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Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on May 09, 2016 24 Comments
In keeping with the lumbering awkwardness of Hillary Clinton's presidential primary campaign that has included herding reporters like cattle and adopting a phony Southern accent, Team Hillary has concocted a new means of countering widespread unflattering comments about Hillary online.  Unlike Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, Hillary does not enjoy an enthusiastic following even among those who support her, so she does not have the army of online people voluntarily engaged in defending her against attacks from both the left and the right. The solution? A vast network of highly paid online pro-Hillary trolls funded by a David Brock super PAC, "Correct the Record," that will be coordinating with the Hillary campaign.  The plan, apparently, was to hire a bunch of people to do what other candidates' supporters do for free . . .  and to make it look grassroots and organic. The LA Times reports:
When the Internet’s legions of Hillary hecklers steal away to chat rooms and Facebook pages to vent grievances about Clinton, express revulsion toward Clinton and launch attacks on Clinton, they now may find themselves in a surprising place – confronted by a multimillion dollar super PAC working with Clinton.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 09, 2016 17 Comments
In 2012, I wrote about this subject. Post-election loss, desperate, and hopelessly facing President Obama's second term, the idea of a political savior made its way in to mainstream though. 2016 is not 2012 (obviously), but for different reasons than before, there's a collective hunt for the one man who will save the republic. For some that man is Trump, for others, he's an unnamed hero waiting in the wings. Real talk: He (or she) is not coming. There will be no Reagan incarnate, no William F. Buckley the Greater, no zombie Goldwater. No one person can save us from our current predicament.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 09, 2016 25 Comments
I always found Jay Leno's "Jay Walking" segment depressing. He would wander around Los Angeles, conducting man on the street interviews with passers by, most of whom showed complete ignorance about very basic American history questions. I never found it humorous, I found it disheartening, but also context for why things are the way they are. This video is no different. Who fought in World War II? Who was Hitler? ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on May 08, 2016 15 Comments
On Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry delivered the commencement address at Northeastern University.  During this address, he told the graduating class they are "about to graduate into a complex and borderless world." The Washington Examiner reports:
Kerry also seemed to dismiss the importance of national borders, and said technology has reshaped the world into one that the U.S. must engage at the risk of being left behind. He said Trump and others who want to look inward are making a mistake, even in the face of rising tension and violence in the world. "For some people, that is all they need simply to climb under the sheets, close their eyes and push the world away," Kerry said. "And shockingly, we even see this attitude from some who think they ought to be entrusted with the job of managing international affairs." "The future demands from us something more than a nostalgia for some rose-tinted version of the past that did not really exist in any case," he said. "You're about to graduate into a complex and borderless world."
Kerry's dismissal of national borders was part of his attack on GOP presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 07, 2016 7 Comments
Finally, some good news from the Golden State! It looks like we have solved all our other problems, so Governor Jerry Brown was able to focus on the issue of paramount importance: Smoking!
Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday signed a package of bills that will regulate the manufacture and sale of e-cigarettes and increase the legal smoking age from 18 to 21. Other bills the governor signed will close loopholes in existing smoke-free workplace laws and require that all K-12 schools be tobacco-free.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on May 07, 2016 35 Comments
In December 2001, alert passengers on an American Airlines flight thwarted a terrorist attack by "shoe bomber" Richard Reid, and in the wake of the San Bernardino terrorist attack, we learned that neighbors had noted suspicious activity at the terrorists' home but had not reported it for fear of being accused of profiling or of being racist. This week, a passenger on an American Airlines flight was seated next to a man who was intently focused on "scribblings" she could not decipher, and after repeated attempts to engage him in conversation, she reported behavior she found to be suspicious. The Washington Post reports:
On Thursday evening, a 40-year-old man — with dark, curly hair, olive skin and an exotic foreign accent — boarded a plane. It was a regional jet making a short, uneventful hop from Philadelphia to nearby Syracuse. Or so dozens of unsuspecting passengers thought. The curly-haired man tried to keep to himself, intently if inscrutably scribbling on a notepad he’d brought aboard. His seatmate, a blond-haired, 30-something woman sporting flip-flops and a red tote bag, looked him over. He was wearing navy Diesel jeans and a red Lacoste sweater – a look he would later describe as “simple elegance” – but something about him didn’t seem right to her. She decided to try out some small talk.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 02, 2016 16 Comments
Americans and their coffee law suits... Chicago resident, Stacy Pincus, filed suit against coffee giant Starbucks. Her beef? She claims Starbucks, "has engaged in the practice of misrepresenting the amount of Cold Drink a customer will receive," by adding too much ice to their iced beverages. Pincus and counsel are requesting class-action status. Pincus says she would not have purchased Starbucks iced-drinks had she known she was getting less than the entire cup's worth of coffee or tea beverage. The complaint claims, "in purchasing Cold Drinks from Starbucks retail stores, Plaintiff relied on Starbucks’ misrepresentations of material fact regarding the true amount of fluid ounces contained in the Cold Drinks. Plaintiff would not have paid as much, if anything for the Cold Drinks had she known that it contained less, and in many cases, nearly half as many, fluid ounces than claimed by Starbucks. As a result, Plaintiff suffered injury in fact and lost money or property."

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 30, 2016 5 Comments
Thursday, we blogged about actor Will Ferrell's reported plans to play Ronald Reagan in a "comedy" about Reagan's Alzheimer's plight. Despite movie media reporting to the contrary, Reagan wasn't diagnosed with Alzheimer's until after he left the White House. President Reagan's daughter and son both spoke about against plans to make film. Patti Davis, daughter of Ronald and Nancy Reagan blogged:
Perhaps you have managed to retain some ignorance about Alzheimer’s and other versions of dementia. Perhaps if you knew more, you would not find the subject humorous.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 29, 2016 23 Comments
I LOVE cheese. ALL the cheese. Me, basically: giphy So I was thrilled to learn America has a Cheese Mountain. Well, kind of.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 29, 2016 20 Comments
Star Trek enthusiasts are just about the most passionate among the many entertainment industry fandoms. Because there hasn't been any new television episodes recently (though a new CBS production is slated to begin filming soon), and the latest movies have been less than satisfying for many series buffs, veteran entrepreneur Alec Peters raised $101,000 on Kickstarter to produce Prelude to Axanar. This short film would then inspire more contributions for a larger production, as an offshoot of the Star Trek: New Voyages fan-based series.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 28, 2016 15 Comments
Will Ferrell is slated to play President Ronald Reagan in an upcoming "comedy." According to The Wrap:
Set at the start of the ex-president’s second term when he was suffering from Alzheimer’s, “Reagan” follows the commander-in-chief as he succumbs to dementia and is convinced by an ambitious intern that he’s actually an actor playing the president in a movie.
As PJ Media's Stephen Kruiser points out, Reagan wasn't diagnosed with Alzheimer's until 1994, six years after he left the White House.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 26, 2016 3 Comments
How do you know a politician's ground game sucks? He has to pay people to play the part of "supporter." Pennsylvania State Rep. Kevin Boyle (D) is looking for supporters for a day. Stand at a Philadelphia polling location, wave a sign (probably, the email doesn't enumerate specific duties), and you too could receive $120 plus free lunch and an invite to an open-bar at the end of the day. Gawker obtained a casting call invite:

Posted by New Neo on April 26, 2016 28 Comments
This is depressing news:
Suicide in the United States has surged to the highest levels in nearly 30 years, a federal data analysis has found, with increases in every age group except older adults. The rise was particularly steep for women. It was also substantial among middle-aged Americans, sending a signal of deep anguish from a group whose suicide rates had been stable or falling since the 1950s. The suicide rate for middle-aged women, ages 45 to 64, jumped by 63 percent over the period of the study, while it rose by 43 percent for men in that age range, the sharpest increase for males of any age. The overall suicide rate rose by 24 percent from 1999 to 2014, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, which released the study on Friday
Rates increased sharply for girls 10-14 as well, and the ethnic group with the highest increase was American Indians, followed by white middle-aged women. Black men were the only ethnic group with a decrease.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on April 22, 2016 23 Comments
In a world in which universities apologize for serving Mexican food because doing so smacks of cultural appropriation and is deemed culturally insensitive, the student-organized "Wear a Hijab Day" at a Paris university was bound to cause controversy. Although February 1st is the "official" World Hijab Day, these students were apparently not interested in waiting until early next year to express their "solidarity" with women who "choose" to wear the hijab; unfortunately for them, their gesture backfired. The Telegraph reports:
Students at an elite Paris university sparked fierce debate on Wednesday by inviting classmates to wear the Muslim veil for a day in a bid to "demystify" a practice that is highly divisive in France. Students at Sciences Po urged women to take part in Hijab Day "if you too think all women should have the right to dress as they wish and have their choice respected". A dozen students handed out flyers at the university by a table covered in colourful headscarves with a sign reading: "France got 99 problems but Hijab ain't one", adapted from a hit by US rapper Jay Z.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 18, 2016 18 Comments
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is supposed to announce some time this week that Alexander Hamilton's home on the $10 bill is safe. CNN Money reports:
"When we started this conversation not quite a year ago, it wasn't clear to me that millions of Americans were going to weigh in with their ideas," he told CNBC. "We're not just talking about one bill. We're talking about the $5, the $10, and the $20. We're not just talking about one picture on one bill. We're talking about using the front and the back of the bill to tell an exciting set of stories."
While Hamilton might be safe, Andrew Jackson is not.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on April 16, 2016 20 Comments
Here at LI, we've been covering the move to place women in combat positions within the military.  Despite studies that have concluded that this is a bad idea, the military is moving forward.  To that end, the Army has approved  22 female officers for combat training. USA Today reports:
The Army announced Friday the first 22 women to be commissioned as infantry and armor officers under new rules that open all ground combat jobs to females this year. The move is a major step toward integrating women into so-called ground combat jobs, placing them in leadership roles in occupations that were never open to them.
In a move called "pretty historic" by acting Army Secretary Patrick Murphy, the women will eventually serve as infantry or armor officers.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 16, 2016 5 Comments
I loves stories of law enforcement going out of their way to serve and this particular tale has ALL the feels. When none of his 21 classmates showed to up ten-year-old Toxey's birthday party, Arkansas State Trooper's threw him a surprise get together he won't soon forget. They came with gifts, a cookie cake, and an official State Trooper badge.
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