their ears was the support of a large contingent of other LLWS parents who served as surrogates for their own, who couldn't make the 7,000 mile trip. It is a classic Cinderella story starring potential Shoeless Joe Jacksons that are <i>actually </i>shoeless. </span></span></li>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: yellow;">Notable anecdote about the Ugandan boys' first stay in an American hotel: They were really excited to see running water that was clean. </span></span><b><br /></b></blockquote>
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<li><b>The USA Olympic Team</b><span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="color: yellow;">took the most medals in the London Games (C'mon, admit it -- you forgot the Olympics even happened this year, didn't you? It's all everyone thinks about for two weeks, and after a week or two of withdrawal, it's forgotten until the next one two years later). </span></span></li>
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<li><b>Lance Armstrong, finally exposed.</b> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: yellow;">After giving MLB all-time home run leader Barry Bonds the benefit of the doubt until I could no longer (Giants' 50 years+ clubhouse manager Mike Murphy testified under oath that he needed to get bigger shoes and a bigger helmet to fit Bonds' growing feet and head), it was the last nail in the coffin of any notion that such superhuman athletic feats could be accomplished past the natural prime of an elite athlete. Even after Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Alex Rodriguez and other award-winning jocks had been tainted with a silent and invisible asterisk, somehow Armstrong -- who incredibly survived testicular cancer and then won a record seven Tour de France cycling titles -- maintained his reputation as a miracle man. On top of that, he became a worldwide symbol of victory over cancer with the creation of rubber "Livestrong" bracelets raising millions for his foundation. Armstrong would point out that he was the most-tested athlete in history, and he had never tested positive; the same thing was said about Bonds at one time, as well, and turned out not to be true.</span></span></li>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: yellow;">Other highly-ranked cyclists were subsequently exposed as engaging in blood doping, making it all the more unlikely that Armstrong could have conquered the grueling Tour <i>au naturale</i>, but he dismissed accusers of either telling tales for tabloid cash or out of their envy at his accomplishment. <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/cycling/news/story?id=5203604">Even when members of his own racing team couldn't withstand the pressure of keeping up the illusion,</a> Armstrong lashed out, claiming personal grudges and money issues were the reason they turned on him. Finally, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency put together a labyrinthian detailed document showing what was really incredible about Armstrong was his dogged determination to his false legend. As a last-ditch effort, he tried to end discussion of the entire issue by admitting nothing, but voluntarily giving up his titles before they were taken away after an investigation. Later, he resigned from the Livestrong Foundation, saying he didn't want controversy surrounding him personally to affect the fight against cancer.</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: yellow;">As I complete this part of this post, Armstrong is in the headlines for what is being advertised as a "confession," and the Baseball Hall of Fame is about to announce whether or not Bonds or Roger Clemens -- the two biggest figures in the steroid scandals -- has been voted into the pantheon of legends on the first year of their eligibility. I hope Armstrong totally comes clean, and I hope Bonds and Clemens fall short of induction. The only reward for cheating your way to unbreakable records ought to be</span> <a href="http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/just-deserts.html">just deserts.</a></span></blockquote>
<ul><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-U785ul7jVyk/UTLvWOOHuhI/AAAAAAAABMA/NfCUAAN3ghA/s1600/Death+To+the+BCS.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-U785ul7jVyk/UTLvWOOHuhI/AAAAAAAABMA/NfCUAAN3ghA/s1600/Death+To+the+BCS.png" /></a>
<li><b>Death of the BCS. </b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: yellow;">The dam finally broke after cracks in the flawed concept of the Bowl Championship System were jackhammered by a comprehensive examination of its history: The book <a href="http://www.deathtothebcs.com/site/about_the_book/"><i>Death To The BCS</i></a>, written by Yahoo! Sports writers Dan Wetzel, Josh Peter, and Jeff Passan. </span></span></li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: yellow;">Laid to waste were the lies that the bowl system makes more money for schools than a playoff would, that it is for the benefit of charitable organizations, that bowl games financially benefit smaller schools, that a playoff system would be detrimental to the academic goals of student-athletes, that the balloting for the major bowls is conducted fairly, and that the large conferences don't conspire to avoid defeat on the field by less prestigious schools. But the blockbuster charge was the</span> <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/football/ncaa/03/29/fiesta-bowl-junker/index.html">massive amount of graft going on for years in the Fiesta Bowl organization.</a></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: yellow;">Largely due to reaction to revelations in the book (which was studiously ignored by ESPN, which relies heavily on college football TV coverage for its bottom line), the BCS in June announced its member schools presidents had agreed on a four-team playoff. It's a start.</span></span></blockquote>
<ul style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><b>My average bowling score</b> <span style="color: yellow;">has risen by almost 30 since last year.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: yellow;"><span style="font-size: large;">And now, the very best thing about 2012:</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: yellow;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span> </span></span></div>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: large;">1. PERSONAL: </span></h2>
<span style="color: yellow;">My remaining family is intact. </span> <a href="http://lnsmitheeblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/goodbye-and-good-riddance-to-2011.html">After having my heart stabbed with a corkscrew three times last year </a><span style="color: yellow;">by the passing of my father, a longtime family friend and neighbor, and another close relative all within two months, everyone else is doing fine. My wounds are healing.</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
</footer>L.N. Smitheehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11424396762369226149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10429981.post-60023413724017123272013-01-22T19:12:00.000-08:002013-03-04T22:05:19.419-08:00WHAT DIDN'T_SUCK ABOUT 2012 (Part III of IV)<h2>
<span id="odiogo_span_8"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=10429981"><img alt="Listen to this article. Powered by Odiogo.com" border="0" height="18" src="http://www.odiogo.com/images/odiogo_listen_now_77x18.gif" style="border-width: 0px;" title="Listen to this article. Powered by Odiogo.com" width="77" /></a></span>
</h2>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">This the third of a four-part year-end post about 2012. What didn't suck about The Earth, Commercials, and Business/Brands can be found <a href="http://tiny.cc/2012_1">here</a>. What didn't suck about Radio and Television can be found <a href="http://tiny.cc/2012_2">here</a>.</span></i></span> </h2>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: small;">5. INTERNET: </span></h2>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><b><b><a href="http://breitbart.com/">Breitbart.com</a> </b></b><span style="color: yellow;">On January 18th, 2012, I assisted Andrew Breitbart on Twitter as he cyber-pummeled a pr<span style="font-size: small;">ogressive bloggerette <span style="font-size: small;">who denied that 1) <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Multiple</span> s</span></span>exual assau<span style="font-size: small;">lts oc<span style="font-size: small;">curred at Oc<span style="font-size: small;">cupy camps around the world, and that 2) Victims were discouraged from calling law enfor<span style="font-size: small;">cement<span style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> <span style="color: yellow;">It was a great moment in my online life when</span> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: yellow;">I refreshed and saw the notice "@AndrewBr</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: yellow;">eitbart is now following you."</span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nXhEXu7Gsxg/UOgPS2X7l0I/AAAAAAAABH4/QdkSjMj-VhM/s1600/@AndrewBreitbart+follows+@LNSmithee+01-18-12.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="308" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nXhEXu7Gsxg/UOgPS2X7l0I/AAAAAAAABH4/QdkSjMj-VhM/s640/@AndrewBreitbart+follows+@LNSmithee+01-18-12.png" width="640" /></a> </span></span></span></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">So </span></span></span>it felt like a punch in the gut when I saw the news <span style="font-size: small;">the morning of </span>March 1st saying he had sudd<span style="font-size: small;">enly </span>d<span style="font-size: small;">ie</span>d. I was hoping it was either a disgusting prank by
A(nonymous)-holes, or perhaps t<span style="font-size: small;">hat Br<span style="font-size: small;">eitbart </span></span>conspired with intrepid investigative journalist James O'Keefe to fake his
death<span style="font-size: small;"> in<span style="font-size: small;"> the hope it would </span></span>expose the cruelty of his detractors. </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">S</span>adly, his death was <span style="font-size: small;">real</span></span><span style="font-size: small;">, and even sadder, it <i>did </i>expose that cruelty. </span></blockquote>
<ul>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Here's Breitb<span style="font-size: small;">art in his shining moment, <span style="font-size: small;">conduc<span style="font-size: small;">ting<span style="font-size: small;"> an impromptu<span style="font-size: small;"> press conference <span style="font-size: small;">after A<span style="font-size: small;">nthony Weiner resigned in disgrac<span style="font-size: small;">e<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">. It was</span> a<span style="font-size: small;"> righteous <span style="font-size: small;">victory lap a<span style="font-size: small;">round </span>the MSM figures who <span style="font-size: small;">questioned the veracity of <span style="font-size: small;">Wein<span style="font-size: small;">ergate solely because the <span style="font-size: small;">story </span>was <span style="font-size: small;">broken on Breitbart's web.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.mrctv.org/embed/102475" title="MRC TV video player" width="640"></iframe><br /></div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;"><span style="font-size: small;">When the shock of his death had passed, I said that Breitbart had from of exhaustion after kicking so much butt. </span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Br<span style="font-size: small;">eitbart sites were in the process of being <span style="font-size: small;">re<span style="font-size: small;">-designe<span style="font-size: small;">d</span> when h<span style="font-size: small;">is heart failed<span style="font-size: small;">, and <span style="font-size: small;">the new Breitbart.com -- connecting all of the "Big" sites seamlessly<span style="font-size: small;"> -- </span>turned out great.</span></span> </span></span></span></span></span></span>I'm not
going to lie and say that the website is as good as it would have been<span style="font-size: small;"> with</span> him, and I'm kinda creeped out when it seems fellow fans want to
make him a Che Guevara-esque figure, but I'm delighted his movement
didn't die with the man himself.<b> </b></blockquote>
<ul>
<li><b><a href="http://tiny.cc/lnsmithee">L.N. Smithee's REACTOR</a></b> <span style="color: yellow;">reaches a milestone as an new digit was added to my most viewed thread in the past two years (the only two years in which I've had a reliable site meter). It is -- inexplicably -- </span><a href="http://lnsmitheeblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/lettermans-office-squeeze-isnt-funny.html"> this one, exposing the fact one of David Letterman's mistresses on the staff of <i>Late Show</i> got a LOT of air time despite the fact that she just <i>isn't</i> funny.</a> <span style="color: yellow;">Not even a little.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b>My YouTube video of Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis </b><span style="color: yellow;">at Dodger Stadium (watching the eventual World Champion San Francisco Giants defeat the home team) was linked by the <i>New York Daily News</i> and to date has over 94,000 views, much more than all my previously posted videos combined.</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b> </b></div>
<ul style="text-align: center;"> <div>
</div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hyUwfeOZowk" width="459"></iframe> </ul>
<ul>
<li><b><a href="http://www.patterico.com/">Patterico's Pontifications</a>, </b><span style="color: yellow;">the blog presided over by Los Angeles County Assistant D.A. Patrick "Patterico" Frey. For over a decade, when he hasn't been working on putting Southland gangsters behind bars, Frey has kept tabs on how facts are often mangled into an unrecognizable mess by the <i>Los Angeles Times</i>. In recent months, however, he's been the target of vindictive far-left partisans who are guarding the reputations of two indefensible characters. The first: Disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner. The second: Convicted perjurer, convicted domestic terrorist, false accuser of former Vice President Quayle, and all-around scum-of-the-earth Brett Kimberlin. Kimberlin is a sociopathic serial litigant going back to his days behind bars for setting bombs in the Indianapolis area, and cannot abide his past coming back to haunt him. Even though he doesn't have a law degree, he is one of the most odious practitioners of "lawfare," using the courts to terrorize people who do no more than retell prima facie fact about his past. Kimberlin has even more personally targeted for destruction the operator of ... </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b><a href="http://allergic2bull.blogspot.com/">Allergic To Bull,</a> </b><span style="color: yellow;">the blog by Manassas, VA attorney Aaron Walker, aka "Aaron Worthing."</span> <a href="http://allergic2bull.blogspot.com/p/brett-kimberlin-saga-and-how-you-can.html">Walker explained in excruciating detail (because it's absolutely necessary to tell the whole story)</a> <span style="color: yellow;">how Kimberlin and his minions harassed Walker's bosses until he was fired, <i>tried </i>to make him a target of bloodthirsty jihadists by filing a legal brief for the express purpose of putting his home address into public record, and sought to ensure his disbarment by framing him for assault by lying about a hostile encounter in a courthouse (Kimberlin failed to notice video surveillance cameras that would eventually disprove his allegation that Walker punched him). All of this persecution of Walker was retribution for giving some free legal advice to <i>another</i> blogger that Kimberlin eventually harassed into silence. Unfortunately, some judges have no patience for what they mistakenly believe are frivolous squabbles on the Internet. At least two didn't even bother doing their due diligence in reading the briefs, which on Kimberlin's side are purposefully voluminous and arcane to the point of incomprehension. As long as left-wing haters with disposable income (such as Barbra Streisand) continue to feed Kimberlin's non-profit activist organizations millions in cash, he'll keep this crap act going.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b><a href="http://dailycaller.com/author/smedlock/">DC Trawler with Jim Treacher</a></b>, <span style="color: yellow;">aka snarkmeister extraordinaire Sean Medlock of DailyCaller.com. He's the man who coined the phrase</span> <a href="http://jimtreacher.com/archives/001068.html">"Clown nose off, clown nose on"</a> <span style="color: yellow;">referring to the way<i> Daily Show</i> host Jon Stewart shields himself from criticism of his own partisanship. Every day, Jim's at the DC pricking the overinflated...well, I'd better not say that. Treacher made the MSM notice him when he answered David Axelrod's petulant tweet referencing the Romney dog-on-the-roof story by pointing out that in <i>Dreams From My Father</i>, Barack Obama recounted that in his youth in Indonesia, he dined on canines. Full disclosure: Treacher also will have my never-ending gratitude for being the first person (that other people have heard of) to write the words,</span> <a href="http://patterico.com/2007/02/09/sadly-no-publishes-the-most-clueless-blog-post-ever-written/#comment-170611">"...I am now an L.N. Smithee fan." </a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://iowahawk.typepad.com/"><b>Iowahawk</b></a>, <span style="color: yellow;">aka David Burge. The "Oh, yeah?" answer for people who say that conservatives can't be funny. He's a one-man <i>Onion</i>, minus the meanness. Watching his success is very cool for a fellow former full-time</span> <a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/~lnsmithee">Freeper</a>.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.legalinsurrection.com/"><b>Legal Insurrection,</b></a> <span style="color: yellow;">Cornell law professor William Jacobson's increasingly important blog. It keeps close eye on Washington D.C., on state capitals, and now college campuses, where the indoctrinated get propagandized by Academia Nuts (TM) who lie through their teeth about their dedication to "freedom of speech." As a black conservative, Jacobson's</span> <a href="http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/12/2012-best-of-the-saturday-night-card-game/">"Saturday Night Card Game"</a> <span style="color: yellow;">highlighting leftists' specious allegations of GOP/Tea Party racism is a must-read and redistribute.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b><a href="http://www.twitter.com/ChrisLoesch">@ChrisLoesch</a></b>. <span style="color: yellow;">Husband of Dana Loesch (see RADIO), Chris is one of the first Twitter
users to be held in "Twitter
Gulag" via a devious organized lefty effort to report his @ChrisLoesch account
as
"spam." Conservative tweeps banded together with him to badger Twitter
into restoring his presence. Shortly after the second Presidential
Debate, I also got tossed
in "Twitmo" for seven days for reasons that Twitter refused to
explain despite my repeated requests. Now in addition to his usual activism, Loesch is involved in helping out other outspoken
conservatives who follow Twitter's TOS but still get treated like a POS.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b><a href="http://www.maciverinstitute.com/videos/">MacIver News Service.</a></b> <span style="color: yellow;">The webcasting arm of the Madison, WI-based</span> <a href="http://www.maciverinstitute.com/">John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy</a> <span style="color: yellow;">was invaluable during the massive (and sometimes violent) protests in and around the state Capitol in 2011, when Governor Scott Walker led a drive to limit collective bargaining rights of public employee unions. MNS continued to dig beneath the smooth surface of some of the most committed progressives in America. Below is an example from March 2012, just before the recall election against Walker failed. To train its members in activism techniques, an education union was enlisting a chapter of the</span> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Areas_Foundation">Industrial Areas Foundation</a>, <span style="color: yellow;">an organization founded in 1940 by Marxist icon (and Obama favorite) Saul Alinsky. Most of the videos are much more in-depth than this, but this one is pretty entertaining.</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hKPD-a13Xj0" width="480"></iframe><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: yellow;">I wish Fox News always had the <i>cojones </i>MacIver News does.</span></blockquote>
</div>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/NewsBeFunny"><b>NewsBeFunny</b></a> <span style="color: yellow;">on YouTube, the best collection of news bloopers on the web. This year's collection includes a female anchor abusing a turkey call, a pedestrian who hocks several loogies in front of a remote setup, and</span> <a href="http://youtu.be/Nwt_0diyt5Q?t=3m53s">a Washington Nationals fan irate after the home team blew a deciding NLDS game</a> <span style="color: yellow;">by allowing four runs with two outs in the top of the ninth inning.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4gZhRfx2qLc" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br /></div>
<ul>
<li><b><a href="http://twitchy.com/">Twitchy.com</a></b>, <span style="color: yellow;">Michelle Malkin's
new site watching for left-wing hate in social media. Why is it
necessary? Because right-wingers are accused of "hate" on social media
even when they <i>aren't</i> being hateful. For example, when African-American Republican Congressman Tim Scott was selected by Indian-American Republican Governor Nikki Haley to replace white South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, the mainstream media scrambled for ways to continue to imply Republicans are racists nonetheless. MSNBC's Luke Russert, the most disgraceful son of a respected
journalist since Matt Taibbi, did so this way:</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://img1.uploadscreenshot.com/images/orig/12/36221254747-orig.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://img1.uploadscreenshot.com/images/orig/12/36221254747-orig.png" width="400" /></a> </div>
<ul>
</ul>
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://yogchick.blogspot.com/"><b>Yogchick.blogspot.com</b></a>, <span style="color: yellow;">now defunct. I don't know what has become of Yogchick, a liberal lady whom I befriended while I was defending Sarah Palin on the Oprah website in 2009. Hundreds if not thousands of Oprah fans -- most of them being Obama maniacs -- besieged Oprah.com in an effort to bully Winfrey into canceling Palin's October 17 (?) appearance on her show to promote her runaway bestseller <i>Going Rogue</i>,</span> <a href="http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/389697-Palin_Scores_for_Oprah_.php">which turned out to be the highest-rated single <i>Oprah</i> episode in over two years.</a> <span style="color: yellow;"> I argued with her constantly on the site, but she later sent me an email thanking me for rationally defending my position. She was the one from whom I always expected a comment when nobody else seemed interested enough, and she was very sweet when I revealed my personal losses last New Year's Eve. Her blog disappeared without a trace early in the year. I hope she's OK. If you're reading this, Yogchick, email me.</span></li>
</ul>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: small;">4. MUSIC:</span> </h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://youtu.be/L8PKl-w5NyM"><b>Lindsey Buckingham solo performance at the Fillmore.</b></a> <span style="color: yellow;">I finally got to see the Fleetwood Mac guitar wizard live after circumstances conspired to keep me away the last three times he came to San Francisco. He didn't have a band with him, so</span> <a href="http://youtu.be/TlkQpPbA2Mo">he didn't perform "This Is The Time" as I was hoping,</a> <span style="color: yellow;">but it was fantastic nonetheless.</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Y463OaLnmdk" width="420"></iframe> </div>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.soundhound.com/"><b>Soundhound</b></a>. <span style="color: yellow;">This smart phone app allows the listener to simply boot it up, hold it near a speaker, and voila! You discover the information about a song that the radio DJ won't tell you about before you have to get out of your car. Even better is when you hear a song from years before that they stopped playing on the radio that suddenly comes over the PA at Walgreens. I've learned to endure the fifteen seconds of awkwardness as I hold my phone aloft near the speaker in the ceiling, hoping that the song won't be interrupted by "*Ding dong <i>ding</i>!* Customer service needed in the deodorant department."</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://youtu.be/jDjRZdNf3Cg"><b>"Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen,</b></a> <span style="color: yellow;">The infectious old-fashioned pop song by the <i>Canadian Idol</i>
finalist rocketed to Billboard #1, giving elderly
whoopie cushions like <i>moi </i>hope that people still want to make and hear
music, and not synthetic bass beats strung together to resemble music
(More on "Gangnam Style" below). </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li> <a href="http://youtu.be/OpxO43JxvM0"><b>"We Come Running," by Youngblood Hawke.</b> </a>
<span style="color: yellow;">This song is designed to be a radio hit. I don't get the Shark Week
video for the song. The band members are all look at least six years
older than they sound, so I suspect their voices have been pitched up in
the studio. Whatever, dude. I'm a sucker for smooth youth choir
harmonies ("Ooo-whoa-oh! Ooo-whoa-uh-oh!"). And when you get right down
to it, pop music is all about "the sound, the sound, the sound"!</span> </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoRkntoHkIE">"Home" by Phillip Phillips.</a><i> </i></b><i> <span style="color: yellow;">American Idol</span></i><span style="color: yellow;">
winner Phillip Phillips proved me wrong -- his sweet "Home" is a legitimate smash, and re-entered <i>Billboard</i>'s Top 10 after dropping off the Hot 100 (the first to do that within a calendar year). Unlike most <i>Idol </i>releases by artists besides Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood, "Home" ought to have a long half-life; it's got that irresistible train rhythm, its lyrics can apply to any person who loves any other person or group of people ("Just know you're not alone / 'cause I'm gonna make this place your home"), and that's followed by a flowing, hummable break that's recognizable in the shortest snippets. People who didn't watch him perform the song after winning <i>American Idol</i> heard it as it was played in NBC's London Olympics coverage, which revved up interest from an entirely new audience.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li> <a href="http://youtu.be/gkbE4URVcKY"><b>"I'm Henery the Eighth, I am," Harry Champion.</b></a> <span style="color: yellow;">While doing research on a totally unrelated topic, I came across the first recorded version of this song, which was a #1 hit in the USA in 1965 for British invasion band Herman's Hermits. Recorded in 1911</span> <a href="http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/10833442_edison-cylinder-standard-phonograph-and-horn">on cylinder</a> <span style="color: yellow;">by British Music Hall star Harry Champion, it's superior to the later version despite the former's ultra-low fidelity sound quality.<b> </b></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b>Korean rapper Psy's execrable "Gangnam Style" stalls at #2,</b> <span style="color: yellow;">denying the annoying two-faced goof (birth name Park Jae-Sang) the elite distinction of being a chart-topper on the Billboard 100<i>. </i>By now you likely know that eight years ago -- in our blissful ignorance of his existence -- Psy wished
death on American soldiers and their family members after an unfortunate tank incident near the
De-Militarized Zone resulted in the death of a 10-year-old Korean girl. My responses included this tweet:</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;"> </span><span style="color: yellow;"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
@<a href="https://twitter.com/breitbartnews">breitbartnews</a> I'm a son of a Korea vet. I'm here because he came home alive, and Psy may be here b/c he fought. <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23tcot">#tcot</a> <a href="http://t.co/w17ZqGSg" title="http://ScrnSht.com/dumfrh">ScrnSht.com/dumfrh</a><br />
— L.N. Smithee (@LNSmithee) <a href="https://twitter.com/LNSmithee/status/278926398893211650">December 12, 2012</a></blockquote>
<br /><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> </span></blockquote>
</div>
<ul>
</ul>
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<blockquote>
</blockquote>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">Note that I didn't link his video, because you've probably seen it enough to last the rest of your life already.</span> <a href="http://youtu.be/JKjRCTdZaAw">Instead, here's <i>American Idol </i>reject William Hung,</a> <span style="color: yellow;">who cashed in mightily on his lovably lame audition. </span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Bo-Y_Vb0wsw" width="420"></iframe> </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">According to recent reports, Hung's living now is crunching numbers in Los Angeles government. That's not a bad job if it's as hard to get fired from a civic duty in L.A. as it is working for the city of San Francisco. His ersatz musical career certainly must have paid off his Cal-Berkeley tuition. But after witnessing Psy's suck-cess, I have to wonder if Hung sometimes considers he was just a high school dance class away from international superstardom.</span></blockquote>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: large;">Coming up in the conclusion: What Didn't Suck About Politics, Sports, and My Personal Life in 2012! </span></h2>
<ul>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
L.N. Smitheehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11424396762369226149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10429981.post-19836898216942067612013-01-18T02:58:00.000-08:002013-03-14T01:06:30.577-07:00WHAT DIDN'T_SUCK ABOUT 2012 (Part II of IV)<ul>
</ul>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">This <span style="font-size: small;">the second of <span style="font-size: small;">a fo<span style="font-size: small;">ur-par<span style="font-size: small;">t year<span style="font-size: small;">-end post about 2012. <span style="font-size: small;">What <span style="font-size: small;">didn't suck <span style="font-size: small;">about <span style="font-size: small;">The Earth, Commercials<span style="font-size: small;">, and Business/Brands can<span style="font-size: small;"> be found <a href="http://tiny.cc/2012_1">here.</a></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></i></span> </h2>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: small;">7. RADIO</span></h2>
<ul>
</ul>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ppzIsa0AmvI/UPUNBZ3LWqI/AAAAAAAABI0/MbvD5aNg7h4/s1600/kfi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="152" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ppzIsa0AmvI/UPUNBZ3LWqI/AAAAAAAABI0/MbvD5aNg7h4/s200/kfi.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<ul>
<li><b><a href="http://www.iheart.com/live/177/?autoplay=true">KFI-AM, Los Angeles.</a> </b><span style="color: yellow;">I am a lifelong San Francisco resident, and as such, I have been raised by</span> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Caen">Herb Caen</a>, <span style="color: yellow;">the USF Dons, and the San Francisco Giants to dislike all things Los Angeles. But I've never had a bad time when I have been in the Southland, the traffic is not egregiously worse than it is in S.F., and it's the home of my new favorite radio station, Clear Channel's KFI, accessible through the</span> <a href="http://iheart.com/">iHeartRadio</a> <span style="color: yellow;">app. Thank goodness I'm living in the internet age, and can download podcasts of the goofy</span> <a href="http://www.kfiam640.com/pages/timconwayjr.html">Tim Conway Jr.,</a> <span style="color: yellow;">the brash</span> <a href="http://www.handelonthelaw.com/home/tunein.aspx">Bill Handel</a>, <span style="color: yellow;">the newshawk</span> <a href="http://www.kfiam640.com/podcast/BillCarroll.xml">Bill Carroll</a>, <span style="color: yellow;">the sweet, hilarious, and talented </span><a href="http://www.kfiam640.com/pages/lisaannwalter.html">Lisa Ann Walter</a><span style="color: yellow;">, and the two and only John & Ken (more on them below). KFI calls itself "More Stimulating Talk Radio," and it's not kidding. </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b> </b><b><a href="http://www.johnandkenshow.com/">John & Ken, KFI Los Angeles</a></b> <span style="color: yellow;">John Kobylt ("KO-bilt") and Ken Chiampou ("sham-POE") continued their unrelenting, ongoing audio record of the rapid decline of the once-great state of California. If you've heard of John & Ken, likely it's from their part in recalling former Governor Gray Davis, who was replaced by hacktor Arnold
Schwarzenegger (to be fair, nobody foresaw <i>that </i>happening).
</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.kfiam640.com/cc-common/mlib/616/05/616_1305831266.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: yellow;"><img border="0" src="http://www.kfiam640.com/cc-common/mlib/616/05/616_1305831266.jpg" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: yellow;">John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou, KFI Los Angeles</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: yellow;">I first encountered John & Ken in the late 1990s, when they had a syndicated show that was carried on KSFO (San Francisco) in the early evening. In the midst of multiple Clinton scandals were decidedly more forgiving of than the rest of the lineup (Lee Rodgers, Geoff Metcalf, Jim Eason), and I found other things to do when Michael Savage's show (which hadn't yet been syndicated) ended and their show began. Eventually, KSFO dropped John & Ken, and I didn't hear from them again until 2004. That's when George W. Bush Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson, in response to complaints from Chicano activist group National Council of La Raza ("The Race"), took action to end a phenomenally successful roundup of illegal immigrants by the Border Patrol in Southern California. Hutchinson agreed to an interview with Kobylt (Ken was off that day), and he perhaps figured that all he had to do was say "Don't worry, we're on the case" and that would end the controversy.</span> <a href="http://michellemalkin.com/2004/07/09/asa-hutchinson-meets-hot-talk/">John was having none of it, and several times stunned Hutchinson into dead silence when he refused to accept answers that fell short of promising enforcement.</a> <span style="color: yellow;">Michelle Malkin linked audio of the interview (which I unfortunately cannot locate), and I fell into strictly non-romantic love with John & Ken.</span></blockquote>
<ul>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://www.sfgate.com/blogs/images/sfgate/nov05election/2009/05/14/lamagjune09275x360.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: yellow;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.sfgate.com/blogs/images/sfgate/nov05election/2009/05/14/lamagjune09275x360.jpg" width="152" /></span></a><span style="color: yellow;">When introducing people to John & Ken, it's almost as important to say what they <i>aren't</i> as to say what they are, because they confound many stereotypes about talk radio hosts. They are often dismissed as "shock jocks." They are often mischaracterized as typical radio "right-wingers" because they take Democrats on with a vengeance. Some say they're bigots because they're in favor of border enforcement, against illegal immigration, and delight in skewering L.A.'s incompetent Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (more on him in 2.Politics). Others call them "RINOs" because they don't delve into discussions of Obama's birthplace or religious beliefs, and laugh out loud at conspiracy theory talk of chemtrails, FEMA camps, and black helicopters. As they say whenever they're written about, hardly anybody gets it right about them because they are impossible to pigeonhole.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">Here are the facts: Kobylt (the louder, longer-winded, and more opinionated of the two) and Chiampou (who at times plays devil's advocate, and is a moderating influence on John) have been professional partners since they were paired as afternoon disc jockeys in New Jersey 25 years ago. They trust no politicians (save Chris Christie -- more on him under Mark Levin), have no political affiliation, and bash whichever ideological side needs it at the time. Most of the time, who needs it are Democrats because there are only a few important elected officials in California that are Republican (as I type this, only San Diego's Rep. Darrell Issa comes to mind). After decades of the state Assembly being close to split down the middle between Republicans and Democrats,</span> <a href="http://tiny.cc/gstw">the left has steadily built a veto-proof majority in both houses.</a> <span style="color: yellow;">Whatever happens in California government -- good or bad -- is stamped with a "D." Still, the remaining Republican politicians know they will get the Hutchinson treatment if they pettifog on John & Ken's air, so most of them -- and <i>all</i> GOP state officials -- are scared spitless of going on the show (yeah, I'm looking at <i>you</i>, Tom Del Beccaro).</span></blockquote>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2aSSJ87qlKY/UOuw5Pm1FtI/AAAAAAAABIM/Irb7j4hvMJw/s1600/Enquirer+Whitney.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: yellow;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2aSSJ87qlKY/UOuw5Pm1FtI/AAAAAAAABIM/Irb7j4hvMJw/s1600/Enquirer+Whitney.jpg" width="165" /></span></a></div>
<span style="color: yellow;">Much attention is given to their style, which is oftentimes loud,
snarky, cynical,
rude, and occasionally lewd. Sometimes, they are too frank for their own good and they regularly run afoul of the political correctness industry. For example</span>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9apP8L2pN_U">in 2012 they came under fire for this exchange,</a>
<span style="color: yellow;">in which Kobylt referred to the recently-deceased Whitney Houston as a
"crack ho." No doubt it was a harsh thing to say, but it was part of a
larger discussion of how Whitney's been addicted and out-of-control for two
decades, something that <i>cannot </i>be denied. Indeed, on the day Houston died
in that luxury suite bathtub on the eve of the 2012 Grammy Awards, the <i>National Enquirer</i>'s
cover story on the supermarket racks was that she was "strung out and
broke, it's worse than anyone thought." The article inside specifically mentioned Houston's hard partying with William "Ray J" Norwood (the nominal recording artist whose sex video made Kim Kardashian infamous), who was in her suite when she was pronounced dead. Nevertheless, the remark outraged
enough people that KFI's owner Clear Channel Communications met with "community
leaders" to do the shakedown shuffle. It was baselessly alleged that Kobylt wouldn't have said it if more black people worked at the station. It all resulted in a week-long
suspension for John & Ken from KFI's air, and the permanent cancellation of their
daily live remote segment on an L.A. afternoon TV newscast.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">In a sense, John & Ken are like Bill O'Reilly in that they portray themselves as being in the reasonable middle between extreme poles. But unlike self-described "culture warrior" O'Reilly, they have no tolerance for social conservatism. That annoys me. Kobylt especially summarily dismisses religious conservatives, and embraces stereotypes and dubious anecdotes that leftists spread about George W. Bush (of whom I'm not a fan) and Sarah Palin (of whom I am). In the case of Palin, he ignores her steady and successful stewardship of the state of Alaska (all supposed "scandals" surrounding Palin are false and farcical), choosing to just call her "crazy" using as backup sources like <i>Vanity Fair</i>, The Daily Beast (online home of Palinphobes Tina Brown, Andrew Sullivan, John Avlon, Mark McKinnon, John Batchelor, and Meghan McCain), and even political consultant (and former McCain '08 honcho) Steve Schmidt. John was <i>disgusted </i>with Schmidt when he followed up McCain's loss by being the force behind Republican Meg Whitman's failed campaign for California Governor. Whitman was whipped by Jerry Brown, who spent a fraction of the record <i>$162 million</i> spent by Whitman under Schmidt's leadership. Just a year or so after laughing long and loud at how Schmidt conducted a devious, duplicitous, and extravagant campaign that cost Whitman a small fortune, John suddenly took him seriously when he blamed Palin for McCain's loss. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">On national political issues, where talkhosts like Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin and
others are strong, Kobylt and Chiampou are weak (which is why I think</span> <a href="http://www.wor710.com/pages/onair/john-and-ken.html">the expansion of their show to the New York market</a> <span style="color: yellow;">is a bad idea). Outside of their home turf, they over-rely on MSM sources, whose biases are obvious.</span> <a href="http://www.kfiam640.com/podcast/JohnandKen.xml">So, you may ask, why do I rarely miss a podcast?</a> <span style="color: yellow;">Because I know I'm going to learn something by listening to John & Ken I will NOT learn anyplace else. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">The <i>John & Ken Show</i> is the absolute best at lifting the rocks hiding the vermin infesting state and local government. On a daily basis, they expose how politicians are corrupted by influence peddling and leeches of every possible stripe: public employee union bosses, big corporation lobbyists (</span><a href="http://voices.yahoo.com/heidi-dejong-barsuglia-affair-michael-duvall-4224603.html">especially the ones who literally seduce lawmakers</a><span style="color: yellow;">), environmental groups, ethnic pressure groups, NGOs, lawyers' groups, anarchists, friends and family of public officials, even churches and charitable organizations. In the end, those are the entities that touch our lives more directly than the ones in Washington, D.C. And John & Ken are blessed with the excellent reporting staff of KFI (Eric Leonard, Steve Gregory, Jo Kwon, Shannon Farren, et al), all of whom are sharper than a samurai sword.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">Here's an example of what I mean. The YouTube video below is a portion from a show about "The Browndoggle," John & Ken's nickname for Governor Brown's so-called high-speed rail project, for which California voters foolishly approved a bond. Starting in the distant future (and perhaps never ending), the project will begin construction in the Central Valley of California, not the Northern or Southern cities that where tourists want to go.</span> <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304373804577521432823203066.html">Why? Because in 2010, Congressman Jim Costa (D-Fresno) withheld his vital "yes" vote on ObamaCare until he was assured by the Obamastration his district would get the <i>first </i>infusion of megamillions for the project.</a><span style="color: yellow;"> The language of the proposition contained specific guidelines about how fast the trains are supposed to travel to prevent the project from becoming just a massive years-on-end project to renew standard railroad tracks.</span> <a href="http://www.examiner.com/article/boondoggle-turned-catastrophe-part-1">The trains, as they are planned currently, fall far short of those speeds.</a> <span style="color: yellow;">Add to that the open admission by administrators drawing up the plans that they plan to use some of the borrowed billion$ to <i>illegally </i>fund non-HSR transportation projects by state legislators whose votes were needed to approve the train's existence.</span></blockquote>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/RHvwyV11TL8" width="560"></iframe></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">Just by listening to this ten-minute segment of the <i>John & Ken Show</i>, you've learned more about the California so-called High Speed Rail project than you would have in many weeks' worth of thirty-second mentions on your local TV newscast. That's just <i>partial </i>exposure of the shovels full of graft and wa$te that must constantly be fed into the government engine to create a concept that may never come to fruition. And that's why I listen even if John & Ken say something that makes me mad; I know something is coming later in the same broadcast that everyone should hear if they want to be even minimally informed.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">Bottom line: If you don't listen to John & Ken, you don't really
have a comprehensive understanding of the depth of the trouble California is in,
and how</span> <a href="http://tiny.cc/gstw">it is a bellwether for the rest of the country. </a></blockquote>
<ul>
<li><b><a href="http://soundcloud.com/kfog/sets/kfog-10-10">KFOG Ten@Ten Podcasts.</a></b> <span style="color: yellow;">Over 20 years ago, KFOG DJ Dave Morey -- the last link in Bay Area Radio to the days of free-form AOR (radio talk, scuse me) -- created Ten@Ten, a 10:00 am program in which he played ten songs from one year, or ten songs that fit a certain theme, or one song from ten consecutive years ... you get the picture. It was so popular they played it again at 10:00 pm. On Saturday mornings, KFOG used to play the five Monday-Friday shows consecutively. Then Morey retired from radio, and the suits from Cumulus Media did what they do: Mess with success. But they did partially redeem themselves; 10@10 can't be heard on Saturday anymore, but the week's podcasts are now posted on Soundcloud.</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe frameborder="no" height="450" scrolling="no" src="http://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Fplaylists%2F2248999&show_artwork=true" width="100%"></iframe> </div>
<ul>
<li><b><a href="http://markdavis.660amtheanswer.com/">Mark Davis.</a></b> <span style="color: yellow;">The Dallas-based frequent fill-in for Rush wasn't unemployed for long after being dumped by tight-fisted Cumulus Media's WBAP<b>. </b>He
made a quick switch to Salem Communication's KSKY ("The Answer").
Davis is one of the rare widely-heard talkhosts who isn't afraid of
being called a Christian conservative; most stay safely in the "I'm
libertarian when it comes to that"category. Unlike John & Ken,
who rarely take calls and are short-tempered when they meet resistance,
Mark truly is interested in what the audience thinks, and kindly engages
opposing callers. He is skilled in breaking down bluster and getting
people to the point, but still allows them their say. </span></li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">Davis has now added a video blog. This is the first of 2013.</span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/YbujDKXi0gQ" width="640"></iframe> </div>
<ul>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">I know it's none
of my business, but I'm glad he's gotten rid of his goatee -- it made him
look like Colonel Sanders.</span></blockquote>
<ul>
</ul>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<ul>
<a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51BTsl5mvwL._SL175_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51BTsl5mvwL._SL175_.jpg" width="200" /></a>
<li><b><a href="http://www.marklevinshow.com/">Mark Levin</a>, </b><span style="color: yellow;">after wasting many hours over the past two years griping about Glenn Beck's stardom (and how many of Beck's ideas seem derivative of his), stayed focused on the Constitution in 2012. He sounded an unheeded warning against</span> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?tag=patterspontif-20&link_code=wsw&_encoding=UTF-8&search-alias=aps&field-keywords=Ameritopia&Submit.x=9&Submit.y=9"><i>Ameritopia</i></a>, <span style="color: yellow;">concentrating on first principles and calling out those who practice moderation in the defense of liberty and the pursuit of justice. His Landmark Legal Foundation challenged ObamaCare in the Supreme
Court, and LLF would have been successful in striking it down but for Chief Justice John Roberts' determination to retrieve politics from the jaws of the Constitution. Mark was one of the few who dared call out Chris Christie, who is almost worshiped by others in talk radio, as a Republican governor who didn't join in the suit. </span></li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">Newbies may find him tough to listen to, but if you stick with him through some of his temper tantrums, the show's like a college course given by a wise professor. The best part of his show from last year was his point-by-point explanation of <i>Griswold vs. Connecticut</i>, the 1965 Supreme Court decision that gave us the so-called "right to privacy." </span></blockquote>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/E_VuOI1tDb0" width="560"></iframe></div>
<ul>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">George Stephanopoulos made this conversation necessary after out of the clear blue sky, he asked Mitt Romney this ridiculous question:</span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/UxPLEJNjnBQ" width="420"></iframe></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">Romney acquitted himself well in this exchange, but this moment was nevertheless the genesis of what became the "Republicans' War on Women" meme against Romney; the bizarre assertion that because he refused to accept the premise of this question, that he in his heart wants to "turn back the clock" to "Nick at Nite" years when women had fewer rights.</span></blockquote>
<ul>
<li><b><a href="http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/">Rush Limbaugh</a></b> <span style="color: yellow;">survived yet another national bash-and-boycott fest, this time over his unwise, crude remarks about the ridiculous twit Sandra Fluke. As some were preparing his broadcast epitaph as he became the poster child for the "Republicans' War on Women," his already dominant ratings went up, and advertisers who abandoned him</span><a href="http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/prudent-man/2012/aug/27/fluke-limbaugh-fallout-ii-carbonite-still-kryptoni/"> (especially Carbonite, which issued a incredibly terse statement) </a><span style="color: yellow;">suffered a backlash. </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b><a href="http://www.danaradio.com/">Dana Loesch, KFTK St. Louis.</a> </b><span style="color: yellow;">Although
she's had a falling-out with the people now guiding the Breitbart
brand, talkhost/CNN contributor/pistol-packing mama Dana Loesch ("lash") is a proud Tea Party ruckus-raiser, fearless defender of the First and
Second Amendments, a stalwart fighter against media bias, creeping
governmental overreach, and a caller-out of bovine compost whipped up and plopped on
your plate disguised as chocolate mousse. An authentic part-Cherokee, Loesch took it personally when Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren couldn't support her long-accepted (and false) assertion that she also had Native American roots. Loesch's show was ground zero for coverage of the Todd Akin (R-Missouri) gaffe, and she did her best to help him crawl out the hole
he dug for himself; unfortunately, Akin decided he liked living like a
gopher. She and her husband Chris are two of the biggest targets of the
progressive lefties online. (More on Chris in Part 5. Internet).</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b><a href="http://www.redeyeradioshow.com/"><i>Red Eye Radio</i>.</a> </b><span style="color: yellow;">Cumulus, which cut its KSFO programming costs by dumping Rush in favor of Mike Huckabee, also cast off <i>Coast-to-Coast AM</i>, the Twilight Zone-ish show that Art Bell made infamous. In its place, it added <i>Red Eye Radio</i> (not affiliated with Fox News' <i>Red Eye</i> program), Gary McNamara & Eric Harley's syndicated show. For the first time since KNEW dispatched Lars Larson, there's Bay Area talk after midnight worth listening to.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.kfiam640.com/podcast/LisaAnnWalter.xml"><b>Lisa Ann Walter, KFI, Los Angeles.</b></a> <span style="color: yellow;">A</span> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDQI0BA2EAs&list=UUdzeCw2z_WUh3z9TEvAVz6g">multi-talented actress/comedienne/producer</a> <span style="color: yellow;">with a network sitcom</span> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115245/videogallery">(<i>Life's Work</i>)</a> <span style="color: yellow;">and a reality show</span> (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1433801/"><i>Dance Your A** Off</i></a>)<b> </b><span style="color: yellow;">to her credit, the cheery Walter strikes the perfect
balance for a weekend afternoon show. One hour, she's reminiscing and laughing about entertainment, fashion, food, and pet peeves, and the next she's tackling serious issues about marriage, relationships, and parenting, always providing her own perspective as a married mother of
four. </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: small;">6. TELEVISION (in alphabetical order):</span>
<i> </i></h2>
<ul>
<li><b><a href="http://twitter.com/SharylAttkisson">Sharyl Attkisson</a>, </b><span style="color: yellow;">CBS News reporter who, in the greatest tradition of investigative reporting, continued her aggressive, tenacious</span> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_333772859">coverage of the Fast and Furious scandal</a><b><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-57461204-10391695/a-primer-on-the-fast-and-furious-scandal/">.</a> </b><span style="color: yellow;">The rest of the mainstream media pretended the entire story was either meaningless or unimportant because acknowledgment of it would have been hazardous to the reputation (and re-election hopes) of President Obama. No, she won't say that, even if she agrees (I have no idea if she does).</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: yellow;">Attkisson often uses her Twitter feed to provide context that was missing from the final cut on video. Following her is a good idea. Tell her</span> <a href="http://twitter.com/LNSmithee">@LNSmithee</a> <span style="color: yellow;">sent you.</span></blockquote>
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<li><a href="http://youtu.be/xShGZ7Olqdk"><b><i>The Big Bang Theory</i>, CBS</b></a>. <span style="color: yellow;">I would love to have had a hidden microphone in the CBS boardroom when this show was pitched. </span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: yellow;">"Good Morning,</span> <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDMQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FLeslie_Moonves&ei=1Gn2UKrLJInMigKE1IFw&usg=AFQjCNFPbspgNzSJAFHxzC3PJYcUQR3MsQ&bvm=bv.41018144,d.cGE">Mr. Moonves</a>. <span style="color: yellow;">This show's about four socially-retarded genius scientists who dress horribly, are obsessed with comic books, and can't maintain a relationship with the opposite sex. One is a short, bespectacled asthmatic nerd with a crush on a beautiful blonde waitress/aspiring actress across the hall, one is a tall, skinny, obsessive-compulsive guy who is like C-3PO with human flesh, one is a horny nebbish who still lives with his domineering mom, and one is an Indian immigrant who is incapable of speaking to women he's attracted to unless he's inebriated. Throughout each episode, there are cultural references about<i> Star Trek</i>, Dungeons and Dragons, <i>Doctor Who</i>, video games, and various superheroes (including Aquaman). Every so often, real-life genius scientists will guest star so the characters can fawn over them as if they were rock stars. Trust us, Mr. Moonves, given time, not only will this show be a huge hit, it will defeat <i>American Idol</i> head-to-head, become the nation's most watched program, and absolutely clean up in syndication. So ...whaddaya think?" </span></blockquote>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<a href="http://lnsmitheeblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/what-didnt-suck-about-2012-part-ii-of-iv.html" name="#Bila"></a>
<li><a href="http://www.jedediahbila.com/"><b>Jedediah Bila, </b></a><b><a href="http://www.jedediahbila.com/">Fox News Channel & Fox Business Network.</a> </b> <span style="color: yellow;">When someone you respect for her substance comes into your life in a form with electromagnetic allure, how do you acknowledge her smarts or the sexiness (or both) without seeming patronizing? If you don't know what I mean, meet Jedediah Bila ("jed-eh-DYE-a BEE-la"), the Audrey Hepburn of television punditry. She's the author of</span> <i><a href="http://youtu.be/2SixcNN9Sag">Outnu</a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Outnumbered-Chronicles-Conservative-Jedediah-Bila/dp/0983576807">mbered</a> </i><span style="color: yellow;">(her book about being a Reagan conservative in progressive New York City), and the reason why some East Coast guys set their alarms for 3:00 am when they've got to get up at 7:00 am (on the West Coast, <i>Red Eye</i> comes on at midnight. <i>Nyaah</i>.) </span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: yellow;">Nobody can put a sound byte together on the fly like the Jedi Princess can. A graduate with honors of Columbia University, she's an articulate advocate of her convincing positions. Concise and to the point, clear as a bell, and eminently quotable. </span></blockquote>
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</ul>
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<span style="color: yellow;">Jedediah's secret seems to be that she knows what her principles are and <i>can </i>
explain the reasons why she holds them. What a concept, huh? There's a long list right-of-center people that ought to learn from her. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">As I alluded to earlier: She's unapologetically gorgeous; a doe-eyed, long-legged enchantress (who was at one time a high school teacher inspiring countless pleasant dreams). Jedediah Bila is a <i>seriously </i>
intelligent woman. But from what I've been able to gather, like</span> <a href="http://youtu.be/QjWn-ueeeLw?t=2m45s">Nancy Kwan's "Linda Low" in Rogers & Hammerstein's <i>Flower Drum Song</i>,</a> <span style="color: yellow;">Jedediah Bila</span> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dMKhCk-OBM">enjoys being a girl.</a> </blockquote>
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<li><a href="http://blogs.amctv.com/breaking-bad/"><b><i>Breaking Bad, </i>AMC</b><i>.</i></a> <span style="color: yellow;">The promised transformation of Walter White from underachieving chemist/high school teacher to desperate meth-cooking terminal cancer patient to healthy cold-blooded drug kingpin is complete, and now, in the final season, comes the downfall.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: yellow;">Every episode is an acting clinic given by three-time Emmy-winner Bryan Cranston, two-time </span><a href="http://youtu.be/gh78NiPgkoc">Emmy winner Aaron Paul</a>, <span style="color: yellow;">and supporting cast members like Emmy nominee Giancarlo Esposito, Jonathan Banks, Dean Norris, Bob Odenkirk, and others. Creator Vince Gilligan has thus far fulfilled his original vision in thrilling, nerve-shattering fashion. I just hope it ends satisfactorily and doesn't limp to the finish line, as did other great shows like <i>Lost, </i><i>Seinfeld</i> and (some say) <i>The Sopranos</i>. </span></blockquote>
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<ul>
<li><a href="http://youtu.be/5JJrYnFJxqg"><b><i>Broke</i>, ESPN.</b></a> <span style="color: yellow;">A <i>30 for 30</i> documentary directed by Billy Corben. Corben interviewed over a dozen former professional athletes about how they either squandered or were cheated out of their multi-million dollar salaries. While fascinating to watch for many reasons, one thing I took away from it is that public education fails miserably to teach students about the realities of economics. </span></li>
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<li><b><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/your-world-cavuto/index.html">Neil Cavuto, Fox News Channel/Fox Business Network</a>.</b> <span style="color: yellow;">The tongue-in-cheek, self-deprecating financial expert takes no prisoners in his interviews; he insists on answers to relevant questions, and when they aren't forthcoming, he'll ever-so-gently reach into your throat to pull them out. </span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: yellow;">Also, Cavuto's "Common Sense" monologues at the end of <i>Your World with Neil Cavuto</i> are always worth watching.</span> </blockquote>
<ul>
<li><b><a href="https://twitter.com/OfficialKat">Kat Dennings</a></b> <span style="color: yellow;">of <i>2 Broke Girls</i> is adorable, voluptuous, sassy, sexy, and on-point. Someday, she'll win an Oscar or an Emmy or a Golden Globe for something. But I can't watch <i>2 Broke Girls</i> anymore.</span> <a href="http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/telefile/2012/11/2-broke-girls-and-the-three-boys-with-wood-episode.php">It's simply too relentlessly vulgar.</a></li>
</ul>
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<ul>
<li><b><i>Fox & Friends First</i></b>, <b>Fox News Channel</b>, for the first ten minutes. <i>(WARNING: Politically correct women, skip this one, your blood pressure will thank you)</i>. <span style="color: yellow;">It's
like being a schoolboy allowed in a faculty lounge where every bug-eye beautiful, endless-legged teacher you've ever had in your life meets before the first class of the day. "Good Morning,</span> <a href="http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk69/jadedtom/Fox%20News%20Women%2011%20-%20jadedtom/earhardtnauert919i_zpsd5d29ead.jpg">Ms. Nauert.</a> <span style="color: yellow;">(sigh...) Good Morning,</span> <a href="http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk69/jadedtom/Fox%20News%20Women%2011%20-%20jadedtom/earhardtnauert919i_zpsd5d29ead.jpg">Ms. Earhardt</a>. <span style="color: yellow;">(sigh...) Good Morning,</span> <a href="http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk69/jadedtom/Fox%20News%20Women%2011%20-%20jadedtom/simonettichilders1018.jpg">Ms. Childers.</a> <span style="color: yellow;">(sigh...) Good Morning</span>, <a href="http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk69/jadedtom/Fox%20News%20Women%2011%20-%20jadedtom/simonettichilders1018.jpg">Ms. Simonetti.</a> <span style="color: yellow;">(sigh...) Good Morning,</span> <a href="http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/533/ae3222.jpg">Ms. Kooiman.</a> <span style="color: yellow;">(sigh...) Good morning</span>, Ms. <a href="http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk69/jadedtom/Fox%20News%20Women%2011%20-%20jadedtom/molina98aa.jpg">M-m-m-molina</a><span style="color: yellow;"> ..." It softens the blow suffered by leg men since the cancellation of</span> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbrrVDHV68Y"><i>Deal or No Deal. </i></a></li>
</ul>
<i></i><br />
<ul>
<li><b><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/">Fox News</a></b>. <span style="color: yellow;">Contrary to its famous slogan, Fox News Channel is NOT "fair and balanced," it IS balance.<i> </i> </span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: yellow;">The Obamastration and the mainstream media (MSM) have a symbiotic working
arrangement: The White House keeps them at arm's length and treats them
like mushrooms, and the press corps grins and bears it because the
alternative is giving the Republicans traction. The goal in the Obama era is not informing the public, it's damaging the GOP -- otherwise, there would be something resembling balance in the MSM, and there would be fewer reasons for Fox News to exist. So after the deadly terror attacks occurred in Benghazi killing an American ambassador and three others on September 11, 2012, reporters for other "news" organizations (other than Jake Tapper, and
maybe a few others) just swallowed and regurgitated Jay Carney and Victoria Nuland's
nuggets of It Was The Muslim-Bashing YouTube Video And We're Sticking To That. To challenge the official story might cause people to question the Obama campaign slogan "Bin Laden is Dead and GM is alive!"</span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: yellow;">When Mitt Romney criticized Obama for blaming the guaranteed free speech of an U.S. resident for the deaths of four Americans abroad, the MSM ganged up on him for speaking out </span><a href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/12/mitt-romneys-full-remarks-on-libya-egypt-attacks/">"before ... all the facts were known"</a> <span style="color: yellow;">at the same time the White House was providing nothing but outright lies. But the pavement-pounding journalists of FNC showed the MSMers who's boss -- Jennifer Griffin and Catherine Herridge uncovered inconvenient accounts about the Benghazi fiasco from their own sources. Faced with either following up or disproving Fox News exclusives while the polls showed Obama might be vulnerable, they predictably hunkered down, kept their traps shut, and let Obama run out the clock on the campaign until it was too late to raise the issue again. As</span> <a href="http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2012/11/05/what-president-obama-really-said-60-minutes-interview-about-benghazi">FNC's Bret Baier uncovered in his blog</a>, <span style="color: yellow;">only then, less than 48 hours before the polls opened November 6th, did CBS News release the portion of Obama's September 12, 2012 interview with Steve Kroft <i>proving </i>that in the second debate against Romney, he lied about having called the Benghazi incident an "act of terror." Obama was confident that Kroft would cover his inferior posterior, and he did.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: yellow;">I have my problems with Fox News Channel, though; When important stories happen in the wee hours of the morning across the world, the network is useless. Not even the Peruvian mine rescue or the Japan earthquake/tsunami broke the spell of FNC's self-imposed siesta from 3:00 am - 6:00 am EST, after <i>On The Record with Greta Van Susteren</i> replay and before <i>Fox & Friends</i> -- in both cases, one had to go to the other news nets for live coverage because Fox just replayed its earlier live reporting, all without signifying that what viewers were watching happened three hours before. I also think Rupert Murdoch royally screwed Glenn Beck, whose 5:00 pm show was the most unique hour on television. Beck's suspicions about the putatively benevolent "Arab Spring" turned out to be prescient, and his prediction that President Obama would use Saul Alinsky's "Rules For Radicals" as a playbook was spot-on. That being said....</span></blockquote>
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<li><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/personalities/greg-gutfeld/bio/#s=e-g"><b>Greg Gutfeld</b>,</a> <span style="color: yellow;">whose <i>The Five</i> round table discussion show replaced <i>Beck</i>, has risen from the depths of <i>Red Eye</i>, a bawdy experimental 3:00 am gabfest (that amazingly outdraws CNN primetime shows in viewership), to early prime on FNC, to guest-hosting <i>The O'Reilly Factor</i>! That on top of writing a New York Times bestseller (<i>The Joy of Hate</i>). If you're a conservative, his monologues on <i>The Five</i> (formerly known as the "Greg-alogue" on <i>Red Eye</i>) might be one of the highlights of your day (at least, it's often mine). </span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: yellow;">Of all the surviving friends of Andrew Breitbart taking up the slack in his early demise, Gutfeld seems to be the most forceful and thus true to the cause of breaking the grip liberalism has on American culture. He's getting in the face of the useless old guard (hello, Karl Rove) and the hypocritical elites, and having a hearty laugh while doing it. </span></blockquote>
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<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.cbs.com/shows/the_good_wife/"><b><i>The Good Wife, </i>CBS.</b></a> <span style="color: yellow;">A star-studded law firm show that has no illusion of do-gooder idealism and that includes warts missing from previous series of the genre. In my humble opinion, <i>Wife </i>is
the only broadcast drama that comes close to those offered on cable. True, it <i>does </i>have a habit of head-nods to leftist and occasionally radical
political stances, as well as an overabundance of same-sex makeout scenes (come
on, folks, even if you buy into the debunked 10% figure, there's still
way too much). That being said, the writers of the show wisely resist setting up conservative or "too" religious
straw men to be pummeled into submission, as was a common practice on
programs like <i><a href="http://www.mrc.org/node/27665">Cold</a> <a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1408062/posts">Case</a>, Boston Legal</i>, <i>L.A. Law, Picket Fences, The Practice, Harry's Law, The West Wing,</i> and various <i>Law & Order </i>shows. For the most part, <i>Wife </i>portrays lawyers as they are -- y'know, <i>lawyers </i>-- and not guardian or avenging angels.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b><a href="http://www.trutv.com/shows/impractical-jokers/index.html"><i>Impractical Jokers, </i>TruTV</a>.</b> <span style="color: yellow;">After 2011, I needed something to laugh about, and this show delivers like no other. <i>Jokers </i>stars
the four-man troupe The Tenderloins, childhood friends turned childish
adults. They each compete to see which of them can be embarrassed in public on hidden camera the
most, via directions that the others give through an in-ear
transmitter. If you are prone to slapping your knee when you laugh
really hard, you may have trouble walking after watching. </span></li>
</ul>
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<li><i><b><a href="http://www.judgejudy.com/">Judge Judy.</a> </b></i><span style="color: yellow;">To paraphrase praise that the late, legendary concert promoter Bill Graham gave the Grateful Dead: She's not the best as what she does, she's the <i>only </i>one who <i>does </i>what she does.</span></li>
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<li><a href="http://www.trutv.com/video/killer-karaoke/singing-snakes-and-steve-o.html"><b><i>Killer Karaoke</i>, TruTV</b></a>. <span style="color: yellow;">A guilty pleasure. High concept: <i>American Idol</i> meets <i>Fear Factor</i>. I can't stand <i>Jackass</i>, the show that made <i>Killer </i>host Steve-O infamous. I figured I'd be safe checking the show out for a few minutes, thinking I am too mature to laugh. I'm not. </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b><i>Dan Le Batard is Highly Questionable</i>, ESPN2</b>. <span style="color: yellow;">Le Batard is a syndicated sports talkhost and sportswriter for the <i>Miami Herald. </i>On <i>DLHQ</i>, he<i> </i>sits
on a studio set designed to resemble a modest kitchen. From there, he interviews sports figures via satellite and answers questions about the sports events of the day (thus the title) read by his father Gonzalo (or "Papi"), a
Cuban immigrant with a heavy accent and infectious laugh. It sounds
silly, and sometimes it is (as when Papi reads rap lyrics off a teleprompter), but you have no idea how enjoyable it is
until you watch. It's especially fun for those of us who can't talk with our dads
about sports anymore. Here's Papi in what was originally supposed to be a web-only discussion about his early childhood in Cuba, his path to the United States, and his thoughts about Fidel Castro. It was played on ESPN 2 due to popular demand.</span></li>
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<li><a href="http://www.amctv.com/shows/mad-men"><b><i>Mad Men</i>, AMC.</b></a> <span style="color: yellow;">Season Five had a hard act to follow in Season Four, which featured</span> <a href="http://www.amctv.com/mad-men/videos/mad-men-highlights-ep-407-the-suitcase">"The Suitcase" (ep. 407)</a>, <span style="color: yellow;">one of the best-spent hours in front of the tube since its invention. Don Draper's third marriage -- which he fought his carnal tendencies to maintain, to the point where it appeared (at first) he fatally strangled a former fling who refused to take "no" for an answer -- is now teetering on the edge. His saucy new ex-secretary bride, who showed glimpses of budding brilliance in the advertising field, followed her disapproving socialist father's advice, and will instead pursue a career in acting that distances her from Don physically and emotionally.</span><span style="color: yellow;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i> </i></span></span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: yellow;">It disappoints me that many <i>Mad </i>fans missed the philandering Don, as if they were living vicariously through him, and didn't want him to stay faithful to a smart, young, smoking hot French Canadian chick that his children like. One more thing: I'm still mad that "The Suitcase" didn't win every Emmy for which it was nominated (including Supporting Actress nominee Elisabeth Moss). That one episode was better than anything from <i>Friday Night Lights</i> in its history. </span></blockquote>
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</ul>
<ul>
<li><b>Gavin McInnes</b> <span style="color: yellow;">on Fox News Channel's<i> Red Eye</i>. Whether the Scottish-Canadian author/comic was speaking as his soft-spoken (but outspoken) self, in the character of his proudly commie brother</span> <a href="http://youtu.be/ZlQTNw02qbk">"Miles McInnes"</a> <span style="color: yellow;">or his tartan-clad firebrand father</span> <a href="http://youtu.be/19P2vJCtwPo?t=19m56s">"Jimmy McInnes" from Glasgow,</a> <span style="color: yellow;">he never failed to break me up (and everyone else on the panel). In a just world, if Louis C.K. is funny enough to deserve three Emmys, McInnes ought to have more than he can carry in his arms.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/tv-season/the-men-who-built-america/id564395250?ign-mpt=uo%3D4"><b><i>The Men Who Built America,</i></b></a><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/tv-season/the-men-who-built-america/id564395250?ign-mpt=uo%3D4"> <b>The History Channel</b></a>. <span style="color: yellow;">A
well-balanced documentary (with dramatizations inserted) about the
entrepreneurs and inventors who the laid the foundation for the United
States' emergence as the world's dominant nation: Andrew Carnegie,
Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, J. P. Morgan, Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford.
It's antivenom for any children indoctrinated in school by the</span> <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,554481,00.html">Soros-funded capitalism-bashing video The Story of Stuff, exposed in recent years by Glenn Beck</a>. <span style="color: yellow;"> If your kids got poisoned in class by left-wing agitprop, go to iTunes and</span> <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/tv-season/the-men-who-built-america/id564395250?ign-mpt=uo%3D4">download each episode of <i>Men</i> for less than you'd spend on a decent sandwich.</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/gR7oHh-fXUw" width="560"></iframe> </div>
<ul>
<li><b><a href="http://www.mlbnetwork.com/">MLB Network</a>.</b> <span style="color: yellow;">Porn for fans of the greatest sport of all. Wall-to-wall baseball. Analysis almost completely by former players who know of what they speak. Great moments revisited. Highlights. History. Movies. Everything you want, nothing you don't. </span></li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe frameborder="0" height="224" src="http://mlb.mlb.com/shared/video/embed/embed.html?content_id=25547073&width=400&height=224&property=mlb" width="400">Your browser does not support iframes.</iframe></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">Uhh, check that -- the one thing that made me switch the channel in disgust is when Keith Olbermann guest-hosted <i>Hot Stove</i> on Thanksgiving. </span></blockquote>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.amctv.com/shows/the-pitch"><b><i>The Pitch</i>,</b> <b>AMC.</b></a> <span style="color: yellow;">Part of what hooked me on <i>Mad Men</i> was the fictional glimpse into the creative processes of an advertising agency. <i>The Pitch</i> eavesdrops on two real ad agencies competing for the same big-ticket account. Like all reality TV, it's tough to know how much is authentic and how much is contrived, but <i>The Pitch</i> showed what goes into the sieve before it comes out as the ads you either love or hate. It's something that comes to mind when I look at ads like</span> <a href="http://www.facebook.com/LittleCaesars/posts/340073676067352">Little Caesars' mind-numbing "Fishing" spot</a> <span style="color: yellow;">and wonder how strong the drugs dealt around</span> <a href="http://nrn.com/latest-headlines/breaking-down-little-caesars-new-television-ad-campaign">Chicago's Tris3ct agency</a><span style="color: yellow;"> must be.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/shark-tank"><b><i>Shark Tank</i>, ABC.</b></a> <span style="color: yellow;">The only truly educational reality show on the air. Real people, real products, real money, real drama. They DID build their businesses. </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b><a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2011/02/thanks-to-dumb-people-on-video-trutvs-worlds-dumbest-keeps-going-strong.html"><i>The World's Dumbest, </i>TruTV.</a></b> <span style="color: yellow;">Another brain-on-hold laugh-fest from the network that used to be CourtTV, this show features collections of video footage of dumb criminals, dumb inventions, dumb daredevils, etc., with two-cents punch lines from troubled former child actors (Danny Bonaduce, Todd Bridges, Leif Garrett), C-, D, and Z-list celebs (Daniel Baldwin, Frank Stallone, Karrine Stephans[!]) unknown comedians (Judy Gold, Chuck Nice, Loni Love, among others), and disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding. Hey, it keeps her from kneecapping her rivals.</span></li>
</ul>
<h2>
</h2>
<div>
<h2>
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">In the next post: What didn't suck in 2012 in Music, The Internet, and Politics!</span></h2>
</div>
<h2>
</h2>L.N. Smitheehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11424396762369226149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10429981.post-10315494479905223572013-01-09T22:19:00.000-08:002013-01-09T22:29:15.299-08:00WHAT DIDN'T_SUCK ABOUT 2012 (Part I of IV)<h2>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-m-lKrbk8thk/Ts8DyLecCtI/AAAAAAAAWmE/fHWgaqzL7xs/s1600/ItsAWondrflLife_146Pyxurz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-m-lKrbk8thk/Ts8DyLecCtI/AAAAAAAAWmE/fHWgaqzL7xs/s320/ItsAWondrflLife_146Pyxurz.jpg" height="241" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">My year-end review is finally here...a week late.</span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></h2>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">Originally, this was supposed to be a year-end post with "Best" and "Worst" of 2012. But as the time was counting down on the "Fiscal Cliff," and America re-elected the worst President in my lifetime just because he is more "likable" than a man slimed more than Dr. Peter Venkman, I couldn't think of many "Best" things. 2012 sucked from beginning to end, I thought. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
Then, I spent December 24th the way I have for many years now: Watching Frank Capra's masterpiece <i>It's A Wonderful Life</i>, which in my humble opinion is the closest any motion picture has ever come to perfection. Not only because every line, every scene, every facial expression is exactly what it should be, but because of the way it makes you, the viewer, reflect on your own life. It challenges you to think of the positive effect you have on others when you don't realize it, how others may not be aware of the positive effect they have on you, and how important it is that those feelings are expressed. Every holiday season, there is without fail that someone you can point to and say, "_________ should have seen <i>It's A Wonderful Life</i> before s/he __________." For example, it was during one year's <i>IAWL </i>broadcast that a news promo came on saying <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Passenger-s-Fall-From-Airplane-Ruled-a-Suicide-2690229.phphttp://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Passenger-s-Fall-From-Airplane-Ruled-a-Suicide-2690229.php">a woman had bailed out of a corporate jet without a parachute, plunging some 2,000 feet to her death.</a><br />
<br />
It was while I was under the influence of "Capra Corn" that I decided to count my blessings and find some good things to remember about 2012. At first, it was just a short list. Then more things came to mind. And more people that I appreciated. And more things they did that I was impressed with. And more jokes that made me laugh out loud. And more audio and video that I wanted to share or introduce people to. And more times I wished I could have reached through the TV, the radio, and my computer screen and given someone a hug in appreciation.<br />
<br />
Eventually, the list grew so long that it didn't make sense to put it all into one thread. So I broke it into four, counting down the categories in which I found something good to look back on. We start with The Earth, Commercials, and Brands/Business.<br />
<br /></div>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: large;">10. THE EARTH</span></h2>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: yellow;">As we all knew it would, it didn't end somehow due to an asteroid, the reversal of poles, because of devastating weather conflagrations due to climate change, or
because the Almighty decided he has had quite enough of us. Sometimes
we feel like the world is ending, but it's just a tiny little part of
our personal world. As long as the rest of it is here with other good things
remaining, we shouldn't check out early. That's one of the lessons that
George Bailey learned from Clarence Oddbody. Attaboy, Clarence!</span></li>
</ul>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: large;">9. COMMERCIALS: </span></h2>
<ul>
<li><b>ESPN</b> <span style="color: yellow;">produced promos more entertaining than most of its programming. Highlights include this <i>SportsCenter </i>spot with Pro Football Hall of Fame analyst John Clayton, who always does his reports from a remote studio:</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/USHZZ5bwASU" width="560"></iframe></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: yellow;">This one from the "It's Not Crazy, It's Sports" series shows the hazards of sharing a name with a sports legend.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/WxBBN3ZnYeU" width="560"></iframe></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: yellow;">And this one, showing that despite the intense rivalry leading them to baseless prejudice, Manchester soccer fans are really brothers from different mothers. After the near-murder of Giants fan Bryan Stow by drunken Dodgers fans in 2011, it's something to think about.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/sfrGaTV217g" width="560"></iframe><br /></div>
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="color: yellow;">DirecTV's</span> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcYWvvv75dM">"Don't..."</a>
<span style="color: yellow;">campaign suggesting switching from cable to avoid bad decisions made
out of frustration ("Don't Wake Up In a Roadside Ditch," "Don't Attend
Your Own Funeral As a Guy Named Phil Shifley,"</span> <a href="http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1954048764001?bckey=AQ%7E%7E,AAAAAEMe8RQ%7E,R8iUD_53FI_bXkxm-tBID3ldGAc1RRgU&bctid=1978768426001">"Don't Re-enact Scenes From Platoon With Charlie Sheen"</a>)
<span style="color: yellow;">produced chuckles and guffaws. </span></li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/c-zG5U0v3gU?list=PLGrXDG71VUPtMhHNVtXamhjU4Qfkj2ozh" width="640"></iframe></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">Then, they were inexplicably dumped by
DirecTV in favor of spots starring a prickly married (?) couple
bickering over DVR space, featuring an unlovable jerk of a
husband/father who complains that he never gets to see his wife naked.
Here's a tip: Stop being an unlovable jerk. Maybe that'll work.</span></blockquote>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://youtu.be/lOclC9bbeQU"><b>2013 Dodge Dart</b></a>. <span style="color: yellow;">Dodge's minute-and-a-half commercial for the all-new Dodge Dart premiered in the MLB All-Star Game and blew me away. The 30-second versions aren't quite as good.</span> </li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lOclC9bbeQU" width="560"></iframe> </div>
<ul>
<li><b>Dos Equis' Radio Commercials</b><span style="color: yellow;"> featuring "The Most Interesting Man In The World" are always good for a laugh or two, but ad agency Havas Worldwide outdid itself with this one in the days leading up to Cinco De Mayo:</span></li>
</ul>
<ul><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/51105666" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="500"></iframe>
</ul>
<h2>
</h2>
<h2>
<span style="font-size: large;">8. BUSINESS/BRANDS: </span></h2>
<ul>
<li><b>Chick-Fil-A</b> <span style="color: yellow;">stood strong in the face of unrelenting vilification by craven politicians and a corrupt media. </span></li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">In an uncharacteristically balanced interview on CNN (likely because host Soledad O'Brien was not anchoring that day), watch Chicago Alderman Proco Joe Moreno tap dancing around what he's demanding out of Chick-Fil-A before he supports an ordinance change to allow them to open on a tract in "his" ward.</span></blockquote>
<ul>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pIb3UIpPP5c" width="560"></iframe> </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">Now, here's Boston Mayor Thomas Menino saying that <a href="http://cloudfront2.bostinno.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/487850_10151104647361075_1860547049_n.jpg">his letter to Chick-Fil-A dis-inviting it to Boston (also sent to the land owner of the proposed new location)</a> doesn't carry any extra weight because he can't legally enforce his negativity: </span></blockquote>
<span style="color: yellow;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/G5vQFwICYpo" width="640"></iframe></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: yellow;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: start;">
<span style="color: yellow;">I wrote <a href="http://tiny.cc/cfasj">this blog post about San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee</a> and his fascistic warning to the Chick-Fil-A owners:</span></blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<a href="http://img1.uploadscreenshot.com/images/main/8/23505284210.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://img1.uploadscreenshot.com/images/main/8/23505284210.png" height="392" width="640" /> </a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: yellow;">Chick-Fil-A's operators didn't back down, and the chain was rewarded for its courageous stand for its principles by the biggest single day in its history. Here's Fox News' Eric Bolling recapping Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day with its originator, Mike Huckabee. </span></blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-2-gf4OZyh4" width="560"></iframe></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: yellow;">A pro-gay marriage "kiss-in" counter-protest fizzled days later.</span></blockquote>
</div>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b>Papa John's</b> <span style="color: yellow;">founder John Schnatter boldly (and factually) stated that he would have to cut workers' hours in 2013 as a result of ObamaCare surviving a Supreme Court challenge and Obama's re-election. When lefties punished him with a half-hearted boycott, people like yours truly responded with a Chick-Fil-A-ish "buy-cott."</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<a href="http://www.coca-colafreestyle.com/wp-content/themes/Freestyle/img/perfect_pour/machine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.coca-colafreestyle.com/wp-content/themes/Freestyle/img/perfect_pour/machine.jpg" height="200" width="72" /></a>
<li> <b>Coca-Cola's Freestyle Fountain.</b> <span style="color: yellow;">This modern technological marvel with old-world gleaming fountain style (created by auto designer Pininfarina) is a game-changer; every soft drink offered by the Coca-Cola company is loaded inside, with added flavoring if you;d like, creating up to over 100 different possibilities. If I'm in the mood for fast food and a drink, and I have a choice between a going to a place with a dozen or so fountain options and the big red Freestyle machine, it's an easy call.</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<h2>
<span style="color: yellow;"><br /></span></h2>
</div>
<div>
<h2>
<span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">Coming up next: What <i>Didn't</i> Suck About</span><span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"> Radio and Television</span><span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;"> in </span><span style="color: yellow; font-size: large;">2012!</span></h2>
</div>
<ul>
</ul>
<h2>
</h2>
L.N. Smitheehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11424396762369226149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10429981.post-64702584975965015952012-12-09T09:04:00.000-08:002012-12-09T22:47:25.922-08:00GOLDEN STATE WORRIER: CALIFORNIA'S SELF-DESTRUCTION IS A WARNING FOR THE REST OF AMERICA<i><a href="http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/12/what-do-you-do-im-me/comment-page-1/#comment-396280">This is my reaction to a "jasond,"</a> a commenter on Legal Insurrection's brilliant Prof. William A. Jacobson's post about the viral video titled <a href="http://youtu.be/DL-a-r7iJIU">"Why Our Country is Going Down The Drain,"</a> in which </i>Judge Judy<i>'s Judith Sheindlin grills a deadbeat dude who didn't pay his girlfriend rent despite having received thousands of dollars in misappropriated government aid. The original LI post, titled "What do you do? I'm me" (a quote from the unjustly conceited defendant) <a href="http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/12/what-do-you-do-im-me">can be found here,</a> in which the video is embedded.</i><br />
<br />
<i>jasond's comment was as follows: </i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Multiply [the guy in the video] and his former girlfriend by 10 million and you’ve got
california. Eisenhowers’ “domino theory” may been correct all along.
We just didn’t realize the first domino would be california. </i></blockquote>
My reply:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">You know that brief feeling of terror when you’re driving in wet conditions and you find yourself hydroplaning and heading toward a guard rail or another vehicle? That feeling that it’s inevitable that you’re going to crash, and it’s just a matter of how badly you’re hurt and how much it will cost you?</span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<a href="http://www.uploadscreenshot.com/image/1737163/2960115" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="Click here to view full size" height="176" src="http://img1.UploadScreenshot.com/images/thumb/12/34311243169.png" width="320" /></a><span style="color: yellow;"></span></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="color: yellow;">That’s what it feels [like] nowadays to be a California resident with no hope of relocating.</span></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="color: yellow;">Folks, if you aren’t absolutely steeped in what’s happening in what used to be The Golden State,<b> you have NO idea what’s going on.</b> Jerry Brown is trying to create a legacy for himself before he croaks, and is hoping that will include the extravagant, unneeded so-called “high speed rail” stretching north to south. Arnold Schwarzenegger earlier wanted his landmark to be a state-funded multibillion dollar stem-cell research program that has yielded NO breakthroughs, and was the main driver behind the recently-begun job-killing cap-and-trade program that California voters foolishly approved. And Ahnuld’s predecessor Gray Davis, in his haste to buy the loyalty of public employee unions, installed the Sacramento plumbing flushing hundreds of billions of dollars to pension funds based on the expectation that the dot-com boom would never end. Oops. </span></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yP_WzmC2sbk/UMTAmEjqBFI/AAAAAAAABGk/kt0z1HHzZ1M/s1600/abel-maldonado.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="216" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yP_WzmC2sbk/UMTAmEjqBFI/AAAAAAAABGk/kt0z1HHzZ1M/s320/abel-maldonado.bmp" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Former RINO CA Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: yellow;">Add on top of that the fact the Republican Party is for all intents and purposes non-existent in the state after Democrats won a supermajority in the Senate and Assembly. That means that not only can tax increases can be passed by the legislature without two-thirds voter approval, it means those approvals can survive Brown’s veto (which could allow him to position himself as being fiscally responsible when he’s not).</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="color: yellow;">Well, so what, you may ask — Dems are overreaching. Things are cyclical. It will come back to bite them if they go too far. Not so fast (pay attention, it gets into deep weeds here).</span></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="color: yellow;">As part of a deal to temporarily close a budget gap during the Schwarzenegger fiasco, RINO State Senator Abel Maldonado — who had a speaking part at the 2008 Republican Convention — crossed party lines and cast a tie-breaking vote. He was rewarded by Dem support of his pet legislation — a bill that made California general elections competitions between the top two vote-getters in open primaries. That means that each final vote could potentially be between two candidates of the same party. Guess how well <i>that</i> worked out for Republican candidates.</span></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="color: yellow;">The grateful Schwarzenegger also appointed Maldonado to the Lieutenant Governor position replacing John Garamendi, who left after winning the retired Ellen Tauscher’s Congressional seat. Maldonado thought with the top-two system in place and his advantage over any challenger as an incumbent, he would be a shoo-in for election to a full term when his centrism and Hispanic heritage was factored in. Then, former S.F. Mayor Gavin Newsom, having earlier realized he couldn’t beat Brown for Governor, jumped late into the Lt. Gov. race, and soundly defeated Maldonado.</span></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">Undeterred, Maldonado ran for a newly-drawn Congressional district vs. ensconced liberal Dem Lois Capps. Despite</span> <a href="http://www.nbclosangeles.com/blogs/prop-zero/Abel-Maldonado-Top-Two-Success-Story-158598095.html" rel="nofollow">L.A.’s NBC affiliate’s declaration that his top-two gambit was a success</a> <span style="color: yellow;">because he might not have faced Capps in November otherwise, he still lost — as did nearly every Republican on the ballot facing a Democrat. Maldonado hoist himself with his own petard twice! More importantly, because of his selfish ambition, chances that a Pub will be able to supplant any important official in California anytime soon are slim to none.</span></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">That’s a primer for you folks in the forty-something remaining sane states. Learn from California’s mistakes so you won’t have to suffer them yourselves. Meanwhile, I’m working on a petition to change the state bird from the California Golden Quail to the Coal Mine Canary.</span></blockquote>
L.N. Smitheehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11424396762369226149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10429981.post-3068275148098138662012-12-04T14:09:00.000-08:002012-12-04T14:09:46.544-08:00AGAIN, BOB COSTAS SHOOTS FIRST, AIMS LATER<center>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i>The following is my reaction to Bob Costas' controversial comments about the Kansas City Chiefs' Jovan Belcher's murder-suicide, and his echoing of Jason Whitlock's remarks not only about the incident itself, but about the 2nd Amendment right to own a gun. The yellow text below is what was posted by me on a Bay Area media blog, <a href="http://richliebermanreport.blogspot.com/2012/12/bob-costas-gets-poked-for-exploring-gun.html#comment-form">Rich Lieberman 415 Media</a>. </i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i>For background, here's the entire speech from NBC's Football Night In America on December 1, and here's <a href="http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/jovan-belcher-kansas-city-chiefs-murder-suicide-tragedy-girlfriend-self-leave-orphan-daughter-why-still-playing-sunday-120112">the full text of Jason Whitlock's blog</a> about the incident and its societal implications.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
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<span style="color: yellow;">Bob Costas seems to me to be one of those guys who feels trapped in the
well-feathered nest he's built for himself. He's made his solid
reputation covering sports, but thinks that he's beyond silly games
after so many years and wants to leave it behind. He would like to be
Keith Olbermann or Bryant Gumbel (presumably minus the unjustifiably
massive egos and reported personality disorders), but he can't make the
transition until he first establishes his bonafides. </span><br />
<span style="color: yellow;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: yellow;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cNQ9gk29nL8/UL5mNKyA9yI/AAAAAAAABGQ/3zcU5Cic6P8/s1600/mag+7+1996.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cNQ9gk29nL8/UL5mNKyA9yI/AAAAAAAABGQ/3zcU5Cic6P8/s320/mag+7+1996.jpg" width="320" /></a>Remember
that Costas previously dipped his toe into unsolicited social commentary
in his coverage of </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFBHjgpIq7I&feature=share&list=PL572854C539F1BB59">Gabby Douglas' Gold Medal victory in the 2012 London Olympics,</a> <span style="color: yellow;">saying she was an inspiration to "African-American girls out
there tonight who are saying, 'Hey, I'd like to try that too.'" Yeah,
just one problem, Bob; Douglas was NOT the first black American to win a
Gold. Dominique Dawes [pictured, second from left] won one as a member of the U.S. crew that won the
team competition in 1996 - the year Douglas was born. People mostly
remember the team nicknamed "The Magnificent Seven" for Kerri Strug [second from right]'s
courageous vault on an injured ankle and coach Bela Karolyi's
encouragement ("You cahn do eet!") The color barrier of Gold Medal
achievement had been shattered by Dawes for over a decade and a half
when Costas threw in his gratuitous footnote. He was fishing for an
angle beyond the games themselves, but came up with a minnow.</span><br />
<span style="color: yellow;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: yellow;">Costas'
Sunday remarks were more egregiously half-baked. With only a minute and
a half to a commercial break, Costas started by chiding everyone for
not being able to achieve sufficient "perspective" about tragedies that
occur among sports figures with the exception of Kansas City
sportswriter Jason Whitlock. </span><a href="http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/jovan-belcher-kansas-city-chiefs-murder-suicide-tragedy-girlfriend-self-leave-orphan-daughter-why-still-playing-sunday-120112"> In his Fox Sports.com blog, Whitlock blamed the death of Belcher and his girlfriend on the fact that he even had a firearm.</a> <span style="color: yellow;"> Costas selectively quoted Whitlock, using these
paraphrased quotes: "Our current gun culture simply ensures that more
and more domestic disputes will end in the ultimate tragedy, and that
more convenience-store confrontations over loud music coming from a car
will leave more teenage boys bloodied and dead ... In the coming days,
Jovan Belcher’s actions, and their possible connection to football, will
be analyzed. Who knows? But here, wrote Jason Whitlock, is what I
believe: if [Jovan Belcher] did not possess a gun, he and Kasandra
Perkins would both be alive today."</span><br />
<span style="color: yellow;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: yellow;">Costas seemed to want to
reduce Whitlock's comments to the usual fretting about immature
inner-city teenagers and intense family quarrels settled quickly and
fatally. Costas didn't follow through on the full thrust of Whitlock's
words, so allow me to fill in the blanks Costas didn't want attributed
to him personally:</span><br />
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<i>We’d prefer to avoid seriously
reflecting upon the absurdity of the prevailing notion that the second
amendment somehow enhances our liberty rather than threatens it ... How
many lives have to be ruined before we realize the right to bear arms
doesn’t protect us from a government equipped with stealth bombers,
predator drones, tanks and nuclear weapons?</i></blockquote>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: yellow;">Whitlock
wasn't only musing about skewed "perspective." He wasn't simply
suggesting that people should choose not to own a gun. Whitlock was
taking on the Supreme Court's definition of the Second Amendment,
expanding the scope from the common perils of a loaded gun in a home to
stereotypes of the few and far-between who hoard arms to protect
themselves against a tyrannical federal government. </span><br />
<span style="color: yellow;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: yellow;">Again,
Costas, in his haste to elevate his presence in our living rooms to The
Big Picture Beyond Sports, eloquently and sincerely said something that
sounded like it made perfect sense at first listen. Then, upon
analysis, it was found wanting. President Obama (I'm not a fan)
recently referred to such statements as "Shooting first and aiming
later," if you'll pardon the expression.</span></blockquote>
L.N. Smitheehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11424396762369226149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10429981.post-15008793473908389952012-11-28T12:30:00.000-08:002012-11-28T12:30:55.049-08:00JUST SAY NO TO CRACK: SAN FRANCISCO'S NUDITY BAN ISN'T ABOUT CONSERVATISM, IT'S ABOUT SANITY<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-u_C3ecs3ZeA/ULY1B2TMwEI/AAAAAAAABF8/RG2WCpEoTOQ/s1600/Saletan+Gays+Vs.+Nudity+Column.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-u_C3ecs3ZeA/ULY1B2TMwEI/AAAAAAAABF8/RG2WCpEoTOQ/s400/Saletan+Gays+Vs.+Nudity+Column.png" width="317" /></a></div>
This is my reaction to <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/frame_game/2012/11/san_francisco_s_nudity_ban_is_gay_marriage_making_homosexuals_conservative.html#comments">a piece written by Slate magazine's William Saletan,</a> who suggests that the reason why San Francisco's Castro neighborhood rose to oppose the increasingly bold nudists walking around in the neighborhood is because they are "becoming more bourgeois" due to a shift toward same-sex marriage and, more importantly, parentage:<br />
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<div class="text parbase section">
<i>Ever since gay marriage became a plausible idea, opponents have predicted it would unravel society. There’d be runaway <a href="http://www.nationformarriage.org/atf/cf/%7B39D8B5C1-F9FE-48C0-ABE6-1029BA77854C%7D/ProtestantEnglish.pdf" target="_blank">polygamy</a>, <a href="http://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF04C51.pdf" target="_blank">bestiality</a>, and <a href="http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/no-one-has-the-power-to-redefine-marriage/" target="_blank">public nudity</a>. In 2008, as Californians debated a gay-marriage ballot measure, Americans For Truth About Homosexuality <a href="http://americansfortruth.com/2008/09/26/aftah-folsom-street-fair-in-speaker-nancy-pelosi%E2%80%99s-district-with-its-public-nudity-and-street-orgies-represents-america%E2%80%99s-deepening-%E2%80%98moral-crisis%E2%80%99/" target="_blank">said</a>
it was “no coincidence that the man who took it upon himself four years
ago to illegally and radically redefine marriage,” then-San Francisco
Mayor Gavin Newsom, was promoting an event featuring “rampant public
nudity.” This year, the <a href="http://www.fpiw.org/our-issues/marriage/index.html" target="_blank">Family Policy Institute of Washington</a>
warned that Referendum 74, which proposed to legalizing same-sex
marriage in Washington state, would “make marriage genderless” and lead
to <a href="http://www.fpiw.org/about/family-policy-blog/college-ok%E2%80%99s-naked-man-in-girls-locker---really-.html" target="_blank">men using women’s locker rooms</a>. The National Organization for Marriage, capitalizing on a nudist’s stunt, ran the headline: “<a href="http://www.nomblog.com/10407/" target="_blank">The ‘Naked Cowboy’ Comes Out for Gay Marriage</a>.” The Iowa Republican depicted same-sex marriage as a gateway to <a href="http://theiowarepublican.com/2012/victimless-crimes/" target="_blank">nudity, incest, and necrophilia</a>.</i></div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="text parbase section">
<i>The predictions haven’t panned out. Instead, gays have drawn a line. While voters in Washington and three other states <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/frame_game/2012/11/gay_marriage_ballot_measures_2012_why_did_same_sex_marriage_opponents_lose.html">endorsed same-sex marriage</a>
this month, residents of San Francisco’s Castro district, possibly the
most gay-friendly place on Earth, persuaded the city’s board of
supervisors to <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/S-F-barely-passes-public-nudity-ban-4055606.php" target="_blank">pass an ordinance restricting public nudity</a>. The rise of same-sex households isn’t making society queer. It’s making gay people bourgeois ...</i></div>
</blockquote>
<br />
My comment, which I posted at 7:00 am PST on November 28, 2012 (it has not been approved as yet):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">As a lifelong resident of San Francisco, I can tell you that the populace here isn't getting any more conservative. It's been decades since anyone in city government came out of the closet and admitted that they, indeed, are Republican. The politics have gotten nastier for officials who didn't feel a compulsion to shift more to the left as the center moved to the right. For example, in the last mayoral election, the moderate Democrat public defender was vilified by the city's public employee unions for the sole offense of sponsoring a pension reform measure on the ballot. This earned him</span> <a href="http://youtu.be/EEt1J79N4TA">one attack ad</a> <span style="color: yellow;">showing his face alongside Sarah Palin's & George W. Bush's, and a</span> <a href="http://youtu.be/uNa9ykAu1TY">another one</a> <span style="color: yellow;">suggesting there was no difference between him and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker ("San Francisco is NO Tea Party Town!")</span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: yellow;">I know that people who are in favor of same-sex marriage want to believe that it's the moral equivalent of banishing anti-miscegenation laws (it's not), and to that end will embrace arguments that marriage in the gay community will temper the perception (or the reality) of the stereotypical promiscuous homosexual that causes Midwestern church ladies to clutch their pearls. That's a discussion for another time, because the nudity debate isn't really about that. It's about the line -- invisible to the naked eye (pun not intended) -- between "enough" and "too much." </span></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">Mr. Saletan compiled examples of public nudity long tolerated in San Francisco: The Bay to Breakers 10K bacchanalia, the Pride Parade with its long history of <i>literally</i> shameless exhibitionism before an audience of all ages, and The Folsom Street Fair, at which SF Police stand by and keep "order" among open displays of onanism and sadomasochism. Here's the difference, though: Those are <i>events</i>, not everyday life. The idea is that as long as a crowd of thousands only gather together to "scare the horses" once a year, it's not worth the expense and the effort to haul them all into the pokey -- just don't start waving broken whiskey bottles around. </span></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">But as is written in Ecclesiastes (or for you atheists, as The Byrds sang), "There is a season and a time to every purpose..." Even in the planet's Gay Mecca, the consensus is clear: The time for public nudity is NOT seven days a week in broad daylight at a busy intersection and for NO real purpose besides expressing the opinion that one's birthday suit ought to be seen by people who have NO true interest in looking. Public nudity <i>per se </i>has nothing to do with being homosexual or not, it has to do with eschewing rudimentary hygiene and lack of consideration for others.</span></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">As I said at the beginning, San Francisco isn't getting more conservative, but this narrow Board of Supervisors vote may be an indication that the city has finally hit bottom on being bizarre for bizarreness' sake. In 2008, an Eff You ballot measure that would rename a sewage treatment plant after George W. Bush was surprisingly defeated, and in 2009, gay Supervisor Bevan Dufty's proposed "sex tents" idea</span> <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Possible-A-s-sites-a-case-of-fantasy-baseball-3208788.php#ixzz2DWsFxEUK">("There are definitely people interested in seeing more public sex")</a> <span style="color: yellow;">was shot down in flames. </span></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: yellow;">Calm down, lefties. Cracking down on people who wave their crack outdoors won't make San Francisco into Peoria any time soon.
</span><br />
<br /></blockquote>
It occurred to me after writing this that it's ironic how Peoria, IL has become the go-to city when using shorthand for Middle America (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_it_play_in_Peoria%3F">"Will it play in Peoria?"</a>) when, in reality, Illinois was the first state in the union to decriminalize sodomy in 1961, a decade and a half before California did. So, in a sense, San Francisco adopted Peoria values.L.N. Smitheehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11424396762369226149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10429981.post-77594279382165129372012-10-03T15:48:00.003-07:002012-10-09T04:55:36.417-07:00MORE FREE SPEECH DECAY: PHILLY HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER COMPARES STUDENT'S ROMNEY T-SHIRT TO KKK SHEET, THREATENS TO DEFACE IT<iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="http://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F62076957&show_artwork=true&secret_token=s-Cgktg" width="100%"></iframe><br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Zay3p5E-SG8/UGzD_YB8klI/AAAAAAAABFk/vJ2RPozK5ww/s1600/Philly+student_s+Romney+T-shirt+likened+to+KKK+sheet_1349305259677.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="295" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Zay3p5E-SG8/UGzD_YB8klI/AAAAAAAABFk/vJ2RPozK5ww/s400/Philly+student_s+Romney+T-shirt+likened+to+KKK+sheet_1349305259677.png" width="400" /></a>Above is the original audio of the October 3 phone call to Larry Mendte of Philadelphia talk radio station WWIQ-FM 106.9 by Richard Pawlucy, father of the 16-year-old Charles Carroll High School student who was singled out, castigated, and threatened for choosing to wear a Romney-Ryan T-shirt on "Dress Down Friday."<br />
<br />
Allegedly, Pawlucy's daughter's teacher told her to take the shirt off because it was like wearing "a Ku Klux Klan sheet," also threatening to cross the names out, wielding a marker. <br />
<br />
In the current atmosphere in which leftists are questioning whether the First Amendment right to free speech ought to include speech that drives intolerant idiots to vandalism at the least (e.g., Muslim bloggerette Mona Eltahawy, captured on video below) and murder at the most, this is another step in the wrong direction.<br />
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<br />
But it's not unusual for educators who are worshipful of Obama to overstep their bounds and bully youngsters who don't think he's good enough for America. <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&ved=0CCgQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmichellemalkin.com%2F2008%2F11%2F06%2Fchild-abuser-obama-supporting-teacher-bullies-soldiers-daughter%2F&ei=NcdsUNLFNNGUjAL7_oHACA&usg=AFQjCNFQyoYwosfYZwoNqrIFXgZ4JMJl3g">Remember this teacher from 2008,</a> and how she -- in front of a camera crew recording every word -- felt justified in telling the daughter of a soldier deployed in Iraq that electing John McCain would mean "your dad could stay in the military for another hundred years!"<br />
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Philadelphia newspapers have picked up this story, and <a href="http://t.co/Ex9o5cVX">so has POLITICO.</a> That's a surprise. But don't look for it on the usual MSM suspects. <br />
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<i>This entry was updated October 3, 2012 10:00 pm PDT to correct the transposed names of the parent and the talk host. It was further updated October 9, 2012 to reflect the corrected spelling of the parent's surname.</i><br />
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L.N. Smitheehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11424396762369226149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10429981.post-82704683578787281942012-09-26T14:37:00.000-07:002012-09-26T14:37:32.991-07:00"LIVING IN SIN IS THE NEW THING": TORONTO SCHOOLS PROMOTE GENDER-BENDING AND POLYGAMY TO GRADE SCHOOL KIDSYou may remember a ridiculous Canadian couple that in 2011 announced they were going to stand athwart logic and human biology, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Health/genderless-baby-controversy-mom-defends-choice-reveal-sex/story?id=13718047#.UGNkrI1lQTM">and refuse to identify the gender of "Storm," their newborn child.</a><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Kathy Witterick, 38, and David Stocker, 39, have only allowed their midwives and two older sons to peek beneath the diaper of 4-month-old Storm.
</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>When Storm came into the world in a birthing pool on New Year's Day, they sent out this email: "We decided not to share Storm's sex for now -- a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation, a standup to what the world could become in Storm's lifetime."
</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Even Storm's brothers, 2-year-old Kio and 5-year-old Jazz, have been sworn to secrecy, as well as one close family friend. The family, while not hiding their sex of their oldest sons, also allows them to explore their gender identity. Jazz wears his hair in pigtails.
</i></blockquote>
Oy.<br />
<br />
Apparently they weren't completely alone among folks in the frozen north; they have kindred spirits making decisions in the Toronto District School Board. As Mark Steyn -- himself a victim of Canadian political correctness vigilantism -- <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/328283/twos-company-threes-positive-role-model-mark-steyn#">observed September 22, 2012 at National Review Online:</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z00Msd_7UYM/UGNrnhU4BkI/AAAAAAAABEE/VJ-I4ei6zGs/s1600/TDSB+-+Love+Has+No+Gender.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z00Msd_7UYM/UGNrnhU4BkI/AAAAAAAABEE/VJ-I4ei6zGs/s200/TDSB+-+Love+Has+No+Gender.jpg" width="152" /></a>A few years ago, when the gay-marriage bandwagon got rolling, some of us argued that <a href="http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/04/09/we%E2%80%99re-in-the-fast-lane-to-polygamy/">“if the sex of the participants is no longer relevant, why should the number be?”</a> The same-sex-marriage crowd swatted the polygamy shtick aside as utterly irrelevant, even though there are far more takers for polygamy than there will ever be for gay marriage, and it is, de facto, already recognized to one degree or another by multiculti types in the British Government pensions department and the French welfare system. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
So here we are in 2012, and the Toronto District School Board has a new poster called <a href="http://blazingcatfur.blogspot.com/2012/09/tdsb-promotes-polygamy-group-sex-to.html">“Love Has No Gender</a>", full of happy couples but also happy triples. This poster is in every Toronto grade school.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Heather Has Two Mommies. Heather Has Two Mommies And A Big Bearded Daddy Who Wants To Marry Her Off To Her Cousin In Pakistan.</i> Who are we to judge?</blockquote>
<br />
Here's how Michael Coren -- who has been referred to as the Canadian version of Bill O'Reilly -- tackled the issue with a spokesman from a pro-family group.<br />
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My few regular readers may remember my alarm when former Mouseketeer and former self-declared virgin Britney Spears went completely over the opposite end with <a href="http://lnsmitheeblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/britney-orgy-song-placeholder.html">her 2009 smash hit comeback single, "3," which was a plainly-spoken tribute to group sex.</a> The title of this post ("Living In Sin Is The New Thing") references the lyrics of the song, which also included:</center>
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<i>1, 2, 3</i></div>
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<i> Not only you and me</i></div>
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<i> Got one eighty degrees</i></div>
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<i> And I'm caught in between</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i> 1, 2, 3</i></div>
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<i> Peter, Paul & Mary</i></div>
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<i> Gettin' down with 3P</i></div>
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<i> Everybody loves [edited]</i></div>
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<br /></div>
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I've seen a lot of changes in my life, which spans five decades. But I never thought I'd see the day when parents so blithely leave child-raising decisions to public school bureaucrats. It's not as bad in America as it is in Canada yet, but there doesn't seem to be a significant number of people who are standing up to say, "Enough's enough!"</div>
L.N. Smitheehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11424396762369226149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10429981.post-87472800846791892712012-09-21T19:17:00.000-07:002012-09-21T19:17:43.480-07:00LIFE IMITATES THE BAD NEWS BEARS: TV REPORTER INVITES LITTLE LEAGUE PLAYER TO HAVE A BEER<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">KPIX-TV (San Francisco) anchor-reporter Ken Bastida, in a live remote at AT&T Park with the Petaluma, CA Little League team that finished 3rd in the 2012 Little League World Series, quizzed 12-year-old pitcher/first baseman Daniel Marzo about how the local girls are reacting to his newfound celebrity. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">He concluded the interview by inviting the presumably pubescent ballplayer to have a beer with him, to which Marzo replied, "Sounds good!" It's clear that Bastida was joking, but his colleagues in the KPIX studio didn't risk letting his words float out without registering their disapproval. Allen Martin said be heard saying "No, Ken, we're not going to allow that," followed up by his mumbling "Contributing to the delinquency..." <br /><br />It reminded me of the then-controversial 1976 hit movie "The Bad News Bears," starring Walter Matthau as Morris Buttermaker, an alcoholic former minor league pitcher who keeps his one foot out of the grave in the baseball world by coaching a hapless group of youngsters. SPOILER ALERT: After the Bears narrowly lose the league championship game, Buttermaker dips into his ever-present cooler and tosses bottles of beer to the kids, some of whom partake, although most just poured it on their teammates.</span>L.N. Smitheehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11424396762369226149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10429981.post-25416865905048586742012-09-10T15:14:00.000-07:002012-09-10T15:20:55.936-07:00NOT MAKING IT UP: ONE DAY TEACHING IN AN ILLINOIS CLASSROOM GARNERED LIFETIME_PENSION FOR TWO TEACHERS' UNION LOBBYISTS<span style="font-size: large;">This is everything anyone needs to know to comprehend the power teachers' unions have in Illinois.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/%22http://www.wgntv.com/news/eveningnews/wgntv-wgn-investigation-1-day-teaching-equals-a-lifetime-teachers-pension-20111024,0,348847.story%22">From Chicago's WGN-TV News, October 24, 2011</a> </span><br />
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<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-pensions-teacher-perk-20111023,0,6972290,full.story"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></a>
<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-pensions-teacher-perk-20111023,0,6972290,full.story"><span style="font-size: large;">The full story is in this Chicago Tribune report.</span></a><br />
<br />L.N. Smitheehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11424396762369226149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10429981.post-85851775020144838492012-08-24T11:56:00.000-07:002012-08-24T11:56:32.008-07:00DO YOU KNOW THE WAY TO CHICK-FIL-A? FAST FOOD GIANT SHOWS NO FEAR OF FRISCO'S FASCIST FOOL<span style="font-size: large;">Chick-Fil-A is in <a href="http://youtu.be/jqWt49o7R-k">San Jose!</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">That's right, folks! The <a href="http://www.chick-fil-a.com/Pressroom/Press-Releases#?release=sales-release">$4 billion fast food force</a> is rapidly expanding to the Pacific Coast, with a new outlet in Northern California's largest, most populous city (yes, bigger than San Francisco, which gets all the publicity). That means the Grand Opening camp-out for a year of free weekly meals for the first hundred patrons has brought those dreaded fans of waffle fries closer to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, who, in support of <a href="http://www.volokh.com/2012/07/26/chicago-alderman-i-will-deny-business-permit-because-there-are-consequences-for-its-owners-statements-and-beliefs-and-they-should-include-denial/">similar intolerant and fascistic remarks about banning Chick-Fil-A by Democrat Mayors in Boston and Chicago,</a> sent these tweets </span><span style="font-size: large;">on July 26, 2012</span><span style="font-size: large;">:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Well, it looks like Chick-Fil-A is calling the messy-mustached Mayor's bluff. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">While the San Jose location is still roughly 40 miles from San Francisco's City Hall, it is closer than that to the city limits. Furthermore, there are three new locations that are completing the process of opening: One 37 miles away in the peninsula town of Mountain View (home of the first "Silicon Valley" firm</span>) <span style="font-size: large;">, a second opening October 11 in the East Bay city of Walnut Creek (26.9 miles away), and a third scheduled to open at a current Carl's Jr. outlet across the Golden Gate in Novato (26.5 miles).</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.chick-fil-a.com/Media/Img/catalog/Pressroom/ImageLibrary/logos/Chick-fil-A-logo-theme-lg.jpg?download=true" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="http://www.chick-fil-a.com/Media/Img/catalog/Pressroom/ImageLibrary/logos/Chick-fil-A-logo-theme-lg.jpg?download=true" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">A couple of notes about the Novato location: Novato
is the second largest city in Marin County, domain of doctrinaire
liberal lawmakers such as Senator Barbara Boxer, </span><span style="font-size: large;">radical </span><span style="font-size: large;">gay
State Senator Mark Leno, and the thankfully-retiring Congresswoman Lynn
Woolsey. Even in the thick of negative publicity from the gay
activist-supporting mainstream media -- including widespread Bay Area
news outlets' coverage of gactivist attempts to stop the Mountain View
location <a href="https://www.wepay.com/donations/no2chik">using concerns about bicyclists and pedestrians as a fig leaf</a>
-- Chick-Fil-A closed the deal on the purchase of the Novato Carl's Jr. on...wait for it...<i>July 25th! </i>The day<i> before </i>his tweets!<i><br /></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Those evil, discriminatory chickens bound for consumption clearly fear no man, including the Mayor of San Francisco. Those spicy chicken sandwiches are marching on the City By The Bay from the North, East, and South, hoping to drive marriage equality advocates into the Pacific! They're closing in on Mayor Lee. They're circling. You can almost hear them ... <i>Cluck, cluck. Cluck, cluck. Cluck cluck, cluck cluck, cluck cluck ... Cluck! CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK!</i></span><br />
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L.N. Smitheehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11424396762369226149noreply@blogger.com0