Day: May 30, 2012

A Video Reminder that Breitbart Added Nothing to Cultural Dialogue but Noise, Lies

Buck Banks

When Andrew Breitbart died unexpectedly in March 2012,* he was hailed by those on both the right and the left who lauded his “mischievous spirit and Barnum-esque knack for creating a stir.” But he wasn’t really like some little bad boy, he was a big bad boy, capable of mean-spirited and dishonest acts.

As this long-lost video shows, however, the only thing Breitbart really cared about was winning the argument and defeating — by any means — the monolithic, juggernaught-like LEFT, which seeks to impose “cultural Marxism” and “political correctness” on the poor little helpless right.

So watch the tape (not the whole thing, it’s 18:30), but enough to remind you of Breitbart’s ability to talk and never really say anything. Given the current level of discourse in this country — an environment ripe for Breitbart’s brand of creative video editing and aggressive smear campaigns — we’re better off without him.

* Thanks for the correction, Paula.

Vodka’s Name Offends People Who Don’t Drink It with Reference to Custom They Don’t Practice

Trish

5wivesSince everyone knows that Mormons no longer practice polygamy (in this life) and they also don’t consume alcohol, how could they be offended by a vodka named “Fives Wives?” Uh, you got us there.

But the Idaho State Liquor Division has banned the new libation from being sold in the state, based on the idea that the 23 percent of Idahoans who are Mormon might take it personally.

“We feel Five Wives Vodka concept is offensive to a prominent segment of our population and will not be carried,” according to a letter from the Idaho State Liquor Division to an Idaho distributor wishing to carry it…

The head of Idaho’s liquor division acknowledged that Mormons don’t drink, or at least that they don’t admit it if they do.

“Presumably, people of the LDS faith would not be shopping in our [liquor] stores, but that does not mean that we are not sensitive to them.” But [Jeff Anderson] said Five Wives was rejected for other reasons, too, including the fact that vodka is a “crowded and competitive category” and that “there was nothing that really differentiated [Five Wives] other than its name and its label that had five women with cats in their crotches covering their genitals.

How anything differentiates a clear liquor with no taste is debatable. One wonders where Anderson worships, but that’s beside the point. Or is it?

While [Steve Conlin, director of marketing and a partner at Ogden’s Own, the Utah micro-distiller which makes the product] concedes the name could be seen as referencing polygamy (especially since it’s made in Utah), he said it carries many meanings. “The person who came up with name, she really liked the idea of five wives sitting around having a drink. There really is no pointed meaning to it and everyone can bring what they want to it … it’s not about making fun of Mormons at all. Quite simply it’s a name that seemed to fit.”

We’ll take his word, not having tried his vodka, that the name “fits” but I see no reason to protect the sensibilities of people who practice polygamy. Which of course, Mormons don’t. Anymore.

Leading Psychiatrist Recants Study Suggesting Gays Could Be Cured

Jon Ponder

In just 28 years, Dr. Robert Spitzer went from hero to betrayer among advocates of gay civil rights. In 1973, he led efforts to remove homosexuality from the list of mental disorders. But in 2001, he released a study that suggested that homosexuality could be cured. Now he has recanted the 2001 study and apologized to gays who have been harmed.

The harm has been significant in that hate groups have often cited the 2001 study in their lawsuits to restrict civil rights for gays, including the Proposition 8 case in California. The study was so foundational to the hate groups’ case in support of Prop 8 that some legal scholars believe it may be the final strew that leads to striking down the anti-gay marriage amendment to the California state constitution that was added when the initiative passed.

Now Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out has interviewed Dr. Spitzer about his recanting of the study and concomitant apology. Highlights are here.

Krugman: Christie Relying on Budget Gimmicks to fill $1.3B Hole

Buck Banks

Mr. Christie has been adamant that New Jersey is on the way back, and that this makes room for, you guessed it, tax cuts that would disproportionately benefit the wealthy. Last week reality hit: David Rosen, the state’s independent, nonpartisan budget analyst, told legislators that the state faces a $1.3 billion shortfall. How did the governor respond? First, by attacking the messenger… Instead, he wants to fill the hole with one-shot budget gimmicks, including reneging on a promise to reduce borrowing for transportation investment and diverting funds from clean-energy programs. So much for fiscal responsibility.

— Paul Krugman, slamming New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) over a recent debate over the state’s budget deficit.

Romney Releases ‘Certificate of Live Birth’ – What Is He Hiding?

Jon Ponder

scan-romney-certificate-live-birth

Birthers are adamant that certificates of live birth are not the same as birth certificates. Using their logic, the document Mitt Romney released yesterday is insufficient proof that he was born.

Many, many people believe Mitt Romney is a robot. If so, he would not have a birth certificate at all, would he?

What is Mitt Romney hiding?

And while the Romney campaign is at it, we also want proof that Ann Romney has no sister-wives.

Mitt’s Mormon Values Unruffled by Adelson’s ‘Sin Money’

Buck Banks

They make awkward bedfellows, to be sure: Mitt Romney, the strait-laced Mormon who does not gamble, drink or cavort, and Sheldon Adelson, the socially liberal casino mogul whose resorts rank among the world’s favorite places to do all three. … Yet Romney met with Adelson Tuesday in Las Vegas, and the billionaire has pledged to support Romney against President Obama — presumably with money earned from gambling, which ‘undermines the virtues of work and thrift,’ according to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

— Boston Globe, in an op-ed piece.

Many Welcome Romney’s Victory as President of Amercia

Trish

amerciaStorify is among those chronicling the memes popping up after Mitt Romney’s new iPhone app misspelled the name of the country which Romney wants to run. And while we all wish him well on attaining the presidency of Amercia, we fervently hope he will never be the president of America.

Playing off the Obama campaign, which Romney just keeps doing, his team came up with a new tagline. You know how Obama asks, “Are you in?” Well Romney wants you to say you’re “With Mitt.” That this rhymes so closely with “nitwit” seems to have escaped Romney’s strategists.

You’re supposed to use the app to upload a picture of yourself and, choosing one of 14 pro-Mitt slogans provided, post it on Facebook or Pinterest or someplace else that people you know would enjoy seeing it.

That saying you’re “With Mitt” rhymes so closely with “nitwit” seems to have escaped Romney’s strategists

Romney’s folks are learning what is meant by the loss of control that goes with social media, as people are using the hashtag #Amercia on Twitter to provide such bon mots as:

  • If you’re applying for a job, and you misspell the name of the company you want to work for, you won’t get that job. #Amercia
  • Mitt Romney: wrong for wemon, wrong for minotiries, wrong for #Amercia.
  • Mitt’s gonna be holding an app designer down and cutting his hair today. #amercia

    • […]

Congressional Republicans Go Squishy on Liberal Elements of Obamacare

Jon Ponder

The purpose of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate is to expand the number of the insured in order to increase the revenue to the giant insurance corporations in order to offset the loss of revenue caused by the more progressive elements of the law, particularly the end of denials coverage due to preexisting conditions and allowing parents to cover children up to the age of 26.

All of this chicanery could be avoided if the insurance corporations would do what Republicans claim that only businesses can do: Solve the insurance crisis themselves by creating plans that are affordable to everyone.

The individual mandate was a right-wing invention. It was created by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. But now Republicans in Congress are looking at polls showing that while voters still don’t like the right-wing individual mandate — which has been vilified in the conservative media for three years now — but do like the liberal provisions in the law, like ending denial of coverage and extending coverage to young-adult children.

Therefore, the GOP leadership in the House and Senate is signalling that, if the Republicans on the Supreme Court overturn the Affordable Care Act, as they are expected to do next month, congressional Republicans will propose new laws to reinstate the popular but revenue-draining aspects of the law but without any provision to replace the mandate as a vehicle to recoup the insurance corporations’ lost revenue:

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