What is with California’s Sever Poizner, anyway?
Society/Culture
Democrats proving Again That Compromise is Not an Option on Healthcare
-By Warner Todd Huston
In this report we get a nice one-two punch. Not only are we seeing Democrats once again refusing even a tiny compromise with Republicans on Obama’s takeover of nearly 20% of our economy with his healthcare plans, but we also get to see another example of why Huffington Post is not journalism. I like a nice one-two punch for a Wednesday.
For one thing, the HuffPo article hilariously calls Democrat pitbull Rahm Emanuel a “conservative Democrat.” But let’s start with the more important political point and deal with the HuffPo chicanery second.
In a HuffPo “report” by Sam Stein, we see leftists, and extreme activists getting their shorts in a wad over the proposition from Republicans that the so-called public option only be set off by a “trigger,” one that would usher in that public option if insurance companies “fail to deliver” the affordable coverage that Obama is demanding. This trigger idea would exclude the public option at the outset only to have it come in later if needed.
Democrats proving Again That Compromise is Not an Option on Healthcare”
What Kind Of Care, Anyway?
-By Warner Todd Huston
For those that want universal healthcare, the panacea of “coverage” is expected to “give” all those currently without healthcare coverage the access they need to the medical care they now lack. This sounds wonderful all things being equal. It sounds caring and big hearted of them to want everyone to get medical care. But what is the practical outcome of this desire with a system in government hands?
Obama has claimed that he wants to create a sort of standard minimum of coverage provided by government for those entirely without. Again, it sounds like a great idea but how long does that minimum standard stay minimum? Unfortunately, what might be considered minimum now would quickly become all inclusive with just every kind of service imaginable added to the plan as inevitable government “mission creep” continues to raise the bar for political reasons.
What Kind Of Care, Anyway?”
Don’t Stand On The Sidelines Complaining
-By Thomas E. Brewton
It’s always easier to carp about things you don’t like than to stand up, become involved, and work to correct the problem.
Sunday’s sermon at the Cohocton, New York, Assembly of God Church was preached by Rev. Jason McGuire, who serves as the legislative director of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms. His text was Proverbs 24:10-12.
10 If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength! 11 Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. 12 If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done?
Don’t Stand On The Sidelines Complaining”
Setting New Standards with Online Education
-By Nancy Salvato
“The full-time residential model of higher education is getting too expensive for a larger share of the American population.” (The College of 2020: Students) Is it any wonder “more and more students are looking for lower-cost alternatives to attending college?”
What does the future hold for higher education?
- White students will likely be outnumbered by minority students on college campuses.
- People will need to rely on more and more formalized education to advance their careers or change to new ones.
- It is estimated that ten years from now, the average cost for a 4 year public college in-state resident will be $31,949.28 per year. (Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority)
- Almost one third of the 121 institutions that responded to a survey believed that by 2020, students will take over half their courses entirely online. (The College of 2020: Students)
Setting New Standards with Online Education”
Card Check: Poison for Business
Card check is still alive, though barely. We need to keep the drumbeat to destroy this economic killing law.
Static Culture, Static Fashion
-By Ann “Babe” Huggett
There was an odd, little fashion show held in late June in Paris in the underground ballroom of the George V Hotel that was both a comic, costume exercise in futility and an attempt to drag Saudi religious and cultural sensibilities into the 21st Century. Fresh on the heels of French President Nicholas Sarkozy’s proclaiming that the enshrouding burqa was “…not welcome…” on the streets of the French Republic, Dior haute couture designer John Galliano, the French design houses of Nina Ricci and Jean Claude Jitrois and the Italian labels Blumarine and Alberta Ferretti valiantly tried to remake the Saudi Arabian abaya into a playful, more modern version of its black, drab, overcoat-like self.
The show’s organizer was the general manager of Saks Fifth Avenue in Saudi Arabia, Dania Tarhini. She was obviously thinking of her wealthier and more worldly-wise clients when she stated, “I realized that most of the Saudi clients are wearing designer brands, but they’re covered by a black abaya. It is an obligation to wear the abaya there, but let them feel good about it.”
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Static Culture, Static Fashion”
Generation Of Christian Leaders Riding Into Sunset Spark Reevaluation
-By Frederick Meekins
With the passing of Jerry Falwell and D. James Kennedy along with the dissolution of the Center for Reclaiming America and the Center for Christian Statesmanship, the issue has arisen once again as to whether or not conservative Evangelicals should participate in political activity. Since things have not gotten any better and if anything continued their downward spiral since the advent of the contemporary conservative Evangelical movement popularly referred to as the “Religious Right”, it has been suggested by some that politically interested Christians should be herded back into their pews to once again await the Apocalypse.
Interestingly, one of the foremost voices now opposed to conservative Evangelical political involvement is none other than columnist Cal Thomas, who at one time served as a Falwell underling as vice president of Moral Majority and spoke at Dr. Kennedy’s Reclaiming America for Christ conference. Thomas, in a column analyzing the passing of his former colleague titled “The Legacy of Jerry Falwell”, concludes of the Religious Right, “The movement also had its downside, because it tended to detract from a Christian’s primary responsibility of telling people the ‘good news’ that redemption comes only through Jesus Christ.”
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Generation Of Christian Leaders Riding Into Sunset Spark Reevaluation”
One Reason Our Healthcare System is in a Mess: Trial Lawyers
-By Warner Todd Huston
OK, my headline is admittedly too simplistic. In fact, the whole medical malpractice milieu is sorely in need of a fix. We have unnecessarily large awards to aggrieved patients, crushing insurance costs to doctors to cover malpractice, a situation where defensive medicine drives up costs, and an entire industry of lawyers whose job it is, apparently, to rape the system and cause it to be burdensome for all of us. On top of that, we have a national party in the Democrats assisting these very destructive lawyers to do just that. This is a part of our medical system that truly needs reform.
We can start by getting Democrats to stop doing everything they can to bend over backwards for the John Edwards’ of this world — ambulance chasers extraordinaire. Democrats are the reason this has gotten so bad. And imagine, we are trusting to Democrats to “fix” what they, themselves broke with the greedy assistance of the trial lawyers.
One Reason Our Healthcare System is in a Mess: Trial Lawyers”
Seven Generations of Service
-By John Armor
I was asked to write a brief history of the Church of the Incarnation, in Highlands. North Carolina, for a local magazine. The piece was intended to be about the building itself, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, and was built in 1896. But you cannot research the history of a church without also researching the history of the people who brought that church into being.
Of the dozen people who formed the congregation for this church, one was Sarah Whiteside Norton. She was the first non-native American child born in the Highlands area, the daughter of Barak Norton, who moved to Whiteside Cove in 1825. The town of Highlands itself, did not exist until its land was purchased and mapped by Kelsey & Hutchinson in 1879. But that’s another story.
The priest for the tiny Episcopal community in Highlands was the Rec. Deal. On a starting salary of $100 he traveled on horseback and on foot among four widely separated communities, holding the first service in Highlands in 1879. Shortly after, there was a meeting in the home of the Postmaster, David Norton, to petition the Bishop to create a mission in that area. That was the first step toward creating a church, David Norton was the grandson of Barak Norton.
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Seven Generations of Service”
State Workers Worried About Losing ‘Cadillac’ Medical Benefits
-By Warner Todd Huston
If you want to see the logical disconnect of unions and their lap dog lawmakers where it concerns costs to government, one need look no further than the over indulgent healthcare plan that New Hampshire’s state workers have been lavished with.
On July 4, the Boston Globe published a story that details the incredibly rich healthcare plan that state workers have succeeded in getting due to union negotiations with pliant Democrat lawmakers. It seems that they get just about any kind of care they want and all for “free.” It’s called a “Cadillac” healthcare plan and it is amazing for its coverage.
According to the Globe, surgery is free for New Hampshire state workers. So are MRIs, CT scans and X-Rays. It gets even more indulgent.
State Workers Worried About Losing ‘Cadillac’ Medical Benefits”
Harry Potter Fan Group Promotes Gay Marriage
-By Warner Todd Huston
Orlando Sentinel movie reviewer Roger Moore was excited to report on the efforts of some Harry Potter fans that want to “change the world” based on their interpretation of Potter character Dumbledore’s philosophy of life. He was happy, you see, because the group is all about “global transformation” and spreading global warming fears, gay marriage and the Employee Free Choice Act.
Moore writes abut a group called the Harry Potter Alliance whose website is a sort of Potter fan message board where fans write about what they are doing with their ideas on Potter philosophy. But, it goes “beyond the personal,” Moore approvingly says.
Harry Potter Fan Group Promotes Gay Marriage”
City of Chicago Fireworks Show: No Patriotic Songs Needed
-By Warner Todd Huston
So when you think Independence Day fireworks audio productions do you think of John Mellencamp, Kid Rock, and Neil Diamond as the musical accompaniment? Apparently the City of Chicago did. Either that, or the City of Chicago didn’t care enough about the patriotism inherent in an Independence Day fireworks show to make sure that the radio station they farmed the job out to bothered to include any patriotic songs in the program.
Not only were there no patriotic songs in the program (unless you think “R O C K in the USA” is a patriotic song?) but someone forgot to tell the obviously clueless radio station that the William Tell Overture is supposed to serve as the finale of the show, not as the tune that is supposed to start off the display!
The City of Chicago is becoming well known for raping its citizens, but it is also now widely known for doing its level best to ignore the Constitution of the USA with its unconstitutional gun banning laws, its practice of high taxation for little return, its internal, mobbed-up corruption, its high murder rate and now even a casual disregard for patriotism.
City of Chicago Fireworks Show: No Patriotic Songs Needed”
NYTimes Sneering at Christianity, Patriotism
-By Warner Todd Huston
It seems that on July fourth, The New York Times saw fit to smirk at both American patriotism and Christianity. A recent Times article about the erection of a giant, though strategically altered, replica of the Statue of Liberty by a showman of a Memphis pastor presented a perfect example of the ridicule and disdain with which the Times views Christianity and American patriotism, both. In Memphis, Tennessee, writer Shalia Dewan could barely hide her sarcasm and distaste for the patriotism and the muscular Christianity espoused by Pastor Alton R. Williams in her coverage of the unveiling of the 72-foot-tall statue.
Tellingly, the entire top third of Dewan’s piece is filled with mockery, mischacterization, inapt comparison and quote after quote from Pastor Williams’ detractors. It isn’t until the initial ridicule is over that writer Dewan finally gives the pastor room to explain what his purpose and principle is in creating the odd paean to Lady Liberty.
One of the inapt comparisons is contained in Dewan’s first paragraph.
NYTimes Sneering at Christianity, Patriotism”
AP’s Hyperbole Masquerades as Journalism
-By Warner Todd Huston
For the Associated Press, Tim Klass shows that taking liberties with facts by enveloping them in wild hyperbole can sex up a boring story into something much more alarming. Unfortunately, what one ends up with is not a presentation of news, but a promulgation of a narrative that befits a particular political agenda. And this time writer Klass uses his hyperbolic style to advance the guns-are-evil story line.
The headline startles the reader by screaming out “Powerful weapons found in Northwest drug raids.” One immediately imagines an image of dozens of high powered and dangerous guns, those above and beyond the norm, in the hands of these felonious drug dealers. One imagines enough guns to arm an army with the police sorely out numbered. But, when the story is read in its entirety, it becomes obvious that “powerful weapons” turns into one high powered pistol, the rest being your average, everyday firearms seen all over the place.
AP’s Hyperbole Masquerades as Journalism”
Reid, Pelosi Don’t Want Healthcare Bill Read by Congress, Public Before Vote
-By Warner Todd Huston
Amazingly, neither Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev) nor Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif) want to give Congress or the public much time to read the upcoming Healthcare bills they are rushing through their respective chambers before forcing a “yes” or “no” vote on them.
In a recent interview, Senator Reid was asked if he’d commit to giving the Senate and the public a week to digest any healthcare “reform” bill before he brought the bill up for a vote. Reid however, refused to make such a commitment.
Reid, Pelosi Don’t Want Healthcare Bill Read by Congress, Public Before Vote”
Unions Stand In Way of Calif. Budget Reform
-By Warner Todd Huston
Governor Schwarzenegger said it exactly right. Unions and lap-dog, Democrat legislators in Sacramento are doing their best to make sure that everyone but they have to sacrifice to save California’s budget. The governor told reporters that unions and Democrats are telling Californians, “We want you to make the sacrifices but we in Sacramento don’t want to make any sacrifices or any changes.”
Unions are pointing fingers at everyone but themselves and refusing to budge on cuts in their overweening benefits, lush pay scale and perks but are insisting everyone else make the sacrifices to save union jobs. And, let’s face it, jobs is all the unions care about. They have no interest in what is good for the state or the taxpayers.
I’d suggest a little fix that might help. Instead of furloughing state workers, how about firing some of the most unnecessary jobs and getting rid of them altogether?
Unions Stand In Way of Calif. Budget Reform”
The Ugly Face behind the Mask of Liberalism
-By Selwyn Duke
It has been interesting watching the response to the Honduran military’s recent ousting of its nation’s president, Manuel Zelaya. Barack Obama called the action “not legal” and Hillary Clinton said that the arrest of Zelaya should be condemned. Most interesting, perhaps, is that taking this position places them shoulder to shoulder with Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega and Venezuelan’s roaring mouse, Hugo Chavez, who is threatening military action against Honduras. Now, some would say this is an eclectic group — others would say, not so much — regardless, what has gotten them so upset?
Let’s start with what they say. They are calling the ouster a “coup” and claim that Zelaya is still Honduras’ rightful president. Some of them say we must support democracy. But they have said little, if anything, about the rule of law. And most of what they have said is wrong.
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The Ugly Face behind the Mask of Liberalism”
Publius Podcast – Let’s NOT Celebrate the Fourth
-By Warner Todd Huston
Here is the podcast version of my Independence Day feature.
A New 4th of July Declaration of Independence
-By Thomas E. Brewton
The 1776 Declaration was a resolution to throw off the tyranny of big government.
Borrowing from the 1776 document, the history of the present political administration is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute socialist tyranny over these states. When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce us under absolute despotism, it is our right, it is our duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for our future security.
Democrat/Socialists have made judges dependent upon their ideological will alone. They have erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out our substance. To support socialist labor unions they have threatened to cut off our trade with all parts of the world. They have altered fundamentally the forms of our government. They propose, for specious, scientistic purposes, to destroy major mining and manufacturing industries.
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A New 4th of July Declaration of Independence”
Let’s Not Celebrate July 4th
-By Warner Todd Huston
It is well known that John Adams had imagined that July second would be the day that future generations of Americans would remember as their day of independence from England, the nation’s birthday, if you will. It was, after all, on the second that it was proclaimed “(T)hat these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.”
But it was two days later that those gathered in defiance to the King declared a “Declaration of Independency” thereby adopting the famed document that carefully delineated the natural rights by which they claimed independence followed by a list of grievances that would explain why they invoked those rights.
So what are we celebrating? Is it our birth as a nation or are we celebrating the document of Independence? Early celebrations were mixed and a bit confused on that point. Additionally, celebrations on July fourth weren’t that common for a time after the Revolution was over. At first, not many felt a need to celebrate something that had happened and was over. It was time to move on from war in many American’s eyes.
Let’s Not Celebrate July 4th”
What Passes for ‘Journalism’ At HuffPo Isn’t
-By Warner Todd Huston
If you listen to the blabbers and gossipers, the Huffington Post is the talk of the town. It is claimed that Arianna Huffington’s “success” is the “new journalism,” the future of the news. TechNewsWorld proclaimed it “appropriate” that Huffington appeared in the YouTube series on journalism apparently because she personifies it. The New York Times celebrated HuffPo as “hybrid journalism” for its Iran coverage. Jeff Jarvis of The Guardian claims that Arianna is “saving journalism.” She was even just awarded the Fred Dressler Lifetime Achievement Award in journalism from Syracuse University. She even testified before a Congressional committee on journalism. And the list of accolades goes on.
But, what sort of “journalism” does Huffington Post represent? Is it the well researched sort with multiple links, named sources, or other such common journalistic practices? Most often no. In fact, those that write for Huffington Post rarely even bother with the normal journalistic practices of research, attribution, or the habit of having more than one source. Sadly, the largest bulk of what Huffington writers do is merely opine whether they have sourced information or not. And more often than not they do so from the extreme left-wing perspective.
Huffington Post is not “journalism.” It’s really just that simple.
What Passes for ‘Journalism’ At HuffPo Isn’t”
LATimes: Men Secretly Sympathize With Adulterers, ‘See Sanford in Mirror’
-By Warner Todd Huston
Meghan Daum of the L.A. Times has had an epiphany. The story of adulterous South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford is still in the news, she’s decided, because America’s men see themselves reflected in him. Yes, Daum apparently feels that all men are adulterers, so they sympathize with him causing the story to keep bumping along.
Daum spies some “gasp–empathy” for the governor in various corners of the Old Media and this, she has decided, must mean that there is a “tiny bit of Mark Sanford” in men across the country. One wonders if Daum spied this same lecherous “sympathy” abounding among Democrats when a certain president was wagging his finger in our faces and saying he “did not have sexual relations with that woman, Monica”?
Betcha she didn’t. As a matter of fact, I’ll bet no such thing crossed her mind as the Clinton’s Monica-gate raged on and on.
LATimes: Men Secretly Sympathize With Adulterers, ‘See Sanford in Mirror’”
The Kicker of St. John’s Wood: A Book Review
-By David M. Huntwork
A rational person in a rational world should be able to say that the premise and storyline of the latest book by author Gary Wolf is silly, ridiculous, and prone to flights of fancy. Unfortunately, in the first decade of the 21st century the subject matter and conjecture found in the pages of The Kicker of St. John’s Wood is not so far-fetched and is indeed instead a remarkably accurate and reflective look at the forces, feelings and mindset of the modern-day Left.
It is a world in the not so distant future where the forces of the Left have saddled professional sports with quadriplegic referees, transgendered concessionaires and stuttering sportscasters. Now the festering forces of radical feminism have decided to launch a direct assault upon the blatantly oppressive, misogynist and patriarchal world of “maleness” that is professional football.
The Kicker of St. John’s Wood: A Book Review”
Businesses Hit Hard With Obamacare, Say Goodbye to Mom and Pop Stores
-By Warner Todd Huston
The most insidious part of Obamacare is the backdoor taxes, and defacto control of our healthcare by the nanny state that President Obama’s plan is loaded with. And here is another one that is not getting much play. Employers would be socked with requirements to pay for 72.5 percent of the cost of insurance premiums for their full-time employees under the plan being considered in the House.
They would also be required to pick up an as yet undetermined percentage of the insurance plans for part-time employees, as well. This alone will insure that part-time jobs across the nation are terminated for the destructive cost involved in having them.
Or, conversely, many full-time jobs will be eliminated if the costs of insurance is so steep and that of part-timers less so. Either way, jobs will be lost because of these new, never before seen expenses.
Businesses Hit Hard With Obamacare, Say Goodbye to Mom and Pop Stores”
Now It’s SF Chron Using False ‘90% of Mexican Guns From US’ Line
-By Warner Todd Huston
The San Francisco Chronicle is proving the old bromide true. That’s the one that goes: “a lie can be half way ’round the world before the truth can pull its boots on” (often incorrectly attributed to Mark Twain). Then there is another one Twain didn’t originate but aptly fits here, “there are three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies and statistics.” The subject of this scoffing is that factoid the Old Media has been promulgating like gospel where “90% of Mexico’s confiscated guns are from the U.S.”
The problem with this “90%” refrain is that it just isn’t true. There is no truth in the claim that 90% of the guns Mexican officials confiscate from drug dealers in Mexico are from the U.S.A. But, true or not, the Old Media use this line as if it were received truth. Suspicions are easily raised that they do so because it fits their ideological matrix perfectly and the truth of the matter does not fit the approved story line.
Now It’s SF Chron Using False ‘90% of Mexican Guns From US’ Line”
If Canada’s System is So Great, Then Why…
-By Warner Todd Huston
The left continually holds up the Canadian socialized healthcare system as the best example, one we should strive to emulate. But as each week passes we find more and more reason to doubt the panacea in the Great White North.
Last week news came out that Canada forced an infant to flee its country and into our own to get life saving treatment. A baby was born 13 weeks premature in Ontario, Canada but there were no neonatal intensive care beds open for the child there.
If Canada’s System is So Great, Then Why…”
Ten Cost Cutting Suggestions for California
-By Ann “Babe” Huggett
Poor Kal-ee-for-nee-ah Governor Ahnold Schwarzenkennedy! He may have an “R” after his name politically but he’s been running California like a liberal for years now. However, it is finally catching up with him; as of July 1st California went from a state of great weather and fabulous scenery to one of fiscal emergency. Facing a $24.3 billion shortfall in the state’s budget, Governor Schwarzenegger called a special session of the state legislature on June 30th to close the gap but the state’s Republicans held firm against the frantic demands of the tax-tax-tax, spend-spend-spend and spend some more Democrats.
Now California’s vendors and local agencies will be getting IOUs instead of state checks We can also expect needed services and providers like police, firemen and health care workers to get the axe while Sacramento fat cats on six-figure salaries bloviate about the need to cut corners “somewhere”.
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Ten Cost Cutting Suggestions for California”
YouTube’s ‘How To’ on Citizen Journalism Filled With Lefty Media Types, No Conservatives
-By Warner Todd Huston
Apparently, YouTube doesn’t think that a conservative journalist has anything to say to help all you budding citizen journalists out there. A glance at the denizens of the Old Media offered up as journalism experts on the Internet video giant will show a long list of well known lefties with not a single center or center right professional in the mix.
On April 30, YouTube set up a channel dedicated to a sort of how-to instruction manual or an online media 101 class that folks interested in becoming citizen journalists can watch to help them learn some of the tricks of the Media trade. Ostensibly, this will help the average, every day blogger present his work in a more professional way. This is a great idea, by the way. Many blogs could use some tips on better writing and presentation, interview skills, and video presentation if not an occasional editor — and I should know on that last one!
But it seems that no one that represents the center-right in the world of journalism seems to qualify as an expert as far as Google’s YouTube is concerned. Going to the main page will reveal a whole bunch of lefty jurnos offering you their help. Not only do we get the advice from the heavily left-slanted Chris Cillizza, NPR or Katie Couric, but YouTube even offers “advice” from AlJazeera’s Riz Kahn, for Pete’s sake!
Imagine, AlJeazeera on journalistic professionalism!
YouTube’s ‘How To’ on Citizen Journalism Filled With Lefty Media Types, No Conservatives”