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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.

Posted by Amy Miller on May 18, 2015 3 Comments
Qatar is busy prepping to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and that means importing thousands of migrant laborers from all over the world to help complete massive (and costly) construction projects; the tiny country is sinking billions into the completion of new roads, hotels, and stadiums, and and has come under criticism from the international community for what are alleged to be unsafe (read: deadly) and unhealthy (read: inhumane) labor practices. As part of a campaign to revamp the event's image, Qatari authorities organized a media event aimed at allowing full access to the areas where migrant workers live and work. Claims that workers' situations had improved were not enough, and journalists from many different countries flew in for what they believed to be an open access event. BBC News' Mark Lobel and his team were among the journalists to attend the event---and now they're saying that they're lucky they were able to come home.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 17, 2015 19 Comments
I recently reported that some Vatican officials were unhappy with scientists who directly challenged the questionable data and erroneous assertions being used as the basis for Pope Francis' upcoming eco-encyclical. Now, in a drama worthy of a Dan Brown novel, there is a dispute about the status of that much-anticipated publication. A widely-cited report has been released by an Italian journalist who covers the Catholic Church and the Vatican indicating that these papal plans may be delayed. Hot from Italy's "L'espresso": E questo sarebbe il teologo di fiducia del papa? (Translated by my SoCal Tax Revolt Coalition colleague, Anthony Porrello)
According to Vaticanist Sandro Magister, Pope Francis has decided to postpone the publication of his long-awaited encyclical on the environment. The reason, according to Magister, is that the Pope realized that the document in its current state had no chance of receiving the approval of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith under the leadership of Cardinal Gerhard Müller. If it seems somewhat improper for a Cardinal to be telling a Pope what he can and can't write, don't fret, gentle reader: the text wasn't written by Pope Francis at all.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 14, 2015 19 Comments
For Democrats the solution to every.single.problem is simple: make it rain dollar bills democrats funding throw money Infrastructure needs updating? Raise the gas tax. Some don't have health insurance? Use someone else's money to give it them. And why should women have to pay for birth control? Toss some taxpayer money at them too! The list goes on... Most recently, Democrats decided the tragic Amtrak derailment was the perfect opportunity to shamelessly push for more funding. People died? Well, this wouldn't have happened if Amtrak had MORE FUNDING. Harumpf. Democrats, essentially.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 12, 2015 13 Comments
Forget the fictitious but politically expedient 'War on Women,' masculinity is under attack. Men are maligned for not being more feminine in quality and character, and little boys are expected to forsake their natural curiosity, fervor, and active nature so as not to offend anyone with their rambunctiousness. The compulsion to label little boys as violent, soon-to-be patriarchal overlords who can't possibly understand the plight of women is not only out of control, but is damaging future generations of men. Why can't boys just be boys anymore? That's a question Bill Whittle, Stephen Kruiser, Scott Ott, Stephen Green, and Dr. Helen Smith tackle in a video released by PJ Media Monday. Boys are diagnosed with ADHD and ADD at substantially higher proportions than girls. Do boys really suffer from attention deficits or are they simply... little boys? "Are we drugging our boys into femininity?" asks Whittle. While boys aren't being drugged into femininity per se, Dr. Smith notes that a byproduct of the progressive education movement is a school system staffed predominately with women who know best how to serve girl students. And the boys? There's really no place for them in this construct. In order to make the transition as seamless as possible, little boys are disproportionately drugged to make them more cooperative in the system built around the needs of little girls. The progressive left's troupe of feminist harpies are the worst offenders in the War on Masculinity and examples abound. As Whittle points out, "so much of this is the feminist movement thinking they can get rid of violence by getting rid of masculinity."

Posted by Amy Miller on May 11, 2015 32 Comments
Behold, Mars: site of future discoveries adventures microaggressions. Yes, really. Happy Sunday, everyone. Every once in a while, the social justice warrior set cracks a window and shines light on what's really bugging them about the world. Racism, ageism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, life-phobia---if they can't find a problem, they'll use one of these handy buzzwords to invent one. Last week, Martin Robbins at The Guardian (presumably) gazed up into the firmament and saw what only a social justice warrior could see when presented with such breathtaking splendor: potential. For discrimination. Martin presents a simple question: How can our future Mars colonies be free of sexism and racism? (Anyone with a brain reading this just did a spit take.) In his essay, he questions the idea that “[w]hen we go into space, we will all magically become nice,” and makes an exquisitely flawed case for why future off-planet settlements will look a less like a Picard-era Enterprise, and more like an Earp-era gambling outpost.

Posted by Amy Miller on May 06, 2015 14 Comments
In politics, there's no such thing as a tiny mistake. Even the silliest moments become "gaffes" at the behest of overeager journalists looking to "break" the Next Big Scandal©. There's no avoiding it; what matters is how you deal with it. Carly Fiorina knows how to deal with it. When Fiorina took the plunge into the 2016 presidential pool, her team discovered that somewhere down the line, whoever was in charge of these things had neglected to buy CarlyFiorina.org. What's worse, the person who had managed to secure the domain is currently using it to lambast Fiorina's tenure at HP:
“Carly Fiorina failed to register this domain. So I'm using it to tell you how many people she laid off at Hewlett-Packard,” the page reads, followed by 30,000 sad-face emotions that it says represents one person that lost their job. The Hill later reported that an employee at the Service Employees International Union, which regularly donates to the Democratic Party, created the website. He told The Hill that he made the site entirely on his own time with his own resources late last year and that it had nothing to do with his employer.
During her recent appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Meyers brought it up---and was promptly taken to school. Watch:

Posted by Amy Miller on May 05, 2015 17 Comments
We live in a culture obsessed with digital presence. When I joined Facebook in 2003, I never imagined that over a decade later I'd use the platform to network with bosses and clients, connect with family, and participate in discussions and debates with people half a world away. I definitely never anticipated having to scrub seemingly-innocent pictures and status updates from that platform before I applied to law school, and again from Twitter before I began my job hunt. Single life. Job. Marriage. Kids. Death. Online is everything; it can prop us up, take us down, and turn into an obsession if we're not careful. Appearances are everything, and in a time when the smallest step out of line (never mind something actually scandalous) can draw fire that ruins careers, marriages, and lives, paranoia isn't just justified---it's expected. Enter the "selfie arm." (Scroll up to the featured image and soak it in.) This little slice of horror is a piece of social commentary on the "selfie stick," which you've seen if you've gone anywhere near a tourist trap in the past six months. (It allows the holder to hold their phone farther out from the subject of the selfie, ensuring a photo that is apparently 150% more badass than a normal selfie. Or something. Don't ask me---I don't get it.)

Posted by Amy Miller on April 29, 2015 16 Comments
Last week, Iron Man and Avengers: Age of Ultron star Robert Downey, Jr. walked out of an Avengers promotional interview after British journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy decided to dive into the motivation behind a comment RDJ made in 2008 about the correlation between incarceration and progressivism. Here's the offending utterance:
“I have a really interesting political point of view, and it’s not always something I say too loud at dinner tables here, but you can’t go from a $2,000-a-night suite at La Mirage to a penitentiary and really understand it and come out a liberal. You can’t. I wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone else, but it was very, very, very educational for me and has informed my proclivities and politics every since.”
It was an ambush seven years in the making. Here's what happened when Guru-Murthy decided to go all 60 Minutes on the actor during what was billed as a superhero movie promo spot:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 28, 2015 41 Comments
I know this has made the rounds quite a bit, but it's still worth playing. Kind of speaks for itself, but here's the story:
This Baltimore mom saw her son throwing rocks at police on television. That didn't sit well with her. The video shows the mother repeatedly striking her boy, chasing him as he tries to walk away.
Mom may have humiliated her son on national TV. And that may be the best thing that ever happened to him. I don't know the son's age, but would anyone be surprised that, if he's under 18, child services will come down hard on MOM? Here's the video:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 27, 2015 31 Comments
Today marks Chipotles first "GMO free" menu day. The burrito chain announced they will no longer prepare food containing Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). According to the New York Times:
“This is another step toward the visions we have of changing the way people think about and eat fast food,” said Steve Ells, founder and co-chief executive of Chipotle. “Just because food is served fast doesn’t mean it has to be made with cheap raw ingredients, highly processed with preservatives and fillers and stabilizers and artificial colors and flavors.”
Finally! A GMO-free burrito! Oh, do you have gluten-free tortillas? And can I get extra ice in my coconut water? - A hipster somewhere, probably. So, yay! Chipotle, burgeoning champion of the GMO-free pander movement makes a bold stand. Sounds good, right? There's just one little problem though... Chipotle isn't actually going 100% GMO-free.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 26, 2015 23 Comments
For the longest, Blue Bell was solely a Texas establishment. Their factory is right up the road from Houston. Kids would take school trips to the Blue Bell factory (and I imagine they still do). Everyone grew up looking forward to their seasonal offerings. And Blue Bell was the treat you looked forward to as a kid. Not ice cream -- Blue Bell. So when the grocery store is out of Blue Bell, they may as well be out of ice cream altogether. Beloved Texas staple, Blue Bell ice cream voluntarily pulled their product off the shelves following widespread listeria contamination concerns. As my sister observed at the grocery store yesterday:

Noooooo :(

A photo posted by Kristee Masters (@masterlenn) on

The massive voluntary recall was the first since the creamery opened in 1907. Closed temporarily, Monday, "Blue Bell Ice Cream will embark on an intensive cleaning program while it simultaneously conducts a new training program for its employees at all four production facilities with locations in Alabama, Oklahoma and Texas." Friday afternoon, Blue Bell released the following video:

Our employees are working hard to bring Blue Bell back. Here’s their message for you:

Posted by Blue Bell Ice Cream on Friday, April 24, 2015

Posted by Amy Miller on April 26, 2015 35 Comments
We're slowly losing the distinction between the protest and the riot. Last night, chaos broke out in Baltimore after protests against the death of Freddie Gray turned into riots that damaged property and police cars, and resulted in the arrests of more than 30 people. Baltimore city officials denounced the violence as the work of "splinter groups"---isn't that always the case?---but the fact that over 300 officers were deployed and engaged in the area around Camden Yards sends that friendly narrative right down the toilet. One producer paid the price for covering the protests, and was robbed on camera as she filmed a group of teens running the streets. In the video below, you'll see the producer become surrounded, and then thrown to the ground as the crowd becomes more frenzied. The producer filming the scene was forced to give chase after one of the teens ripped her handbag from her person. Fortunately, police intervened soon after. Watch:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 24, 2015 33 Comments
You might remember Emma Sulkowicz, the Columbia University student who vowed to carry her mattress around campus in protest of her alleged rapist who remained on campus. Sulkowicz turned what she says was a horrible tragedy into performance art; performance art that will suffice as her senior thesis. Sulkowicz chose not to press charges, but to pursue allegations through Columbia's 'justice' system instead. A few months ago, Sulkowocz's alleged rapist, German student Jean-Paul Nungesser, provided his side of the story to the The Daily Beast. Nungesser's story, which was corroborated by Facebook and text messages provided to The Daily Beast, deviated significantly from Sulkowicz's version of the sordid tale. Though charges levied against by Nungesser were dismissed by Columbia University, he was judged harshly by his peers as a result of what appeared to be false accusations. When Nungesser's shared his version of events, I wrote:
Nungesser was judged in the court of public opinion because of what appear to be patently false accusations. He was hounded by the press and his peers. Meanwhile, Sulkowicz was praised for her bravery and artistic expression. And the compulsion to vilify the accused, in spite of evidence to the contrary, has yet another notch on its belt.

Posted by Amy Miller on April 24, 2015 27 Comments
Earlier today, the Speaker's office released a light, approachable (we'll talk about this later), "Happy Spring" video from the Man himself, showing John Boehner purchasing and installing a new blade on his push mower. Watch it here:
He may be the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, but he still irons his own shirts, washes his own dishes, and yes…cuts his own grass. But a well-kept yard requires well-kept tools, so in the video, Speaker Boehner preps his push mower for the springtime.
Flawlessly executed "man of the people" spot? NAY. Soon after the video was released, the internet noticed something...horrifying. Behold:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 23, 2015 22 Comments
When I read Aleister's post detailing the ludicrous trigger warning issued by Georgetown's radical feminists for Christina Hoff Sommer's talk, I was taken aback by this tweet from from an attendee of an event for the Association of Writing and Writing Programs. After I got done rolling my eyes, I realized that it is unlikely that any one of these geniuses will be remembered for their writing in 40 years...much less 400 years. This is compared to one very white, very straight man known as William Shakespeare, who was born on this day in 1564.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 21, 2015 49 Comments
You've seen the maps delineating the largely regional usage of words like "y'all" versus "you guys." But what about the more subtle differences in English usage? Yale's Grammatical Diversity Project produced some rather fascinated results. The study "examines syntactic differences among local varieties spoken by considerably smaller numbers of people." Digging far deeper into the grammar usage among regions within the same state, the study documents, "minimal differences among varieties of English spoken in North America." According to one of the researchers, the goal was not to look for grammatical inaccuracies or judge language usage, but to catalogue regional variations. For example, in many parts of New England, people will say "so don't I" to mean "so do I," he explained. The study also explores generational differences in the usage of words like, "so." Among younger people, and particularly in New York and California, "so" is used to convey drama. For example, "I was so tired last night, I couldn't keep my eyes open."
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