Black Tea Party: The Crispus Attucks Tea Party

I know this will cause a serious case of cognitive dissonance with Liberals who think that the Tea Party is racist, but here goes ... from Sally MacDonald in Houston (emphasis added)...

Black Tea in Houston: MyFoxHOUSTON.com

Black Tea in Houston

HOUSTON - It's a tea party unlike any Houston, and perhaps the entire country, has ever seen. The first Black Tea Party held its inaugural meeting Tuesday night in the Third Ward. Organizers of the Crispus Attucks Tea Party are quick to point out that anyone is welcome and it's not a political party.

Their mission statement reads in part:

"To build a strong base of conservative Black entrepreneurs, elected officials and constituents that provide Black conservatives a viable way to express and implement their conservative values politically."

Co-founder Anita Moncrief says the party is also looking to overcome stereotypes.

"We're trying to break the stereotype that the tea party is racist," said Moncrief.

At least half of the 75 or so people who attended the first meeting are white and have been defending the rights of taxpayers for a while.

Then there's Marie Johnson, a longtime Black Democrat. She's fed up with the direction the country is going and wanted to see what the movement is all about.

"It (race) didn't make any difference to me as long as I had a tea party and we get together," said Johnson.

The meeting was held at "This Is It" Soul Food restaurant in the heart of the Third Ward. It's no secret Black voters overwhelmingly support Democratic candidates.

Customers we spoke with are skeptical the Black Tea Party movement will be successful.

"It's just not in my system to want to identify with any party other than Democrat," said John Hollins".

"It's not really about Republican or Democrat. It's about the black community. The minority vote has been misused and manipulated by people for so long," said Moncrief.

Newly elected Texas State Representative James Early White (R-TX District 12) isn't worried about taking any heat for being a Black Tea Party activist. He won in a predominantly white district.

"I've won a campaign, so I don't know about any backlash," he said.

Johnson doesn't feel she has to defend her views either.

"Frankly I'm the type of person that's not afraid to step out of the box. I think Black people need to be more concerned about what our politicians are doing for our community, where is our money going and what are they doing with it," said Johnson.

Here's a copy of their flyer.

I will say it seems like the report has an air of skepticism to it ... as if Whites are behind the group and this is not really something begun by a Black person.  The reporter points out that half of the attendees were White.  I like to think that it was a show of solidarity on the part of both Blacks and Whites.  Perhaps it's another reporter who just does not want to believe that Black Americans can "step outside the box" and not always blindly follow the Democratic agenda.

ObamaCare: If Not Repealed Federally, Then States Will Continue to Fight

With the House, under new Housespeaker John Boehner's leadership, quickly voting on Wednesday to repeal ObamaCare with a vote of 245-189, there is great skepticism as to whether the same can be accomplished in the Democrat-dominated Senate.  However, individual states continue their own crusade against ObamaCare.  Here's a current update on the states' fight:

Idaho Set to Nullify Obama's Health Care Law

BOISE, Idaho -- After leading the nation last year in passing a law to sue the federal government over the health care overhaul, Idaho's Republican-dominated Legislature now plans to use an obscure 18th century doctrine to declare President Barack Obama's signature bill null and void.

Lawmakers in six other states -- Maine, Montana, Oregon, Nebraska, Texas and Wyoming -- are also mulling "nullification" bills, which contend states, not the U.S. Supreme Court, are the ultimate arbiter of when Congress and the president run amok.

It's a concept that's won favor among many tea party adherents who believe Washington, D.C., is out of control.

Though a 1958 U.S. Supreme Court decision reaffirmed that federal laws "shall be the supreme law of the land," Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter" is promoting the idea, too. In his January 10 State of the State speech, he told Idaho residents "we are actively exploring all our options -- including nullification."

...

It's been tried before, a long time ago.

Back in 1799, Thomas Jefferson wrote in his "Kentucky Resolution," a response to federal laws passed amid an undeclared naval war against France, that "nullification, by those sovereignties, of all unauthorized acts... is the rightful remedy."

Three decades later, South Carolina Sen. John Calhoun pushed nullification of federal tariffs that many in the South deemed discriminatory toward agricultural slave states. President Andrew Jackson readied the military, before a compromise defused the situation.

In 1854, Wisconsin also sought to nullify the federal Fugitive Slave Act that forced non-slave states to return escapees.

 Click here for the rest of the story.

The New American reports that six other states are joining Florida in its lawsuit:

Just one day before the House voted to repeal ObamaCare, six additional states joined a Florida lawsuit against the measure — bringing the total challenging the law to 26 -- more than half the states in the Union, according to Fox News, Jan. 19.

Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Wyoming are taking part in the suit filed by Florida’s former Attorney General Bill McCollum (R), immediately after it was signed into law last March. McCollum was initially joined by the National Federal of Independent Business in protesting the 10-year, $938 billion measure.

Already part of the suit are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Idaho, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Washington.

Other states have also pursued suits against ObamaCare — in December a federal judge in Virginia ruled against the provision that individuals be required to purchase health insurance.

The states in the Florida suit make the same claim — the law is unconstitutional. It violates individual rights by forcing people to buy insurance or face penalties, and its mandate on the states provides no funds to pay for it. Plaintiffs maintain the states are placed in the impossible position of accepting the new costs or forfeiting federal Medicaid funding.

This state-by-state campaign to repeal ObamaCare started last spring.  

G.E. and MSNBC: Immelt Takes Seat with Obama Administration

Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric (GE) which owns MSNBC, has been named to Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.  How convenient.  The U.S. just got a "two-fer."  One, we have a major contributor to our Pravda-like press, Obama's lap dog, now actually advising the Administration on jobs,  Two, G.E. is a corporation that stands to profit heavily from the Green industry.  Check out Chris Stirewalt's report:

Obama Brings Good Things to Light at G.E.

“Jeff Immelt’s experience at G.E. and his understanding of the vital role the private sector plays in creating jobs and making America competitive makes him up to the challenge of leading this new council.”


-- Statement from President Obama announcing that G.E. CEO Jeff Immelt will lead the new President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

When Democrats said President Obama was “pro-business,” we didn’t know they meant one business in particular.

There are a few companies on the Obama corporate A List – Democratic patrons Google and Goldman Sachs both turn up again and again at White House functions and for special recognition – but no company seems to get the VIP treatment that General Electric receives.

Obama will announce today on a visit to a G.E. plant in Schenectady, N.Y. that G.E. CEO Jeffrey Immelt will lead his new Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. The panel replaces the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volker.

Volker, who helped President Ronald Reagan whip inflation and launch two decades of growth, will be replaced by Immelt, who has often spoken of his desire to put G.E. on the inside track for government subsidies and incentives in the Obama era.

Whether it is pushing the president’s plan for global warming fees in order to create demand for his “Ecomagination” line of windmills, solar panels, etc., boosting the president’s national health-care law as part of an effort to sell more medical equipment, or enthusing over the Obama strategy of making loans available for industrial exporters, Immelt has been an Obama stalwart all along. Immelt has also consistently argued to shareholders that there is big money to be made in advancing the Democratic agenda.

While most corporate leaders have taken a wait and see approach to Obama’s occasional overtures to the private sector, G.E., along with Google, Goldman and few others, have backed him to the hilt.

It is unclear how the administration plans to deal with the ethics challenges created by having a CEO whose income is determined by stock performance leading a panel designed to recommend government policies. G.E. (2009 revenue: $157 billion) is a huge government contractor and is always in the market for new subsidies and incentives.

Immelt’s shareholders certainly had to think that access had its benefits this week when the Obama administration signed off on a plan to allow the company to spin off under-performing NBC to cable giant Comcast.

Though intended to show Obama’s coolness with corporate America, the Immelt pick will likely reinforce the perception in American boardrooms that Obama likes to play favorites when it comes to the economy.

He’s visited so many battery makers that his staff must now be coated in a thin layer of nickel-cadmium. And while Obama plays rough with the oil and coal industries, he can’t say enough good about technology firms and “green jobs.”

And while Volker was said to have always been locked out of the Obama inner circle, Immelt should have the president’s ear. Immelt’s campaign donations and constant boosterism of the Obama agenda should provide a solid foundation for becoming a close adviser to the president, or perhaps just making that advisory role official.

The suspicious eye that will be cast on Immelt, though, may lessen his ability to provide the connection to the business world Obama has promised. Other CEOs are unlikely to see a competitor who pushes policies explicitly to benefit his company as an ally in the fight for a fair, free market.

It's interesting how today MSNBC is spinning the story as Immelt being an "insider" whose appointment will help heal strained relations between Obama and business.

The notion that the MSM are promoting Obama's "progressive" agenda has floated around for a while.  Back in April of 2009, Bill O'Reilly first started making the connection, asserting that GE was using CNBC and MSNBC to promote cap-and-trade for financial gain.

The Leftist watchdog group MediaMatters slammed Joe Scarborough of "Morning Joe" for promoting GE stock without noting that it owned his station ... and him.  I wonder if we can anticipate more such pandering.

GE/MSNBC's payoff was foreshadowed by the White House a few months ago when Obama, in an interview with Rolling Stone said FoxNews was "destructive" while one of his spokemen said that MSNBC's Maddow and Olbermann provided services that were "invaluable."  CNN's John King blasted the Obama Administration for its controversial endorsement and condemnations:

It is eye-opening (unnerving?) to see the list of companies that GE owns or in which it holds a large stake: the various NBC media groups (e.g. MSNBC, CNBC, NBC Entertainment, etc.) other cable networks, such as Bravo, Oxygen, Telemundo and Weather Channel, local network affiliates, Universal Pictures and Universal Studios Home Entertainment, and 13 different GE companies, such as GE Finance.  Check out Columbia Journalism Review's list.

With Immelt's naming to the jobs panel, what we have here is truly a situation where one huge conglomerate that owns much of the MSM, has a stake in the entertainment industry, and has corporations that can potentially profit greatly from Obama's green political agenda, is in bed with the President.

Jackassery: Texters and Thumpers

Last Saturday, I was at a jam-packed mall wondering why there were so many doggone shoppers if the economy were so bad.  As I paced through the parking garage towards my car, I felt my stress level increase as my head was, at first, gently distracted by an odd sensation.  Gradually, as the sensation increased, I realized it was some jackass with his stereo on mega-thump-mode with the subwoofer boosted up to astronomical. 

I hate that crap!  Why do such arrogant jerks think everyone in the world must also hear their crappy music, as if we all would think "Wow!  What a cool guy!  I wish I were that cool!"  My thought is more: "Damn!  I wish I had a mega-stereo system.  I'd love to pull up next to him and blast him with something like Wagner's "Ride of the Valkryies" or Tschaikovsky's "1812 Overture" -- right at the cannon shots.

In light of that, I had to maniacally giggle reading this:

Slow-moving train hits car playing loud music

MISSOULA, Mont. –  Police in Montana say a man who was apparently so distracted by loud music that he didn't notice a freight train moving toward him before it struck his car just behind the driver's door.

Sgt. Jerry Odlin tells the Missoulian the man's car was badly damaged in the crash early Sunday, but the driver was not injured.

No alcohol or drugs were involved. Odlin says the driver, a Missoula man in his 30s, likely will be cited for failing to stop at a railroad signal.

 Yeah, this "Thumper" had not been using alcohol or drugs, according to police.  His stupidity was natural.  Pretty sad when your music is so dadgum loud that you CAN'T HEAR A TRAIN!!!!!

And, we all saw the YouTube video of the mall shopper so engrossing in texting that she fell into a fountain.

Well, of course this nitwit had to make her identity known to the world, declaring that she might sue.  But, it seems that this "poor victim" is a bit of a con artist.  Go figure (emphasis and snarks added):

Mall Worker Who Fell in Fountain Threatens Legal Action, Has Criminal Record

A Pennsylvania woman who fell into a mall fountain while texting and became a YouTube sensation when video of the fall went viral, didn't just towel off -- she lawyered up.

Cathy Cruz Marrero, a 49-year-old Berkshire Mall employee, appeared on "Good Morning America" Thursday with her attorney James Polyak and said that someone should have helped instead of making her a national laughing stock.  [Can you say "WAAAAAHHHH!!!!"]

"I didn't get an apology, what I got was, 'At least nobody knows it was you,'" she told GMA. "But I knew it was me."

Polyak told Pennsylvania’s Reading Eagle that an investigation is in the works to see if there will be a suit and to “hold to the appropriate persons accountable.”

"We are troubled by the fact that anyone at the Berkshire Mall responsible for releasing this video would find humor in an employee injured on the premises," Polyak told the Eagle, even though Marrero herself conceded, "It's funny."

...

U.S. Security Associates, the company that provides security at mall, announced Thursday that a security guard responsible for sharing the video had been fired.

"U.S. Security Associates does not condone this type of behavior and will work closely with the property owners to ensure processes are put in place to prevent it from happening in the future," the company said in a statement. Still, criminal defense attorney John Manuelian says Marrero has no grounds for a lawsuit.  [Again, can you say "WAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!"]

...

Assistant District Attorney Melissa J. Noyes says falling in a fountain wasn't Marrero's first mistake. The born again Christian currently owes $4,177 in restitution for charges she allegedly made to a co-worker's credit cards, Noyes  told the Eagle.  [Born again Christian?  Has she not heard of the Ten Commandments?  Thou shalt not steal?  Thou shalt not covet?]

"She is still on track to enter a guilty plea at some point down the road assuming she complies with all the conditions," Noyes said. "She's looking for house arrest instead of going to jail."

Marrero also has several theft cases and a hit-and-run charge on her record, the paper reported.  [DANG!]

Polyak denied accusations posted on various websites that Marrero staged her recent spill in hopes of financial gain.  "For that to be true, she would had to have known this was going to be posted to YouTube," he told the Eagle.

Marrero said she hired legal representation and went public with her identity because she wants to highlight privacy and security problems at the mall and teach people, especially kids, about the dangers of texting while walking.  [Yeah.  Sure.  She's all about privacy and security.  What was that about her using a colleague's credit cards?]

Marrero is expected to be sentenced in her credit card theft case on April 21, the Reader reported.

In spite of the overwhelming amount of gloom and doom in the press these days, occasionally we're thrown a bone -- some things to laugh at.  Jackassery is always amusing.

Abortion "House of Horrors" Doctor Charged with Eight Counts of Murder

It's shocking that this creep was allowed to "practice" ... his victims being poor and unable to get authorities to shut down this monter's abortion clinic.

From the AP via USA Today (emphasis added):

Abortion Doctor Charged with Killing 7 Babies with Scissors

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A doctor who gave abortions to minorities, immigrants and poor women in a "house of horrors" clinic was charged with eight counts of murder in the deaths of a patient and seven babies who were born alive and then killed with scissors, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 69, made millions of dollars over 30 years, performing as many illegal, late-term abortions as he could, prosecutors said. State regulators ignored complaints about him and failed to inspect his clinic since 1993, but no charges were warranted against them given time limits and existing law, District Attorney Seth Williams said. Nine of Gosnell's employees also were charged.

Gosnell "induced labor, forced the live birth of viable babies in the sixth, seventh, eighth month of pregnancy and then killed those babies by cutting into the back of the neck with scissors and severing their spinal cord," Williams said.

Patients were subjected to squalid and barbaric conditions at Gosnell's Women's Medical Society, where Gosnell performed dozens of abortions a day, prosecutors said. He mostly worked overnight hours after his untrained staff administered drugs to induce labor during the day, they said.

Early last year, authorities went to investigate drug-related complaints at the clinic and stumbled on what Williams called a "house of horrors."

Bags and bottles holding aborted fetuses "were scattered throughout the building," Williams said. "There were jars, lining shelves, with severed feet that he kept for no medical purpose."

The clinic was shut down and Gosnell's medical license was suspended after the raid.

Gosnell and four workers were charged with murder, while five others were charged with controlled drug violations and other crimes. None of the employees had any medical training, and one, a high school student, performed intravenous anesthesia with potentially lethal narcotics, Williams said.

...

The grand jury said the woman who died was a patient who came to Gosnell's clinic for an abortion and died of cardiac arrest because she was given too much Demerol. Gosnell wasn't at the clinic at the time, but directed his staff to administer the drug to keep the woman, a healthy 41-year-old woman, sedated until he arrived, prosecutors said.

Gosnell has been named in at least 46 malpractice suits, including one over the death of a 22-year-old mother who died of sepsis and a perforated uterus in 2000. Many others also involve perforated uteruses. Gosnell sometimes sewed up the injury without telling women their uteruses had been perforated, prosecutors said.

...

Some women came from across the mid-Atlantic for the illegal late-term abortions, authorities said. White women from the suburbs were ushered into a separate, slightly cleaner area because Gosnell believed they were more likely to file complaints, Williams said.

"People knew near and far that if you needed a late-term abortion you could go see Dr. Gosnell," Williams said.

Few if any of the sedated women knew their babies were born alive and then killed, prosecutors said. Many were first-time mothers who were told they were 24 weeks pregnant, even if they were further along, authorities said.

Gosnell got his medical degree from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and is board certified in family practice. He started, but did not finish, a residency in obstetrics-gynecology, authorities said.

"He does not know how to do an abortion. He's not board certified," Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore said. "Once he got them there, he saw dollar signs and did abortions that other people wouldn't do."

This Gosnell guy would segregate his "own people" from White women and offer the White women better "medical treatment" (and I use that term very loosely)?!?  How can someone be so money-hungry that he would discriminate against women of his own race?!?  

How absolutely creepy that he kept aborted fetuses ... even the feet?!?  It's as if he were displaying his "prey" like a hunter.  Absolutely disturbed and disgusting!

How could he discriminate against the poor women who came to him?!?

How could authorities let this continue for THIRTY years?!?  This is absolutely heinous, criminal activity, of which the authorities -- both police and medical -- are guilty of allowing this continue.  (Is there no red light that went off among the overseers of the medical community given Gosnell's numerous malpractice suits?)

This monster Gosnell should be locked away for the rest of his miserable life! 

And let us pray for his victims who are surely learning now about the outright murder of their babies at the hands of crazed mad man. 

Liberal Elite: Funny Video

I spied this cute video over at TexasRainmaker ...



Ah, a nice representation of a native from Liberal La-La-Land.

Journalism Needs Reform

[h/t AmericanPower]

Astrology Takes Another Hit On Accuracy

Another reason to not waste time, money,  nor worries on your horoscope ... from FoxNews (emphasis added):

Age of Aquarius Actually Age of Capricorn, Thanks to Rotation of the Earth

...Astronomers with the Minnesota Planetarium Society have dropped a bomb on the zodiac, noting that thanks to the millennia-long effect of the moon's gravitational pull on the Earth, there's about a one-month bump in the alignment of the stars. The result?

"When [astrologers] say that the sun is in Pisces, it's really not in Pisces," Parke Kunkle, a board member of the Minnesota Planetarium Society, told the Star Tribune.

And if the sun isn't in Pisces, YOU'RE not in Pisces. Surprise! You're an Aquarius! New zodiac sign dates are in order, it seems.

Much of astrology -- called an ancient and complex system that uses math and science to predict the future -- relies upon careful observation of the heavens. And your astrological sign is based on the date of your birth, something that was tied very tightly to the position of the heavens back in Babylonian times.

"When someone asks you what your sign is, they're referring to your Sun Sign -- where the sun was in the Zodiac at the exact moment of your birth," explains the website of noted astrologer Kelli Fox. As the years have worn on, the position of the heavens has shifted ever so slightly -- but those signs haven't.

Could this be true? Is an Aries really a Cancer -- or worse yet, a Virgo? It's a question for Paul the Psychic octopus, of course. But sadly, the soccer-predicting sea creature died last year. So we asked Kunkle for clarification.

"Ever since astrology began back in 3000 B.C., we've known there were problems with it," he said with a chuckle. "The ancient Babylonians had 13 constellations, for example, so they just threw one out."

Ophuchicus, or the snake holder, was ejected from the charts when the Zodiac was codified at the 12 we know of today, to align it more accurately with the calendar. And Libra didn't come into things until Julius Caesar's time, Kunkle told FoxNews.com.

Seeing stars yet? It all comes down to the 26,000-year precession of the planets through space, he said, noting that a variety of gravitational forces have changed the position of the planets in the sky over time. Bottom line, the astrological forecasts we've all been turning to may -- gasp! -- not be accurate at all, or at least they may be intended for other readers.

"We're off by about 10 degrees or so, a twelfth of the way around," Kunkle said.
...

I've always felt that astrology was a waste of time and money anyway, being that it is totally unscientific.  I once read someone saying that the doctor tugging on the baby as it is being born has far more pull on the child's future than the constellations ever could.  I've always believed the zodiac was a bunch of bunk -- now even more proof!  It's all just superstition.

The Incandescent Light Bulb: Could The GOP Resurrect It?

The other day I was in Target picking up the usual necessities, such as toilet paper, paper towels, laundry detergent, etc.  My list also included light bulbs ... a touchy issue with me.  I mourned as I defiantly picked up boxes of the good ol' trusty, Thomas Edison-birthed incandescent light bulbs, refusing to buy those damned, snake oil CFL swirly bulbs.  I angrily recalled stories of how axing the tried and true bulbs also wound up axing jobs in the United States ... like other "green" industries.  In September, Ed Lasky at American Thinker published the news of the bulb's impending demise:

Light bulbs sprang from the brilliant mind of Thomas Edison -- a true American hero, right up there with Benjamin Franklin. But his legacy is coming to an end. General Electric, the company that he founded, is closing America's last factory for making incandescent light bulbs, victim of  liberal environmental politics and zealotry.

Sadly, not only will the workers be losing their jobs -- devastating another small  town (Winchester, Virginia) -- but the boon created by their replacements, compact fluorescents (CFLs), will not be realized in America, where they were first dreamed up and created, but will instead be enriching China.

The Washington Post reports about the close of an era in an elegiac column by Peter Whoriskey:

"Now what're we going to do?" said Toby Savolainen, 49, who like many others worked for decades at the factory, making bulbs now deemed wasteful. [snip]

What made the plant here vulnerable is, in part, a 2007 energy conservation measure passed by Congress that set standards essentially banning ordinary incandescents by 2014. The law will force millions of American households to switch to more efficient bulbs. [snip]

Rather than setting off a boom in the U.S. manufacture of replacement lights, the leading replacement lights are compact fluorescents, or CFLs, which are made almost entirely overseas, mostly in China.

"Everybody's jumping on the green bandwagon," said Pat Doyle, 54, who has worked at the plant for 26 years. But "we've been sold out. First sold out by the government. Then sold out by GE."

Let us note that General Electric has been in Barack Obama's corner from day one and has positioned itself to be a prime beneficiary of the massive green scheming of America that Obama and his allies in Congress are perpetrating across our nation (via taxpayer money, subsidies, loans, mandates, rules, and regulations -- an EPA in overdrive). And Obama deserves a chunk of the blame:

General Electric jumped on board the CFL bandwagon -- and threw its workers off it without a ticket to get back on. American unions and government rules just did not make it feasible (i.e., profitable) to manufacture CFLs in America. Now most are made by Chinese companies, to which we are sending our green dollars in more ways than one. 

I have held on to the above piece and was getting ready to finally post it (yeah -- lots of old material I wasn't able to get to due to ... work!); but, today I just happened upon a glimmer of hope.  Apparently, in line with the GOP trying to repeal ObamaCare, it appears that the GOP is also going after the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act that mandated the end of the incandescent bulb.  The Daily Caller reports on the GOPs proposed BULB Act -- The Better Use of Light Bulbs Act (emphasis added):

Republicans Fight to Save the Incandescent Light Bulb

In the early days of the 112th Congress, Reps. Joe Barton of Texas, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, and Michael Burgess of Texas, all Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee, will once again step in to attempt to save the incandescent light bulb. Today or tomorrow, the three representatives will reintroduce a bill to repeal legislation that would replace the incandescent light bulb with a more energy efficient alternative.

The Better Use of Light Bulbs Act, better known as the BULB Act, calls for the repeal of the section of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 that mandated ending the use of incandescent light bulbs in favor of a more energy efficient alternative. The act was first introduced in September of the 111th Congress, prompted by an article in the Washington Post reporting that the last GE incandescent light bulb factory in the United States would close that month ...

Now the Greens have labeled this action as "regressive", arguing that people have already made the switch to the CFL bulbs as evidenced by the 50% decrease in incandescent bulb sales in the last five years.  Well, sure, when you've been bombarded with all kinds of advertising, as well as municipalities handing out free CFLs.  The propaganda campaign has been great.   But, as consumers gradually discover the problems with CFL, they are returning to the "old school" bulbs.  From The Tennessean:

The aim of the ban is to force Americans to buy compact fluorescent lights, or CFLs, because they are supposed to be a "green" solution to lighting.


Their much higher initial costs also were supposed to be offset by the fact they lasted years longer than the old incandescents. As consumers have learned, however, their longevity under certain conditions and in certain lighting fixtures was greatly oversold.


For instance, many aren't designed for a timer or a dimmer or to be turned on and off frequently. If they aren't allowed to warm up over the course of 15 minutes, their lifespan may be shortened to the point that they are no more effective than the old incandescent.


Moreover, the CFLs contain mercury — enough to contaminate up to 6,000 gallons of water beyond safe drinking levels, according to information from those leading the repeal. If the bulbs are not disposed of properly, they can present a health hazard. They also sometimes give off an odor or can emit smoke.


Consumers obviously should not just pitch them into the garbage so that they eventually end up in a landfill. If a CFL is dropped and breaks in the home, the cleanup process can be involved. It includes the disposal of any clothing or bedding that comes in contact with the breakage, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.


"These are the kinds of regulations that make the American people roll their eyes. It is typical of a 'big Washington' solution to a non-existent problem. In this case it manifests itself as an overreach into every American home, one that ships good jobs overseas and infuriates the American consumer," Blackburn, who represents this community in Washington, said in a press release.

Here's wishing the 112th Congress success in its repeals -- its peeling back of the insanity wrought upon this nation by the 111th!

Chick-fil-A: Gay Blog Falsely Accuses PA Restaurants of Being Anti-Gay

The Christian Post last week reported that a gay blog has trumped up charges against Pennsylvania area Chick-fil-A restaurants (emphasis added):

Family Group: Gay Blog Gives Misleading Information About Chick-fil-A Co-Sponsorship

The Pennsylvania Family Institute president says gay marriage attacks against Chick-fil-A published in a gay blog are trumped up.

Michael Geer, president of the Pennsylvania Family Institute, says the post provoking anger towards Pennsylvania Chick-fil-A chicken restaurants for "endorsing" its efforts are misleading.

"All in all it's a trumped up story," Geer told The Christian Post.

The controversy stems from a recent post on "Good As You," a blog catering to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning community. The site criticizes Chick-fil-A's involvement in efforts to take down the state's gay marriage plans by pointing to a flyer advertising a February event called The Art of Marriage: Getting to the Heart of God's Design. The flyer says the event is sponsored by PFI and Chick-fil-A.

"Bottom line: If you're binding your cash with this fast food restaurant's fowl, you're in some way giving resources to those who hope to foul Keystone State gays' marriage plans. Plan your fried carnivorousness accordingly," the blog post reads.

The GLBT blog also advertises an online petition, started by Change.org editor Michael Jones, against the restaurant company.

Setting the record straight, Geer said Chick-fil-A is not sponsoring the event. "There are a couple restaurants that are giving us food," he clarified. The food, mostly chicken sandwiches, is for a day-and-half-long workshop for couples who want to strengthen their marriages.

According to Geer, the local Chick-fil-A branches involved were simply trying to "be good neighbors" to the marriage retreat being held at two local churches. "We didn't even get any money," maintained Geer. The food was freely donated to the churches hosting the marriage retreat.

Geer also denounced mentions in the blog and later homosexual magazine On Top for wrongly suggesting that Chick-fil-A's corporate office, located in Georgia, is involved in the event. Despite restaurant creator Truett Cathy's profession of faith, Geer says it was a local decision to give the food.

Food donation is a common practice for many food venues and grocery stores, meant to create ties with its home communities as well as support positive causes established by non-profits..

PFI is a non-profit, non-partisan research and education organization that espouses a traditional view of family in public policies and cultural trends. Geer recognizes that branch managers may not support all of its actions. But, he says, marriage is worthy of support.

"People should applaud institutions that want to strengthen marriage," he stated. Geer expressed "disappointment" at online publications that would try to taint the meaningful event.

PFI's six-part marriage series on "The Art of Marriage" is scheduled for February 11-12.

Correction: Thursday, January 6, 2011:

An article on Thursday, January 6, 2011, on a GLBT blog's criticism of Chick-fil-A's involvement with an upcoming traditional marriage event incorrectly reported that the blog, Good As You, started an online petition against the chicken restaurant. Change.org editor Michael Jones, not Good As You, launched the petition that is advertised on the GLBT blog.

Mmmmmmm ... Chick-fil-A ... I haven't had one of those in ages!

"Huckelberry FInn" Caught in the PC-Wars

I'm sure, like me, you were taken aback the other day when the news reported that a "cleaned up" version of the American literary classic "Huckleberry Finn", the sequel to Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", was being published that would remove the "N-word."  Public debate ensued regarding whether or not the classic should be spared the PC-slashing or if the N-word was hurtful enough to students to warrant its editing.

There are good arguments on both sides of the issue.  I found, however, some very enlightening opinions over at Booker Rising, a Black conservative website.  It offered input from several columnists, two are center-left and two are center-right.  Here are excerpts, with emphasis added:

Huckleberry Finn: Bookerista Perspectives

My American readers know Mark Twain's classic novel The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn (1884) which satirizes Southern antebellum society and examines its racism. NewSouth Books has published a 2011 edition which replaces the N-word — which appears 219 times in the original edition — with "slave" to keep in line with 21st century thinking (the word "Injun" has also been replaced with "Indian" in the 2011 edition).  Of course, there's an uproar. Critics claim that the move is politically correct sanitizing of one of America's greatest novels. Supporters say it's for the kids. Bookeristas continue to weigh in on the debate over the book:

Stanley Crouch: "Controversy Over N-Word In Huckleberry Finn Is Example Of Ongoing Confusion In American Culture"

Asserts the moderate-liberal columnist in New York City: "[Author Mark] Twain, who knew that there is a stubborn prudishness that American artists frequently boot in the backside, would not be surprised at what is happening right now. The writer did not defend slavery, but depicted the period's bigotry and made the moral center of the novel a white boy's choice to help a slave escape from bondage. But there's a larger point here. Anyone actually worried about the demeaning and dehumanizing effects of ethnic insults made about black people should leave 'Huckleberry Finn' alone and turn their attention to the minstrel updates of hip hop. At least since the emergence of gangster rap in the early 1980s, that pop idiom has celebrated thugs and borderline whores known as 'video vixens.'"

More commentary from Mr. Crouch: "Black people are, first and foremost, Americans. They gain from the best of our national culture and suffer from the same misreadings and delusions that dog everyone else. One of the things that 'Huckleberry Finn' offers to the reader is the spectacle of virulent hatred being aimed at a well-dressed, eloquent and free Negro - whom Huck's drunkard father cannot stand. The Negro is too smart, too poised; Huck's father wonders why this uppity person is not snatched and put on the auction block! He considers the Negro's freedom an example of irresponsible government. We should all know that the most virulent hostility toward Barack Obama is not about politics. It is rooted in something else, and Mark Twain puts a coldly accurate finger on it in the first chapter of his novel. For that alone, it is a classic that should not be mottled by well-intentioned stupidity."

John McWhorter: "Don't Make Us Slaves To Political Correctness"

The linguistics professor and moderate-conservative commentator in New York City writes: "NewSouth Books surely considers it a kind of higher wisdom to present America with a version of 'Huckleberry Finn' in which the N-word is replaced by 'slave.' The gesture is, in fact, antique. Here is a body of modern, educated people bowing to taboos in as visceral a way as the Victorians, who taught us to say white meat and dark meat to avoid specifying anything about breasts and thighs. Cleansing Mark Twain’s masterpiece of the N-word follows directly in this tradition, under which today’s most powerful taboos are about race rather than religion or sex, such that we quake in fear at the supposed power of the N-word in precisely the way that rain forest natives do at any number of words deemed 'magical.'"

He continues his commentary: "To scrub the word out of the prose is to propose two things. One is that schoolchildren are incapable of understanding context, layering and nuance. This is a nonsense proposition, one that a teacher could only concur with if he or she were subject to the incapacities in question – in which case we must wonder whether they have chosen the proper career. The second proposition, if the idea here is to avoid 'insulting' black people, is that it is black people who cannot follow context, layering and nuance."

Constructive Feedback: "Mark Twain Has Nothing On Those Who Use The Word 'N____r' Today, Within Our Comfort Zone"

The conservative blogger in Atlanta metro has rappers in mind: "In the Black community there is a delicate balance that is retained by the Black Political Establishment.  In as much as this cluster of young people who are most prone to make use of the word 'N__a' are also seen as a fruitful voting block [sic] in the American Political Domain - any hard handed movement to impose regulation upon them risks a fracture in this political union. The Black Establishment is forced to accept them as they are, hoping that with 'soft nudging' they will see the errors in their way and discontinue the use of this word and other harmful actions. Nonetheless - they both agree that with the unity that is crafted as they cast their eyes outward against any ideological enemy who dares to stand in the way of the 'Black political agenda' is vital to each of them agreeing not to scrutinize the other. From this mutual agreement comes those who advance the notion that calling President Obama a 'socialist' is the new 'N___r'. Their 'White Liberal Snarling Foxes' partners pile on in agreement."  

Clarence Page: "Huck Finn Stirs Up Trouble Again"

The moderate-liberal columnist in Chicago writes: "I have no doubt that the new version's editor, Auburn University professor Alan Gribben, means well. Unlike the many critics who have tried to ban the book, Gribben actually wants to expand its audience. Schoolchildren, black and white, have told him of emotional pain triggered by Twain's repeated use of a word that has bludgeoned many black children as a taunt by white bullies. As a result, to Gribbens' dismay and mine, 'Huck' has begun to be marginalized ironically into Twain's definition of a 'classic,' a work 'which people praise and don't read.'"

He continues his commentary: "Even so, I am disappointed. As with our readings of the Constitution [where the slavery references were omitted in a recent reading in Congress], I think we should teach history without diluting its uncomfortable realities. As a black kid who read 'Huck' in a mostly white classroom with a white teacher, I know the unsettling startling pain of seeing the N-word used so casually in print. But I also am eternally grateful to our teacher for helping us to talk about it. She helped us to appreciate the book's genius of language, vision and, most memorable, its quietly subversive satirical cleverness. It skewers the immorality of white supremacy that it so vividly portrays." ...

It's always good to allow those affected by controversy and debate a voice.  The PC crowd is often too quick to tell people what to think, ignorant or rejecting of the possibility that the PC police might be wrong!

Vitriolic Discourse Not at Unprecedented Level

As I frequently assert here in my postings involving the MSM ("mainstream media"), the media love to distract us from the real issues.  Along with its current drumbeat of blaming the rightwing pundits for the recent tragedy in Tucson, Arizona, one issue alarmists and Leftists are raising is reducing "vitriolic rhetoric", perhaps at the expense of restricting free speech.

The Left and its bloodhound the MSM are spreading the propaganda that this hateful speech is at unprecedented levels, with public figures such as Sheriff Dupnik of Pima County waxing nostalgic about the good old days and how such violence and hate speech did not exist at today's flood levels.  As Dupnik spoke of his 75 some years of life on this planet, I wondered if he was raised in a separate dimension or an isolated Amish community?  Now, I've only lived on this planet 50 years, but my memories are quite different from his ... and I don't even work in law enforcement such as he.

Those who claim today's hateful speech is something new and unprecedented are either suffering amnesia or have never read a history book ... or lived life, for that matter.  I believe they are falling into the same old trap of people always viewing the past through rose-colored glasses, much like the nasty grandfather who finally kicks the bucket, but then suddenly family start reminiscing fondly about his life, burying any memories and remarks of grandpa's drinking and wife beating.

Today, columnists around the country are addressing this notion and providing little history lessons for the public.  Richard Benedetto, writing for FoxNews, is a retired USA Today White House correspondent and columnist who currently teaches journalism and politics at American and Georgetown universities.  He provides us with a brief overview of past heated, contentious times in our nation (emphasis added): 

A History Lesson in Political Rhetoric

...

Those who now say our harsh political rhetoric is something new and generated mostly by an angry political right would do well to take a look at our history. They would find that political debate in some of the most vitriolic terms -- “vitriol” seems to be the word of choice these days -- has been with us and our press since the days when the American colonies began to protest British rule. Icons such as Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, bitter political rivals, were not above the fray.

Eric Burns, in his 2006 book “Infamous Scribblers,” which recounts the “rowdy beginnings” of American journalism, says early newspapers were more weapons of political war than they were impartial chroniclers of daily events.

“The golden age of America’s founding was also the gutter age of American reporting,” he wrote. “The Declaration of Independence was literature. The New England Courant talked trash. The Constitution of the United States was philosophy; the Boston Gazette slung mud, Philadelphia’s Aurora was less a celestial presence than a ground-level reek.”

In those days, journalists such as the fiery Samuel Adams preached violence, not civility, against those in government control, in that case the British.

We heard and read similar vitriolic rhetoric through such crusades as the fight to abolish slavery, the battle for women’s suffrage, the 20th century push for civil rights, women’s rights and gay rights and efforts to end the Vietnam War.  Driving all of those causes was the right to free speech. To be sure, there were many who tried to quiet those voices, including large segments of the mainstream media that were late to join those causes. Now, they want to silence those they don’t agree with again.

Thanks to the Internet, and the easy ability of anyone with access to a computer or smartphone to express their opinions -- misguided or logical -- adds to the volume and intensity of political debate. That disturbs many people. But to say that we somehow need to shut it down or restrict it ignores our nation’s time-honored tradition of freedom of expression, which might have its drawbacks and downsides, but in the end, makes us stronger.

Political cartoons from Lincoln's era.

These days bring to mind how shocked I was while viewing an exhibit at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois.  (I highly recommend visiting!  It's awesome!!!)  As we walked down a hallway and entered another part of the exhibit, the walls were plastered with enlarged copies of numerous political cartoons from Lincoln's day.  I was amazed at how mean and nasty the slams were against President Lincoln.  (I've added various copies of them throughout this post  from Google Images.)  The "vitriole" of those days as Lincoln was attacked for abolition and the Civil War was tremendous. 

Thanks to Jim Hoft of GatewayPundit, I learned that The Hill today is reporting on a poll that says the public is not buying the MSM's attempts to brainwash people with their latest "viotriolic rhetoric must be abolished" propaganda:

Almost 60 percent of the public believes that heated political rhetoric has nothing to do with an Arizona shooting spree that gravely wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) and killed a federal judge. 

Fifty-seven percent of respondents in a new CBS News poll said rhetoric is unrelated to the shooting, while 32 percent said they believe the two are connected.

Since the shooting on Saturday, conservatives and liberals squabbled over whether political rhetoric influenced Loughner.

Republicans who responded to the poll do not believe the shooting was related to rhetoric at a greater rate than Democrats. Sixty-nine percent of Republicans said rhetoric was not a factor, compared to 19 percent who said it was connected. 

A narrow plurality of Democrats believe there is no relationship — 49 percent to 42. Fifty-six percent of independents believe rhetoric is unrelated to the shooting, and 33 percent think it was. [source]

Be wary, my friends.  Be wary, skeptical, methodical and discerning.  Always check the voices and sources that speak to the public.  Always give a huge event several days to play out before forming an opinion.

Arizona Shooting and the Media's Premature Problem

In the wake of the media launching another all-out strike against their most hated rivals (i.e. the Tea Party and rightwing pundits), I can't help but make a comparison between the Media and premature ejaculation. Now, I must apologize for the somewhat crude analogy and I intentionally avoid course themes or language, but the parallel is just too obvious. The media, as it has repeatedly done in the past with our juicy news events, has reacted like an overly excited lover who quickly loses his control at the height of passion. I will call it "journalistic PE," although I do hesitate a bit at using the term "journalistic" in this sad state of affairs.

And, as frequently happens in PE, rather than the lover seeking medical attention and getting at the root of the problem, he angrily folds his arms, withdraws, and blames the woman. "There must be a problem with YOU!" We have the press likewise blaming everyone but itself. "It's the Tea Party's fault." "The Glenn Becks and the Sarah Palins are to blame."

The media are engrossed in an all out fingerpointing campaign, all the while feigning innocence in a lame attempt to bury their own fomenting of and participation in heated rhetoric. Vicious attacks went exponential during the Bush years; but, the MSM feign amnesia. Anyone else out there remember the hideous verbal attacks made on Bush, Cheney, Powell, and Rice?

And how dumb must the media think that we, the public, are that we would buy their "blame game" for even a second? The moment the chaos of the Tucson shooting subsided a bit, the press instantly launched into blaming its favorite whipping boy -- the Tea Party. The LA Times reported that Loughner was a 22-year-old Afghan war vet, the military being another favorite whipping boy. None of this hysteria was true.

This whole con game makes me think back to last year's Christmas Day bomber. Remember how that story first was reported? Speculation immediately honed in on the Tea Party, with the press all but publicly pleading that the culprit be a white guy with a hellish grudge. Even Mayor Bloomberg announced that his suspicion was that the perpetrator was probably someone upset with ObamaCare. After the press rested, all aglow from its premature pleasure, the true whacko was finally revealed. Rather than publicly saying "Gee, we were wrong!", the MSM quickly diverted the discussion to travel safety ... not so much about the true problem of radicalism.

In the current tragedy, the press overlooked its own utter failure in journalistic integrity and promptly launched into its current distraction: "violent rhetoric" and gun rights. It is the rare journalist or commentator on TV that shifts the focus of the discussion to the central issue: mental illness.

Our press continually engages in smoke and mirrors, employing distractions from real and/or bigger issues and directing our focus to what it deems important in accomplishing its political agenda. In the wake of the Tucson shooting, they wish to have us focus on their favorite "most hated" targets: the Tea Party, right-wingers, FoxNews, the military, and its newest focus of punishing their "enemies" for the sound defeat in November. (Oh, and please do not interpret my use of the word "target" as any implied or explicit incitement to violence. I wonder if I now have to quit shopping at Target ...)

Let us not fall for their trickery and, instead, turn our attention and efforts to the true problems: mental illness and a manipulative, agenda-driven press.

Progressivism and Hatred: Malkin's Primer of Leftist Hate

You have got to check out Michelle Malkin's post today in which she responds to the Left who sanctimoniously claims that "vitriolic rhetoric" has been coming only from the Right.  She says: "And don’t let the media whitewash the sins of the hypocritical Left in their naked attempt to suppress the law-abiding, constitutionally-protected, peaceful, vigorous political speech of the Right."

The progressive "climate of hate:" An illustrated primer of hate, 2000-2010

Here's the table of contents ...

The progressive climate of hate: A comprehensive illustrated primer in 8 parts:

I. PALIN HATE
II. BUSH HATE
III. MISC. TEA PARTY/GOP/ANTI-TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE HATE
IV. ANTI-CONSERVATIVE FEMALE HATE
V. LEFT-WING MOB HATE — campus, anti-war radicals, ACORN, eco-extremists, & unions
VI. OPEN-BORDERS HATE
VII. ANTI-MILITARY HATE
VIII. HATE: CRIMES — the ever-growing Unhinged Mugshot Collection

I agree with the present call for more civility in public discourse; however, those calling for it need to:

1) recognize their own guilt in participating in hate speech;
2) recognize that no one is innocent;
3) be very skeptical of the calls for legislating public discourse and see them for that they truly are -- calls to suppress speech;
4) grow up and recognize metaphors, similes, and analogies as just what they are -- figures of speech to illustrate points but are never intended to be taken literally.

FoxNews Viewers Misinformed?: Supposed "Study" Debunked

Remember, folks, the more something gets repeated -- even false things -- the more the public will come to believe the lie as fact.  The Left keeps swinging away at FoxNews, desperately trying to squelch any information that gets out that counters the Progressive partyline.  Sadly, such MISinformation quickly goes viral these day with little opportunity for retractions, let alone damage control.  Luckily, Lee Doren of "How the World Works" did a great job debunking the alleged study of how stupid FoxNews viewers are:



Nice sleuth work, Doren!   You gotta keep an eye on those crafty Lefties ... "No one may dissent from Dear Leader, Comrade!"