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Culture Tag

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 18, 2015 22 Comments
A leaked version of the climate change encyclical written by Pope Francis ignited a storm of controversy earlier this week.
The unexpected leak of Pope Francis’ much-anticipated environmental encyclical has meant the return of something that not long ago was fairly common around the Vatican but had become often dormant during the two-plus years of Francis’ mostly charmed papacy: intrigue. Who leaked it and why? Was this the work of frustrated conservatives in the Vatican, as some experts have speculated? Does it portend big fights at a pivotal October meeting in which church officials are expected to grapple with homosexuality and divorce? Or is it just a tempest in a teapot? “Somebody inside the Vatican leaked the document with the obvious intention of embarrassing the pope,” said Robert Mickens, a longtime Vatican expert and editor of Global Pulse, an online Catholic magazine.
In the wake of this incident, the Vatican revoked the credentials of Sandro Magister, the Italian journalist who has been reporting on the behind-the-scenes development of the papal document.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 17, 2015 22 Comments
Don't ever change, Internet. Otherwise how else would we be able to enjoy the simple pleasures in life, like this hillbilly banjo band hilariously heckling marathon runners? From a local Fox News affiliate in Franklin, TN:
Marathon runners in Leiper’s Fork were greeted with an unexpected surprise along their route in Franklin Half Marathon a few weeks ago. Runners usually expect to see friends and family as they run, but it’s not often that they see a hillbilly band parked along the side of the path to heckle them.
Serenading runners with "Dueling Banjos", the hillbilly band set up on the back of a truck, under the cover of a patio umbrella. Hollering things like, "where ya going?" "where y'all running from?" "what's your hurry?" and "slow down young man!" one gentleman beat a trash can lid on the side of a water trough and another bare-chested, overall-clad man danced a jig and chased runners around. Yet another man, who was lounging atop a five gallon paint drum in cut off cammo pants, joined his overalled companion in dancing a jig while brandishing an ax. It's a perfect slice of internet heaven:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 12, 2015 17 Comments
Last month we discussed feminist angst over summer blockbuster, Jurassic World. Evidently, the film's traditional gender roles were another tool of the patriarchy to keep women in the kitchen... or something. It should be noted that in an age where gender roles are a matter of choice, if one chooses to go the traditional route, the decision should be applauded. But when has any leftist faction ever employed ideological consistency? In any case, back to Jurassic World.

Be forewarned: Spoilers ahead, though I've tried to keep them vague.

If you enjoyed Jurassic Park, you'll love Jurassic World. I fully expected a modern redux of the original dino-park dream turn nightmare, but was pleasantly surprised. Jurassic World holds its own with plenty of subtle and not so subtle nods to its predecessor. Before the film hit the silver screen, there was much ado about the film's traditional gender roles -- at least among the feminists. Based on the trailer alone, they decried the portrayal of a stiff-shirted woman who needed the help of a man (heaven forbid!).

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 12, 2015 6 Comments
A docudrama called Sing a Little Louder is based on a powerful true story from World War II. Set in World War II Germany, the film tells the story of a young German boy who's church was located next to the train tracks. Every Sunday at the same time, trains taking Jews to death camps passed by the church. One day, a train broke down. The cries and screams of the Jews being carted away were so loud, the pastor instructed the choir to sing louder to drown them out. Juliana Taimoorazy, the film's executive producer and President of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council, says the church in the West is no different than the small German church. While Christians in the Middle East are being persecuted and slaughtered for their faith, Christians in the West are singing a little louder.

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 12, 2015 27 Comments
Our humorless and intellectually superior friends on the left listened to what Jerry Seinfeld said about political correctness and proved his point in exactly the way you'd expect. Progressives can't abide a celebrity with Seinfeld's gravitas criticizing their culture of microaggressions and limits on free speech so naturally, he must be discredited. MSNBC's Alex Wagner discussed the subject with her guests and for the most part, they dismissed Seinfeld's concerns because after all, he's rich. Matthew Balan of NewsBusters:
Shorter MSNBC: Seinfeld's Jab at 'Creepy PC' Isn't Valid Because He's Rich Alex Wagner, along with her three liberal guests, ripped Jerry Seinfeld on her MSNBC program on Wednesday, for his blast at "creepy" political correctness. Wagner hinted that Seinfeld had "fallen behind the times." New York magazine's Annie Lowrey mocked his critique: "I kind of roll my eyes at Jerry Seinfeld. You know, he's a billionaire – like I don't feel sorry for him if people don't laugh hard enough at his jokes."
Here's the video:

Posted by Amy Miller on June 10, 2015 9 Comments
The day Caitlyn Jenner's Vanity Fair cover was revealed, I made a joke about it. It wasn't anything particularly crude or shocking, and it didn't go any further than the mildest joke you would have seen on Twitter that day, but I still fielded text messages chewing me out for being "insensitive" and "transphobic" by chittering outrage squirrels who don't understand what phobic means. People in general have accepted that for the most part, comedy comes from a dark place. It's the knee-jerk reaction that you repress, but that the comedian packages and splatters on the wall for the world to see. That being said, even the world's most popular creative talents are getting the sense that, when it comes to comedy, the general population would much rather not laugh at the expense of the bubble-wrapped classes that the left so jealously shields from criticism. On last night's Late Night with Seth Meyers, comedian Jerry Seinfeld joined Seth and New Yorker editor David Remnick and unleashed on today's PC culture that can't even handle a lighthearted joke about social media that happens to have the word "gay" in it. Watch:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 08, 2015 28 Comments
You probably remember Emma Sulkowicz, who carried her mattress around Columbia University to protest her alleged rapists presence on campus. Sulkowicz's "Carry the Weight" project was an act of "performance art" (her term, not ours) that resulted in college credit. Her alleged rapist, Paul Nungesser, was later cleared by Columbia and has since filed suit against the university. Sulkowicz graduated with her mattress in tow. Wasting no time, Sulkowicz released her latest piece of performance art -- a sex tape. "Ceci N'est Pas Un Viol" or "This is Not a Rape" is Sulkowicz's latest endeavor. Titled to imitate Rene Magritte’s “Ceci N’est Pas Une Pipe,” Sulkowicz's project begins with a trigger warning, and includes a critical thinking guide.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 08, 2015 20 Comments
On the rare occasion Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs fame wanders into quasi-political discourse, he shares a perspective severely lacking in this overly-politicized world -- common sense observation. Usually, these observations are served up via Rowe's mail bag. Sunday afternoon, Rowe responded to a message from Craig P. Craig wrote:
Your constant harping on “work ethic” is growing tiresome. Just because someone’s poor doesn’t mean they’re lazy. The unemployed want to work! And many of those who can’t find work today, didn’t have the benefit of growing up with parents like yours. How can you expect someone with no role model to qualify for one of your scholarships or sign your silly “Sweat Pledge?” Rather than accusing people of not having a work-ethic, why not drop the right-wing propaganda and help them develop one?
Mr. P. makes several good points, namely -- despite the oft interneted mantra, just because someone's poor certainly doesn't mean they're lazy. In response to Mr. P., Rowe pointed out what's probably the single most productive observation I've seen on the matter (emphasis added):
Hi Craig, and Happy Sunday! I’m afraid you’ve overestimated the reach of my foundation, as well as my ability to motivate people I’ve never met. For the record, I don’t believe all poor people are lazy, any more than I believe all rich people are greedy. But I can understand why so many do.

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 06, 2015 6 Comments
Many people have written about our media which, with few exceptions, has become an arm of the Democratic Party. The other casualty of this era is the world of comedy. Last year, I wrote about it in a piece titled Cowardly Comedy in the Age of Obama. Little has changed since then. Most American comedians seem to have no problem speaking truth to power when Republicans are in charge but have found themselves unable to do so for the last seven years. It's obvious that many of these same comics are hoping to carry their sad act into the age of Hillary as well. David Rutz of the Washington Free Beacon put together the informative reel below which shows the lopsided treatment the left gets from America's court jesters. Of course, there are consequences for all of this.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 02, 2015 5 Comments
Merriam-Webster released this year's dictionary update and the additions are... interesting. According to their website, the dictionary expansion includes more 1,700 words:
As of last week, it’s grown by more than 1,700 entries, and existing entries have expanded by more than 700 new senses. We’ve added 3,200 examples that provide contextual information, and another 200 entries for some of the words people most frequently look up have been updated and enhanced. Some of the new entries are for terms you’ve heard of and some likely aren’t.
Several words birthed from the politisphere made the cut -- like this lefty favorite. Take this one away and they'd have no clue how to chat about the Koch brothers: dark money merriam-webster dictionary addition

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 29, 2015 13 Comments
U.S. Beer King, Anheuser-Busch has temporarily stopped producing beer at one of its Georgia facilities to can drinking water for flood victims in Texas and Oklahoma. Working with the Red Cross, Anheuser-Busch is producing 50,000 cans of water free of charge. NBC News writes:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 27, 2015 48 Comments
Fuzzy Slippers recently pondered if, based on false press reports on the status of the "culture wars," the Tea Party faded away prematurely. Based on my experiences with a vibrant California Tea Party group, I would argue that the conservative citizen movement transmuted. The form changed, based on the needs and political situation of its many members. Yet, several people who have been active in the movement agree that the "culture wars" have played a role in the current status of the Tea Party. Shane Atwell, who writes often about Tea Party-related matters for the San Diego Local Order of Bloggers, makes an interesting connection between social conservatism and the "fading" Tea Party.
I think a lot of the fire left the Tea Party when it got absorbed by the conventional conflict between lefties and conservatives on social issues. It started out as being about limited government (abolishing the federal reserve, getting the government out of housing, reducing taxes, reducing regulations, abolishing Obamacare) and morphed into being about maintaining or expanding government (border fences and marriage restrictions). The leftist media focused on these last and might have known that it would help diffuse the Tea Party.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 26, 2015 41 Comments
Leave it to feminists to be incensed over a dinosaur movie. "Jurassic World" hits theaters June 12. Presumably a redux of "Jurassic Park," but this time with one dude taking out dinosaurs instead of a motley crew of paleontologists, it's a film I can't wait to see on the silver screen. But that's probably because I'm not a feminist. In this edition of Feminists vs. Reality, the gripe is with (gasp!) traditional gender roles. According to NYU Local, Joss Whedon is to blame for reminding feminists they should be infuriated by traditional gender rolls instead of swooning over leading man, Chris Pratt:
When a clip from Jurassic World featuring Pratt and his co-star Bryce Dallas Howard was released on the Internet last week, Joss Whedon, director of the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron and well known feminist, had some major gripes with what he saw. Online feminist entertainment blog The Mary Sue tweeted out a link to the Jurassic World scene, commenting, “We’re too busy fanning ourselves to talk more about Chris Pratt in this #JurassicWorld clip.” Joss Whedon used his own Twitter account to reply: “…and I’m too busy wishing this clip wasn’t 70’s era sexist. She’s a stiff, he’s a life-force – really? Still?” He has since stated in an interview with Variety that he regrets sending the tweet, saying that Twitter was the wrong medium for such negative comments, but Whedon hasn’t retracted the opinion he expressed to his 1.12 million followers.
Whedon has since abandoned Twitter, but his tweeted seed of outrage has blossomed into a hideously stupid monstrosity.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 26, 2015 25 Comments
One of the nation's largest cities experienced what meteorologists are calling a one-hundred-year flood. Late last night, three separate thunderstorm systems converged over Space City to form one incredibly nasty storm. For weeks Houston and other parts of the Lone Star State have been pelted with storm system after storm system, leaving large swaths of affected areas waterlogged and unable to absorb more rainfall. Leaving two dead, lightning storms and torrential rainfall pounded Houston for most of the night. Some parts of the city, particularly southwest Houston, saw more than ten inches of rain in as little as five hours. Courts and schools were closed Tuesday with much of the city still unnavigable.

RAW VIDEO: This is just some of the incredible footage taken by Skyeye HD of the flooding across the city of Houston this morning.WATCH MORE HERE --> http://abc13.co/1FN6b0f#HoustonFlood Photo Gallery --> http://abc13.co/1HHk02n

Posted by ABC 13 Houston on Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Posted by Amy Miller on May 26, 2015 29 Comments
Byron Allen is a TV personality and entertainment executive turned concerned citizen, and he wants you to know that he is not happy with the way Obama's presidency has affected the well-being of the black community. In a street interview with TMZ, Allen lashed out at President Obama, saying that he hasn't done enough to give black people in America a leg up. Via the Hollywood Reporter [emphasis mine]:
"Black people have fallen further behind under President Obama," said Allen, who also criticized Obama for having referred to the looters and arsonists in last month's Baltimore riots as "thugs." "President Obama is, at this point, a white president in blackface," Allen said. "Black America would have done much better with a white president."

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 25, 2015 13 Comments
While we remember our service men and women who paid the ultimate price so that we can enjoy freedom, it's fitting to reflect on a few of our finest virtues.

1. We're back to back World War champions

captain america i've knocked over adolf hitler over 200 times

2. Old Glory is a beaut

american flag

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 25, 2015 68 Comments
Memorial Day is always a bittersweet holiday for me. I enjoy having a day to partake in BBQ and beer (Texas BBQ though, not what Yanks call "BBQ"), while wearing my favorite, ratty, American flag t-shirt and watching war movies. As much as I love reflecting on this brilliant country a bunch of old dudes created a couple hundred years ago, there is a weight that lies heavy on my heart on days like Memorial Day. It's the simple reminder that freedom is never free. Our freedom comes at inestimable price. More often than not, that debt is only satisfied with blood. When I was in high school "Saving Private Ryan" made its silver screen debut. Always a sucker for war movies, I went to see it on opening weekend. Completely unaware that what I was about to see would have a lasting impact, I sprung for cherry sours, a Coke slushy and found a seat. The first thirty minutes of the film were unlike anything I'd ever seen on screen and easily the most intense. At the time I was only vaguely familiar with the D-Day invasion. What I knew of D-Day I'd learned from 60s flicks like "The Longest Day." Unlike the older World War II films where a bullet to the heart resulted in a theatrical fall sometimes accompanied by a bit of obviously fake blood and famous last words, "Saving Private Ryan" was the goriest movie I’d ever seen. A soldier reached down to pick up his arm that had been blown off and another lay on the ground, his guts strewn across the sand. The water was red with blood and soldier after soldier fell in similarly violent fashion, some never making it off the landing craft.

Posted by Amy Miller on May 24, 2015 14 Comments
An Israeli civil servant committed suicide on Saturday after a Facebook post accusing him of racism went viral. Ariel Ronis, 47, managed the Population, Immigration and Border Crossing Authority (PIBA) offices in Tel Aviv. Last week, a black Israeli woman posted a note on Facebook about her experiences in the office, accusing various staff---including Ronis---of treating her unfairly because of the color of her skin. She says that she was denied services by a clerk, and then told by Ronis to "get out of his face" when she complained about it. She claims the incident made her cry, and caused her a considerable amount of distress. Her post caught the attention of the online community and the media, and went viral. Ronis was officially smeared, and judging by a note he posted to his own Facebook page, the incident pushed him over the edge. Screen Shot 2015-05-24 at 4.26.58 PM The Times of Israel translated his post:
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