Image 01 Image 03
Sign In or RegisterLogout

Culture Tag

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:

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on May 24, 2015 18 Comments
A couple of interesting polls came out this week that raise some equally interesting questions about conservatism, American values, and American culture and society.  One Gallup poll states that Americans greatly overestimate the percentage of Americans who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.
The American public estimates on average that 23% of Americans are gay or lesbian, little changed from Americans' 25% estimate in 2011, and only slightly higher than separate 2002 estimates of the gay and lesbian population. These estimates are many times higher than the 3.8% of the adult population who identified themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender in Gallup Daily tracking in the first four months of this year. The stability of these estimates over time contrasts with the major shifts in Americans' attitudes about the morality and legality of gay and lesbian relations in the past two decades. Whereas 38% of Americans said gay and lesbian relations were morally acceptable in 2002, that number has risen to 63% today. And while 35% of Americans favored legalized same-sex marriage in 1999, 60% favor it today.
It might come as a surprise that only 3.8% of the American population identify as LGBT.  It did to me.  We are inundated with news stories and manufactured outrage from the left to such a degree that it really seemed that we were transforming our laws, interpretation of our Constitution, and our religious beliefs for a significant portion of the population.  But no. Not that the tiny percentage makes any real difference in our own beliefs about states' rights, gay "marriage," and the assault on Judeo-Christian values, but the difference between our perception and reality speaks volumes about the effectiveness of the progressive far left. They are so effective at both creating false impressions and pushing their ideology, in fact, that the results are measurable.  According to another Gallup poll, the number of people identifying their social values as liberal matches those who identify their social values as conservative for the first time.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 23, 2015 26 Comments
As part of the Michelle Obama's 'Let's Move' fifth anniversary, the First Lady challenged people nationwide to #GimmeFive. #GimmeFive is meant to encourage people to share five ways they're living healthy lifestyles. President Obama joined the challenge when he shared his five favorite healthy habits. And so the First Lady responded to the President's challenge to "#GimmeFive FLOTUS-style." With the help of her personal trainer, Cornell McClellan, Mrs. Obama jumps rope, lifts weights, and beats the hell out of a punching bag in the White House gym.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 19, 2015 21 Comments
Forget the primary debates, Snoop Dogg has already decided for whom he'll cast his ballot next November -- Hillary Clinton. During an interview with Bravo this past Sunday, a caller dropped a political question into the mix. Noting that Snoop was a Ron Paul supporter in 2012, this particular caller was curious to learn Snoops views on the coming 2016 election. "I like to be politically correct, but sometimes I'm politically incorrect," a shaded Snoop responded. "I would love to see a woman in office because I feel like we're at that stage in life to where we need a perspective other than the male's train of thought, and just to have a woman speaking from a global perspective as far representing America -- I would love to see that. So I'll be voting for Mrs. Clinton." There's a sexist case to be made here -- choosing a political candidate based on sex rather than merit is certainly not congruent with progressive thinking.

Posted by Amy Miller on May 19, 2015 9 Comments
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft announced in a press conference today that he will not appeal the punishment the NFL handed down in the wake of the "Deflategate" scandal. Kraft stated that his decision was based on the idea that he could either "end (this controversy) or extend it." He called the discipline “unreasonable and unprecedented,” but tempered his comments by saying, “[w]e have concentrated the power of adjudication of problems with the office of the commissioner. Though I might disagree with what the commissioner has decided, I do have respect for him … that’s he’s doing the best in the best of the 32... I’m gonna accept — reluctantly... At no time should the agenda of one team outweigh the collective 32.” Following an independent investigation, the Patriots were fined $1 million and lost their first round draft pick for 2016 and fourth round pick for 2017. Additionally, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was suspended for the first four games of the 2016-2017 season. The allegations and evidence uncovered during the investigation were recently released in The Wells Report, which we covered earlier this month.

Posted by Amy Miller on May 18, 2015 25 Comments
Fresh hell alert! It's happening---the President has arrived on Twitter: Here's how the White House describes their vision for the new account:
The @POTUS Twitter account will serve as a new way for President Obama to engage directly with the American people, with tweets coming exclusively from him. President Obama is committed to making his Administration the most open and participatory in history, and @POTUS will give Americans a new venue to engage on the issues that matter most to them.
So...more Barack Obama? I'm sure you're all extremely excited about this development.
Accessibility by WAH