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by Jordan Ballor [commentator]
In the midst of ongoing debate over the scope and desirability of various health care reform proposals, an obvious and critical component of cost management is going unnoticed: malpractice litigation. (more…)
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by Dan Gainor [media analyst]
Time to call in all those loans, and be paid for all that technology, food, medicine, humanitarian assistance, military aid…
The left is constantly arguing for so-called “fair trade” to make up for previous unfair financial practices. “We need economic justice,” they scream.
I agree. It’s time for those greedy ingrates to pay their fair share.
I mean the third world of course. For too long the United States has carried the third world on its back, providing jobs, emergency aid and never-ending charity. (more…)
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by Sarah Knoploh and Matt Philbin [media critics]
Predictably, media love movie about straight men and gay sex.
Filmmakers, do you want to impress critics at The New York Times, Newsweek and Time Magazine, while alienating vast legions of moviegoers? Then “Humpday,” has the formula for you!
Have your two “straight” male leads have sex with each other in a video for an “experimental homemade pornography” film festival. Oh, and in order to impress those writers (whom you may run into at a Manhattan cocktail party) make sure to stress that it’s not gay and it’s not porn either. It’s art masquerading as “bromance” comedy. (more…)
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by Dan Gainor [Media Analyst]
It’s time the right teaches Obama his victory was short-lived.
Nearly 200 years ago, emperor Napoleon came back from exile and re-conquered France without firing a shot. His conquest of Europe failed when Napoleon, in proper English terms, was soundly thrashed at Waterloo by the Duke of Wellington.
Napoleon might be long gone, but President Obama is doing his best to fill his boots. (more…)
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by Dan Gainor [commentator]
Millionaire media stars get their wish as president goes after wealthy CEOs while filling D.C. with his own czars.
In “Fiddler on the Roof,” the hero Tevye sang of how he wished he were wealthy. “If I Were a Rich Man” became a Broadway and movie favorite as a catchy tune and even catchier sentiment. As the struggling Russian peasant explained, “It’s no shame to be poor, but it’s no great honor either.”
No, today, the shame is being rich and President Barack Obama seems determined to bestow the “honor” of poverty on as many as possible. Forget the horrendous tax-and-spend policies that gradually impoverish us all. Obama’s new target is a direct one – the evil, greedy CEO. To do so, he is set to appoint Kenneth Feinberg as his new “Pay Czar.” (more…)
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by Dan Gainor [commentator]
You’re a hater.
Face it. You wouldn’t even be reading this right-wing, reactionary claptrap if you weren’t. After all, I’m a hater as well. So are countless conservatives from Sean Hannity to Rush Limbaugh. Ann Coulter? Was that a question? Michelle Malkin. Of course, she’s a conservative star. Bill O’Reilly? The left has secured a special place in secular hell for him because he criticized partial-birth abortion Dr. George Tiller.
In fact, all conservatives are considered haters unless they agree with President Obama – on everything. Scary, dangerous haters who “cling to guns or religion,” as the president once put it. Especially guns because we are having an epidemic of political killings in America.
Or so we are told. (more…)
by Julia Gorin [pundit, comedian]
The joyful African-Americans cheering the Obama victory across the country haven’t been this happy since O.J. got acquitted. As we speak, Obama’s Kenyan relatives are slaughtering bulls, goats and a chicken in honor of the victory. (And we thought Jimmy Carter had some embarrassing relatives.) A London Times reporter came bearing the gift of a sacrificial goat named John.
So black people voted for Barack Obama because they think he’s black. Muslims supported Obama becausethey think he’s Muslim. Gays voted for Obama because he’s rumored to be gay. And of course Democrats voted for Obama because he’s a communist. Meanwhile, with a recent TV ad featuring exclusively Obama’s white relatives, the campaign wanted white people to vote for Obama because he’s white
Award-winning film BELLA, Ed Vizenor, has made a video vividly outlining the dangers of Obama’s position on abortion. The film features well-known Hispanic leading man Eduardo Verástegui, the star of BELLA. The video short contains footage from the film Harder Truth. It is bookended by Eduardo’s own stirring story. The short film is particularly designed to hit the Hispanic community who, if you believe the polls, are coming out for Obama.
by Anthony Bradley [Acton Institute]
With only a few weeks to Election Day, racial politics has reared its pathetic head as pundits attempt to decipher poll numbers and audience comments at political rallies. It seems silly to imagine that adults in America may vote along racial lines but it should come as no surprise. Many people on the ideological margins of society vote irrationally. In fact, voting along racial lines says less about racism than it does about the lack of mature civic responsibility among voters who are indifferent to the nation’s common good.
While using race as an ultimate criterion for supporting or rejecting a candidate is equally unjustifiable and shallow, the possibility of doing exactly that is one of the trade-offs of being free. (more…)
by Craig J. Hazen [guest, academic]
Comedy tastes change over time. I’m sure a water-squirting daisy on a jacket lapel was a riot in its day. Knock-knock jokes kept me and my friends pretty entertained in second grade. And I’m sure Henny Youngman would not get the same laughs today if he were still alive doing stand up.
The new film Religulous starring comedian Bill Maher (HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher) and directed by Larry Charles (Borat, Curb Your Enthusiasm) seemed to fall pretty flat in the laughs department—like it was appealing to an audience that may have been amused by it twenty years ago. I was struck by how little laughter there was among those in the opening-weekend crowd. (In terms of magnitude, I use the word “crowd” here in the sense of the “crowd” that might attend a Joe Biden campaign rally.) Religulous was showing in the smallest theater in the multiplex (not much bigger than the “truck-driver’s chapel” that appeared in the film) and even then it was only about a third full. (more…)
