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Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 18, 2016 10 Comments
Of everything Dr. King said or wrote, this is easily my favorite. Scarcely does there arise a situation where Love's message does not apply. Particularly in a time -- during a year, of heightened contentiousness and rank discourse, Dr. King's words are exceedingly salient. Writing from jail in Birmingham, Alabama, King wrote:
"We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly."
Though we gravitate towards rhetoric that holds two versions of America (an idea that is most certainly true), also true is that our destiny as a country is bound to that of the other.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on January 15, 2016 27 Comments
For some reason, I thought "folk singers" went out with lava lamps, tie-dye, and patchouli, and though I know folk music has a long and proud tradition, I just can't shake the image of doped-out '60s hippies singing about peace at SDS and Weather Underground rallies . . . where domestic terrorism was often on the list of things to do. As it turns out, though, folk singing is alive and well; indeed, an Oregon folk singer is heading to Syria with the hopes of serenading ISIS into peaceful submission. It sounds like an Onion story, but Fox News reports:
James Twyman, of Portland, Ore., told FoxNews.com he feels a "calling" and believes he can soften the hearts of the Islamist army known for beheading Westerners, throwing gays off of buildings and summarily executing innocent women and children.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on January 15, 2016 2 Comments
I'm not sure who thought "al Jazeera America" would be a good idea in the first place, but as many of us predicted, the network which began in 2013 just didn't catch on. In a sense it was doomed from the start because it began when its media group—al Jazeera Media Group owned by the Qatari government—bought Al Gore's embarrassingly unsuccessful Current TV.  Al Jazeera America also suffered a decided lack of enthusiasm in the American market. The ratings problem was so marked that when al Jazeera America managed to twice beat out MSNBC for two daytime hours, it was noteworthy and quite remarkable given how abysmal MSNBC's own numbers are.  As late as November of last year, al Jazeera was reorganizing and desirous of changing the network's image. Variety reported at the time:
The new chief of Al Jazeera America says the early-stage cable-news network is moving forward after a rocky launch that left the staff demoralized and prompted speculation that the Qatar-backed outlet might abandon its efforts to plant a flag in the United States. “There is a clear picture of where we are going to go,” said Al Anstey, who was named chief executive of the cable network in May. After supervising the operations of Al Jazeera English, Anstey replaced Ehab Al Shihabi, whose tenure overseeing the network was marked by the departures of some senior executives and a $15 million lawsuit from a former employee alleging that a senior executive was hostile to women and made remarks that could be construed as anti-Semitic.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 12, 2016 11 Comments
Legendary singer and cultural artist David Bowie has passed away at the age of 69, after losing an 18-month private battle with cancer.
The artist's hits include Let's Dance, Changes, Space Oddity, Starman, Modern Love, Heroes, Under Pressure, Rebel Rebel and Life on Mars. He was also well known for creating his flamboyant alter ego Ziggy Stardust. The singer, who had been living in New York in recent years, released his latest album Blackstar only last Friday, his birthday. The album has been well received by critics and was intended as a "parting gift" to the world, according to long-time friend and producer Tony Visconti.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on January 09, 2016 23 Comments
Reading the accounts from Cologne about the throngs of Arab men sexually assaulting women in Cologne on New Year's Eve, my first thought went to Lara Logan who suffered a similar fate in Egypt during the "Arab Spring." Lara is continuing to suffer from the unspeakable abuse she endured and was again hospitalized early in 2015.  My second thought went to the Second Amendment. As the evil that was perpetrated on over a hundred women (in Cologne alone) sinks in, the governments in Germany and throughout the western world—reports of similar attacks in Finland are emerging—are feeling more pressure than ever to address the refugee crisis and their own policies. Der Spiegel has published a lengthy and thoughtful article entitled "Chaos and Violence: How New Year's Eve in Cologne Changed Germany."
For some, the events finally bring to light what they have always been saying: that too many foreigners in the country bring too many problems along with them. For the others, that which happened is what they have been afraid of from the very beginning: that ugly images of ugly behavior by migrants would endanger what has been a generally positive mood in Germany with respect to the refugees.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on January 08, 2016 18 Comments
Yesterday, a man whose name has not yet been released attempted to slaughter a Philadelphia police officer because the police, he believes, uphold laws that are not consistent with the Koran.  He also reportedly told Philadelphia police officers that he has pledged his allegiance to ISIS. ABCNews reports:
A 30-year-old man accused of firing at least 11 times at a Philadelphia police officer had pledged allegiance to ISIS, police said today. The gunman, now in custody, "confessed to committing this cowardly act in the name of Islam," Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross said during a news conference. "According to him, he believed that the police defend laws that are contrary to the teachings of the Quran." Philadelphia Police Captain James Clark said the suspect, who's name was not released at the news conference, "stated that he pledges his allegiance to Islamic State, he follows Allah and that is the reason he was called upon to do this."

Posted by Taryn O'Neill on January 07, 2016 14 Comments
Employees at Los Angeles' La Brea Tar Pits arrived Monday morning to find three signs hung on an outdoor display of elephants. The elephants stand in and around one of the museum's tar pits that have seeped natural asphalt for tens of thousands of years. The La Brea Tar Pits and Museum is an active excavation site where archeologists have found and continue to find countless fossils dating back to the Pleistocene epoch, or the earth's last ice age. A 'hello my name is JEB' tag hangs from the tusks of an elephant partially immersed in tar as a visibly worried baby elephant draped with 'Rubio 2016' watches on the perimeter. Another elephant labeled 'establishment GOP' observes the scene nearby. The scene is rich with anti-establishment overtones. Whether one agrees with the artist or not, it was a clever move.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 05, 2016 30 Comments
Turns out that the must-see movie of 2015 wasn't Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but The Big Short! The movie focuses on four finance professionals and 2 amateurs who predict the housing bubble collapse of the mid-2000s, and use arcane rules and special deals to punish the big banks for their greed while making a hefty profit for themselves. I must admit, I was skeptical about how much I was going to enjoy the movie when my husband suggested seeing it this weekend. I detest preachy films that bash capitalism and deride businessmen as greedy.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on January 01, 2016 8 Comments
Back in April, the Ted Cruz campaign had a fundraiser in which one could win an afternoon "shooting with Ted," so on the one hand, it's not surprising that when a "Netflix and chill" fundraiser went out people believed it. In other ways, however, because of the meaning of that phrase; it is surprising . . . simply because the Cruz campaign has been pretty savvy thus far about not making such cultural and social media faux pas. https://twitter.com/A_Garcia1990/status/681595388718133248/photo/1 And they didn't this time--the entire thing turned out to be a Photoshopped hoax.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on December 27, 2015 17 Comments
The Oxford University student behind the demand to remove Cecil Rhodes' name from the Rhodes Scholarship now has another demand -- ban the French flag on campuses. The student, Ntokozo Qwabe, has a history of activism in demanding the removal of "offensive" materials.  His first project was the "Rhodes Must Fall" campaign demanding the removal of a statute of Cecil Rhodes; in an ironic twist, it turned out that he attended Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship which he apparently does not intend on repaying. The Telegraph reports on the new demand to ban the French flag:
The law graduate behind a controversial campaign to remove a statue of British colonialist Cecil Rhodes from Oxford University’s Oriel College has turned his attention to the French flag, saying he’d support its ban on all university campuses.
Ntokozo Qwabe, co-founder of Rhodes Must Fall in Oxford, says France has committed acts of terror and refused to concede that Isis is worse than the French state.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on December 24, 2015 2 Comments
The good folks at MRCTV have a new college campus video out that is cringe-worthy to the max. Dan Joseph, the MRCTV reporter behind the video writes:
Last week, I presented some college students with a petition urging radio stations to stop playing the holiday classic "White Christmas" because the song only focuses on "White" Christmases. This clearly makes it racially insensitive, since it completely ignores Christmases of other colors. Students were all too willing to check their privilege and take a stand against Bing Crosby's racially charged micro-aggression. Just watch.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on December 22, 2015 32 Comments
The 9/11 terror attack changed the way Americans think about and law enforcement / the feds treat hijacked airlines, and San Bernardino and Paris are changing the way that Americans think about "active shooter" situations in the gun-free zones in which they tend to occur. Previously, office workers were taught to hunker down and hide (under a desk, for example) if they could not get away from the building.  This is a bad plan.  Now, however, "active shooter training" for office workers does not recommend hiding, which was often in plain sight; instead, the recommendation is to fight back—with books and other objects that can be used to "distract" a terrorist or assailant. The Washington Post reports:
Spooked by a year of high-profile rampages, hundreds of companies and organizations like NeighborWorks are racing to train their workers how to react to a shooter in their workplaces. And after decades of telling employees to lock down and shelter in place, they are teaching them to fight back if evacuating is not an option. The idea: Work as a team to disrupt and confuse shooters, opening up a split second to take them down.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 20, 2015 14 Comments
One of my happiest birthday memories was seeing the original "Star Wars" in 1977, when I turned 15. I fell in love with science fiction that day. So when my son, who is a big fan of both the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises, turned 14 this month, my birthday gift to him was tickets for the earliest showing I could obtain for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The movie was the perfect present, as the stories behind the film and its making involve the struggles of one generation attempting to pass the torch of its values and ideals to the next. And while I didn't experience the same "high" after seeing The Force Awakens as I did with A New Hope, in many ways it was nearly as satisfying. First, a small clip for those few of you who haven't been exposed to the recent spate of "Star Wars" advertising:

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on December 19, 2015 9 Comments
One of the many things I like about Ted Cruz is his sense of humor, and his campaign's latest ad, set to air tonight in Iowa during Saturday Night Live, exemplifies this beautifully. The Blaze reports:
The ad, which features the Texas senator read Christmas classics like “Rudolph the Underemployed Reindeer” and “The Grinch Who Lost Her Emails,” will air in key Iowa markets Saturday night, campaign spokeswoman Catherine Frazier told the Independent Journal. “In the spirit of the upcoming holiday, we are excited to bring a Cruz family Christmas into the homes of SNL viewers in Iowa,” she told the website. “Ted is a long time fan of SNL, so the chance to film his own SNL-style commercial was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up!”
Watch:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on December 16, 2015 58 Comments
For all the good the joy, one-click shopping, and cat videos the Internet provides, its underbelly is racked with loons of all shapes and sizes. Among them are the 9/11 truthers. Fed up by the "jet fuel can't melt steel" mantra, metalworker Trenton Tye of Purgatory Ironworks finally had enough. So he took to YouTube. "For the undying 9/11 MORONIC JET FUEL ARGUMENT" is a beautiful thing to behold.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on December 13, 2015 19 Comments
In June, the Treasury Department announced plans to replace Alexander Hamilton's mug on the $10 bill with a gal. Feminists applauded the move, the news instigated an awkward question to Republican candidates in a GOP presidential primary debate, and the rest of us who know American history were less than impressed. Treasury Secretary Lew claimed plans to change the $10 bill were not due to social concerns, but the bill's security. At that time I wrote:
When it comes to having a woman’s face on the cash I use to buy shoes, books, and americanos, I’m indifferent. It all spends the same. If anything, I loathe the idea that because I’m a woman I’m supposed to applaud or champion all women firsts a la “it’s time a woman _____!” Being a woman and doing something a man did years before is not in itself an accomplishment. Likewise, slapping a woman’s face on a $10 bill isn’t a cause to celebrate. Of the available jackasses printed on our cash (read: Andrew Jackson, though he knew how to throw a killer party), why replace Alexander Hamilton?! If there’s anything insulting about the latest attempt to feminize American cash, it’s that Hamilton is getting booted for a yet to be determined chick just so America can say we have a chick on our currency.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on December 12, 2015 16 Comments
Trump Derangement Syndrome is in high gear among the GOP establishment and even more so among those on the left.  In a jaw-dropping story, an ACLU board member took to Facebook to urge people to massacre people who support Trump.  This person has since resigned in disgrace. CBSDenver reports:
A board member for the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado has resigned after urging people to kill supporters of presidential candidate Donald Trump. Loring Wirbel’s Facebook post was captured by The Daily Caller – a right-leaning online newspaper. The post states, “The thing is, we have to really reach out to those who might consider voting for Trump and say, ‘This is Goebbels. This is the final solution. If you are voting for him I will have to shoot you before Election Day.’ They’re not going to listen to reason, so when justice is gone, there’s always force…”

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on December 12, 2015 6 Comments
Orphaned after her parents were killed in an arson attack, eight-yet-old Safyre is hopeful this Christmas. She has one wish this year -- to receive as many Christmas cards as people are willing to send. Inside Edition has the story:
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