essential Q=>MT @RBPundit@MiriamGoderich! Read statement RE: Obama's bio. Where did you come up w/tidbit (in 1991) Obama was born in Kenya? sayeth Prudy15 hours ago
Earth Day has brought another round of indoctrination for minds of mush across the land, teaching that the mean ol’ human race should be sacrificed to nature. With a straight face, the deacons of the environmental movement declare that Republicans want to pollute all water and air and raze all trees and kill all animals. There’s no sense of proportion to the environmental lobby’s propaganda.
Earlier this week, Robert H. Nelson, a University of Maryland professor of environmental policy, wrote an excellent editorial providing some key points of evidence that environmentalism has become a religion. It has turned our schools into houses of Gaia worship, demanding our children serve as altar boys and girls.
Even as it adopts secular forms, environmentalism borrows to a surprising degree from Jewish and Christian history.
For example, it says in Deuteronomy that, for those who worship false idols, God “will send disease among you … fever, infections, plague and war. … (and) will blight your crops.” In 2010, Al Gore similarly foresaw environmental sinners headed toward calamity on a biblical scale, facing rising seas, “stronger and more destructive” hurricanes and droughts “getting longer and deeper.”
In contemporary environmentalism, the largest religious debts are owed to Calvinism. It was John Calvin who wrote that God has “revealed himself and daily discloses himself in the whole workmanship of the universe.” For both Calvin and environmentalism, the natural world is the artwork of God.
Man’s role is to conserve God’s work. Thus, the rituals of environmentalism celebrate reduced consumption — lowering the heat, driving fewer miles, using less water, living in smaller houses, having fewer children. Limiting human appetites, rather than satisfying ever-growing demands, is the environmental command.
It’s time that conservatives, Republicans, Christians and like-minded individuals refuse to permit themselves to be pushed further from the public square while environmentalists turn our classrooms into Druid seminaries.
Even President Obama declared himself to be the high priest, if not the messiah, of the environmental church when he declared his coming to be the start of the waters receding and the planet healing—intoning this as if it were scripture, dictating their gospel.
It’s time that we call a religion a religion and refuse to be required to attend its state-sanctioned church services.
At CPAC, the trailer to the upcoming movie Hating Breitbart was previewed, and it looked awesome. Condolences to the filmmakers who must write an ending now that they never could have anticipated, and certainly never wanted.
I look forward to seeing it as a tribute to Andrew Breitbart’s life and impact on America and continued inspiration to carry on under his banner.
Occupy Wall Street likes to claim it is not a violent movement, and yet across the country, rapes and riots abound. The common response from Occupiers when arrests and property damage get reported is that the degenerates perpetrating the crimes were not a part of the movement. They just happened to be there.
In one of the latest examples of the violent bloodthirst that bubbles within the aimless, demand-less movement, this joker—Nkrumah Tinsley, 29—ranted about how they were going to “burn New York to the f***ing ground.” He then went on to rave about firebombing Macy’s department store with a Molotov Cocktail on November 17, the Occupy Wall Street two-month anniversary, which they have dubbed their Day of Action.
(Poor Macy’s. These loons are also targeting its Thanksgiving Day parade for massive trouble. Fortunately, if they carry through with their parade threats, they will give America and its children a real eyeful of the despicable nature of their movement and its pointless, misdirected, impotent “protest.”)
But look at all the Occupy people surrounding this idiot as he promotes anarchy and arson. Is there anyone appalled at such suggestion, or telling him how wrong that idea is? No. It’s smiles and approving nods all around.
Don’t let anyone tell you these criminals are anything but leaders and role models for Occupy Wall Street.
On the 17th, we going to burn New York City to the f-cking ground.
…
Ain’t no more talking, They got guns we got bodies. They got bricks we got rocks. Let’s see what they got.
[Young man in the background] They got missiles, we got bombs.
I want them…I want them to make that decision so they can see…in a few days you going to see what a molotov cocktail can do to Macy’s.
Says the man as he…signs an autograph?
In that same post, Verum asked:
Who the hell is this guy, to make what can only be described as a terrorist threat so brazenly with cameras rolling. I’d joke and say he must be a tea party infiltrator, but seriously, does anyone have any contacts with the NYPD or the DHS? This is way, way over the line.
In the linked NY Daily News article about the arrest, the paper provides evidence that Tinsley has been an Occupier for quite some time, as they note his October arrest during an Occupy protest where he punched a cop in the face and kicked him on the ground. So a known violent police attacker was welcomed back into their midst at Zuccotti Park, as they crowded around him and chanted his rants for him so everyone could hear them.
And then we have right-wing bloggers like VerumSerum doing what Occupy Wall Street won’t do: standing up for the 100% of all that is decent and honorable in America—and getting those that would firebomb it arrested instead of cheered.
Note: Isn’t it interesting that Occupy is calling their anniversary “Day of Action” when their first day of protest back on September 17 was called “Day of Rage.” Guess they are trying to hide their roots in a call for violent anger.
The Morning Spew has smashed together footage of the cult-like “process” at an Occupy Atlanta rally that denied civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis the chance to speak and footage from Monty Python’s classic The Life of Brian. The result is hilarious…and spot-on commentary on the Occupy movement.
A group calling themselves the Coalition to Protect America’s Health Care is running the following commercial of self-righteous cranky geezers demanding that Congress continue bankrupting America for their benefit:
Don’t you love having a lecturing old lady glaring at you over the top of her spectacles? Once again, it’s liberals treating the citizens like misbehaving children. It doesn’t engender any sympathy in me. I find it downright insulting.
The odd thing is that this group, “Coalition to Protect America’s Health Care,” is supposedly up in arms over $100 billion in cuts to Medicare, and yet there was not a peep out of them during the ObamaCare passage that slashed $500 billion out of the program. Why weren’t they trying to Protect America’s Health Care from decimation then?
The answer to that question can be found at their website. Take a look at their list of campaigns, and you’ll see that they only oppose Republican efforts to save the Medicare program, but they have no problem with the Democrats raiding their benefits for their nefarious purposes. (The one time they were on the Republican side was in their clamor for the new entitlement of prescription drugs in Medicare.)
They are quite good at alarming the public—particularly old people—with their advertising, which proposes no revamping of the Medicare/Medicaid systems to save them. It just screams, as it shoves its way onto our TVs, that we need to just keep feeding the monster more money. Forget that we’re bankrupting the nation. Of their bullying success, they say:
Since 2000 we have seen an impressive return on investment:
Payment improvements: $37.5 billion…return of $2,100 for every dollar invested
With reductions avoided: $457 billion…return of $30,000 for every dollar invested
In addition, the Coalition’s advertising moved public opinion and established a base of knowledge in communities about the financial pressures facing hospitals. Survey research completed by Public Opinion Strategies revealed that, in markets that saw no Coalition advertising, 42% of respondents said hospitals faced “good times,” and 36% said hospitals faced “bad times.”
In markets where all of the Coalition advertising was seen, there was a dramatic difference—only 27% reported “good times” and 55% said hospitals were facing “bad times.”
Take a look at the three people in that ad above. Each one of them is literally stealing the money right out of the piggy banks of their grandchildren. Do they care about that? Look at their faces. The answer is written all over them: NO.
Unfortunately for the advertisers, in the new proposed debt ceiling deal, it’s Barack Obama, not Republicans, who has now put another $500 billion in Medicare cuts up as his preferred “punishment” when the Super Committee fails to come up with any agreeable plan for $1.4 trillion more in cuts.
Let’s see how long they keep running the commercial now.
The White House—that illustrious, stately, venerable seat of the executive branch of the most powerful government in the world—has taken to tweeting the equivalent of giving someone a loogie or a swirlie or a wedgie. They have Rickroll’d* a constituent.
During a Twitter event, named #WHchat, in which the White House was fielding questions from the general public, one guy tweeted a little poke:
@wiggsd (David Wiggs) wrote: “This WH correspondence briefing isn’t nearly as entertaining as yesterday’s. #TCOT#WHchat“
to which the White House flippantly replied:
@whitehouse wrote to @wiggsd: “Sorry to hear that. Fiscal policy is important, but can be dry sometimes. Here’s something more fun: tinyurl.com/y8ufsnp #WHChat”
That tinyurl.com link goes to a clip of Rick Astley’s music video of his hit song “Never Gonna Give You Up.”
* Rickrolling is a passe internet fad. It’s a trite way of tricking someone into clicking a video link that purports to be something of interest to someone, but instead serves them up this Astley video. Rickrolling was all the rage back in 2007, until it quickly became highly annoying. The world was grateful when the fad went away. Now like flu, the White House is trying to bring it back?
I actually think the tweet was kinda of funny, because it is so incredibly juvenile. I mean, who other than 6-year-olds Rickroll anyone anymore? So it’s unexpected.
But this is an account that is supposed to represent all American citizens to the world. This is the dignity of the United States at hand. For some reason, this administration seems to think that the persons behind the official Twitter accounts of prestigious and official government departments and officials can take their pants off, pop open a beer and try their hand at amateur standup comedy on Twitter’s 24/7 open mic night. (Recall PJ Crowley, spokesman for the State Department, using his Twitter account to tweak foreign leaders with insults until he finally resigned?)
Do we really want a government that runs around sticking “Kick Me” signs on everyone’s back? Is this what we have devolved to? It’s a slippery slope toward putting a whoopie cushion on the guest of honor’s chair at a state dinner or using a joy buzzer when shaking hands with the Queen. Yes, it would be hilarious, because it would be so inappropriate. But we need a White House that we don’t have to worry is gonna get caught mooning tourists or playing ding-dong-ditch down embassy row.
Yeah, yeah, call me a humorless ol’ stick-in-the-mud, but given the supposed seriousness of the issue of the day—the debt ceiling, which what was being discussed in the #WHchat—and President Obama’s proclivity for lecturing Republicans about the need to be adult, this is a far cry from behaving properly.
I’m not exactly the only one thinking this. David Wiggs, the recipient of the Rickroll tweet—and a Republican I would assume, as he tweeted a happy birthday greeting to George Bush earlier in the month, to which he added the hashtag #wemissyou—took it all in good humor, but many of those that tweeted to him about it were not so laissez-faire:
@HavanasBananastweeted to @wiggsd: “lame that @whitehouse retweeted this during #whchat when so many Americans had way more significant things to say. thumbs down”
@wiggsdreplied to @HavanasBananas: “I thought it was funny…but good point.”
@SiriusFarmtweeted: “sure seems like the #WH would have more important things to do than #rickrolling @wiggsd – I see where their priorities are”
And @DWGen1tweeted: “Hrm, The White House Rick Rolled someone.. Wonder How Much was appropriated for this, are they paying royalties?”
That last tweet has a point…although they probably weren’t being serious. Would the White House have an obligation to pay royalties for using someone’s copyrighted material in the course of their business? (If Astley could collect royalties from all the Rickrolling, he would be one of the wealthiest men in the world.) Don’t forget, this is an official account. They say so in their Twitter bio:
It is so official that they felt it necessary to warn people that tweet interactions with them are subject to privacy laws and may be archived as official White House communication. Do we really want this White House Rickrolling to live on in infamy, for future generations to tut-tut at the immaturity of this White House?
The people in the White House need to grow up and conduct themselves in a manner befitting the privilege of working for the People in one of the most renown buildings in the world. The world is already concerned we can’t manage our checkbook. We don’t need the toddlers running around giggling wildly and pulling the People’s pigtails while the elected officials attempt to demonstrate maturity and responsibility.
Here’s my suggestion: Keep official government department and official accounts sacrosanct. Don’t screw around with them or tell “yo momma” jokes with them. Preserve what shreds of dignity we have left. This administration has fairly stripped us bare.
The persons behind these talent-show tweets should establish a separate, personal account, where they can tweet their prepubescent hilarity to their hearts’ delight.
If we don’t stand up against these Stooge-ish antics, the next thing you know, the White House will be dredging up footage of the angry Hitler scene in the movie Downfall, and replacing the real English subtitles with phony dialogue about the debt ceiling. Yeah, that will be a real fresh and unique gag. NOT, as they used to gratingly say back when it was still cool.
Stop the insanity. Don’t make us have to get a nanny to discipline the nanny state.
Today’s post is a classic from the files of guest blogger SooperMexican. It’s still relevant, as the court cases continue in Wisconsin. Enjoy…
Hey gringos y gringas:
The left has made all sorts of ridiculous claims about the protest in Wisconsin against Scott Walker’s plan to bring some fiscal responsibility and sanity to their budget problems. In an attempt to combat this, I’ve put together the following factsheet: arm yourselves with the truth, and shoot some new-tone holes in your enemies!
If you’d like to tweet just the image without this post, use this short link:
http://bit.ly/WISoopFACTsheet
This one ain’t available on a Sooper T-shirt unless you’re really skinny..
[Updates at end!...but be sure to check out the new logo that SooperMexican designed for the Wisconsin "public service" union knuckleheads: click here.]
In an article titled “Despite Budget Cuts, Layoff Fears, Milwaukee Teachers Fight for Taxpayer-Funded Viagra,” Fox News reported:
At least one lawmaker questioned why the union is fighting for Viagra while teachers are losing their jobs. A consultant for the school board has estimated that reinstating the drug benefit would cost $786,000 per year — the cost to keep perhaps a dozen first-year teachers employed.
For the math challenged, that works out to a first-year teacher earning $65,500. Sign me up!
The article also said:
The union has argued the costs are tiny compared to the $1.3 billion annual budget. But the school board says they are “particularly burdensome” when it is under pressure to reduce benefit costs.
That the pills — which can cost $20 apiece without insurance — were included in the first place is somewhat unusual. Health insurer Aetna Inc., which provides one of the district’s two plans, says its standard pharmacy plans exclude Viagra and other “drugs for lifestyle enhancement or performance.”
Note that the teachers pay little if anything at all for their health plans. Yet:
Board and union negotiators reached a deal in 2002 to cover six tablets per month for erectile dysfunction drugs in health plans that insure 10,000 employees, dependents and retirees. They quickly became popular.
By 2004, the number of claimants receiving prescriptions skyrocketed to more than 1,000 per year, costing the district $207,000. During negotiations in 2005, the board proposed eliminating the benefit and an arbitrator adopted the plan.
A gender discrimination suit has apparently held up the removal of Viagra from the health plans.
And now these teachers have flooded the halls of the Madison capitol building complaining that they shouldn’t have to contribute anything to cover their health care—among other whines.
I could make a bad off-color joke here about how this Viagra protest was a perfect example of how the teacher unions can’t even screw the public on their own but instead demand the public pay them to do it…but I won’t.
UPDATE:
Several bloggers have done an excellent job in summarizing the events of the Wisconsin union agitations this week:
Jimmie Bise, aka @JimmieBJR, at The Sundries Shack says “This Is the Week That Should End Public Sector Unions” and I could not agree more.
Public sector unions are, as I have said before, a blight on our states and nation. We should do everything in our power to rid ourselves of them entirely and make sure, by law if necessary, that they can never come back again. It would make me very happy if Governor Walker fired every single teacher who called out sick over the past two days. They let down the taxpayers of Wisconsin and, more importantly, taught their students that it’s okay to lie, cheat, and steal in order to get what you want.
What’s more, government “bargaining” agreements with public employees is are no bargain for taxpayers who are essentially unrepresented in any “negotiations.” It’s not the bureaucrat’s money on the line that he gives away without much concern for the fiscal consequences down the line.
Dan Collins, aka @vermontaigne, of Piece Of Work In Progress says he can’t write much today because of other work and then proceeds to put together an amazing collection of links pertaining to the extortion protests going on in Wisconsin—including creating a new verse to the The Who’s “Magic Bus” which he renames “Union Bus.”
Dan, a former Wisonsin native, wrote at POWIP.com:
What I’d like to see is someone go out and video reactions when they tell the kids that these apparent holidays now will mean make-up days in June. Think any of their teachers taking them to rally have told them that? I seem to recall that Wisconsin has laws regarding truancy, too, or at least so I was told with regard to Senior Skip Day when I was in school.
And then there’s @diggrbiii of The Right Sphere, who writes in his post titled “OFA (Obama’s Re-Election Campaign) Organizes Civil Unrest”:
This entire situation is a case study in corruption. As Jenny Erikson explains, Public Sector unions are inherently corrupt because when they protest, they don’t just impact a company or an industry, they impact the whole society. The PUBLIC. In this case, school districts get shut down. A couple of months ago, people died because a Public Sector Union in New York City decided they were going to send a message to the city leadership. Public Sector Unions can hold the public hostage. How is that fair to everyone else? Where’s the equality there?
He concludes his post with an update saying the DNC is now claiming they haven’t helped the WI hoopla all that much. I’ve been collecting a bit of evidence on that. Let’s see if I find time to “organize” it and get it posted.
Update #2
Nope, sorry, didn’t get it all organized in time. Still plan to give a few links, but in the meantime I highly recommend checking out two items at SooperMexican’s site:
A union teacher forgets to close the flap on her union suit before she calls into the Tim Conway Jr. radio show because she sure shows her bare bottom, and
The Wisconsin public service unions get a new logo.
State education officials have ordered the emergency financial manager for Detroit Public Schools to immediately implement a plan that balances the district’s books by closing half its schools.
The Detroit News says the financial restructuring plan will increase high school class sizes to 60 students and consolidate operations.
Hear that? Sixty students per class. I have substitute taught in high schools before. I can’t imagine how you could ever sufficiently instruct each of those 60 students, let alone even know who they are. A class period would allot for less than one minute of attention per student. Most classrooms barely hold 30 students. How will they pack 60 into one class?
Perhaps Detroit should look at eliminating the administration and the unions and focus on teaching children. Or just give in already and give the money to the private schools to take over the entire system. It would really be for the best.
Oh! and welcome to POWIP readers. Dan Collins has done some fantastic commentary and reporting on the Wisconsin union pity parade (including this post on the shenanigans the Wisconsin Democrats tried to pull in a special lame duck session before the Republicans took over)….AND on the Detroit closing (I can’t stay ahead of that guy)… and the sorry state of the Milwaukee public schools and the interesting reason why they are struggling. I could link to practically all of his recent posts for you. But instead, I suggest just going there and perusing all the posts yourself. I’m sure you’ll find something of interest.
In response to an extrememly short post on Dan Collins’ website, Piece of Work in Progress (POWIP.com), about Andrew Breitbart’s latest pimp sting and its correlation to Bloomberg’s Arizona gun show sting, I went off on a bit of a rant. It’s something I’ve been meaning to say about the lousy Mayor Michael Bloomberg for quite some time, so I reprint it here for Prudence Paine Papers posterity.
Bloomberg. Argh! The quintessential example of an elite. Sticks his nose in where he has no business. Recognizes no boundaries to his power…because, of course, all little people need his guidance, should aspire to be like him. (He takes pity on them; they’re so laughably inept and moronic they’ll never be worthy of him. Yet he exudes beneficence in his toleration of them.)
9/11 occurred on local election day in NYC. Rudy Giuliani was not on the ballot because he was term-limited to 8 years. The horror of that morning shut down the polls. Before they were later reopened, a clamor arose to put Rudy on the ballot, to allow him to continue to heal and rebuild the city. Bloomberg was staunchly against it, saying no one was so important we couldn’t do without them.
Yet, 8 years later, Bloomberg convinced the astoundingly dumb NYC voters to change the city charter and grant him third term…and for what?!
Now, nearly 10 years since that first election day, Ground Zero is a perfect example of Bloomberg’s leadership of the city. It’s basically still a giant hole (despite Shepard Smith’s cheerleading in trying to claim significant progress), with the worst possible symbolic design to replace the solid, stolid design of the Towers. Costs have soared, disputes remain unresolved, the glory and vibrancy of the area has not been restored, a mosque is being encouraged by Bloomberg himself to desecrate the graveyard of the thousands that could never be recovered beyond their ashes and dust that still linger, and now comedian John Stewart has been appointed to the board of the 9/11 memorial. What a tragic joke.
Now Nanny Bloomers is off on a new crusade in which he has no authority, and can only nip and growl at consumer choice and Constitutional rights. Don’t you love how he selects a locale to attack that’s already being savaged and sued by the White House, media and losers like him?
Let this episode be fair warning to any fool who would think for even a millisecond that an “independent” Bloomers candidacy for President is a good idea. There’s little difference between him and Hugo Chavez when it comes to power grabs and self-opinion.
I made a horrid mistake and voted for him once. Then I had to move out of his jurisdiction to get away from his outrageous prohibitions and taxes. So he better get his grabby hands back inside his limo up there and leave the rest of us alone.
America will not become his personal fiefdom if I have anything to say about it. (And, as you can tell, I have plenty to say!)
Unfortunately there is no new clever, or serious, or boring post on The Prudence Paine Papers tonight. In honor of the determination of the Left and the media to blame Sarah Palin’s “violent rhetoric” for the mass murders in Tucson, the right wing of Twitter was all atwitter today with a new hashtag game: #BlamePalin.
And so, I spent the evening fishing through the entertaining Twitter stream of all the numerous events and items for which Sarah Palin is surely to blame—according to the laws of liberal logic.
As a result, there is one thing for which I know Sarah Palin’s rhetoric is definitely to be blamed: no new Prudence post. #BlamePalin
Therefore, in substitution, I present some of my more favorite #BlamePalin hashtag game entries:
Driving troubled lunatics into insane fits of rage, causing them to get primetime host jobs at MSNBC #BlamePalin
Destruction of the Aztecs, Creation of Pontiac Aztek #BlamePalin
[NYTimes columnist] Paul Krugman’s confusion whether this hashtag game is sarcastic or not #BlamePalin
36 of Keith Olbermann’s last 43 nervous breakdowns #BlamePalin
********************************
Another clever hashtag game that was popular earlier in the day was #NewTone: gentle mockings of the media’s and the left’s hypocritical call to eliminate all “vitriolic” language, to adopt a new politically correct, Big Brother double-speak tone for public discourse.
