Within minutes of the news breaking that Jared Lee Loughner had killed six and wounded 12 in a rampage outside a Tucson safeway store, including a critically injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the news media immediately leapt to the conclusion that the harsh tone of our political discourse - led by conservative talk radio - surely must be to blame. That narrative turned out to be hogwash, but another one has emerged during the investigation into Loughner's psyche, yet virtually no one wants to discuss it. Was the shooter inspired by the entertainment media? Why would violent movies or music be... continue reading
Imagine the Saturday morning of congressional aide Mark Kimble. Kimble told of going to a Safeway for a typical meet-and-greet event with his boss, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Kimble said he went into the store for coffee, and as he came out, Giffords was talking to a couple about Medicare and reimbursements, and federal judge John Roll had just walked up to her and shouted "Hi" - when a gunman opened fire. Nobody in America should greet this scene with any other initial reaction than horror. Six people were killed, including Judge Roll, several retirees, and a nine-year-old girl. Over a... continue reading
The Super Bowl is more than just a huge day for professional football fans. Part of the game's massive audience is there for the chance to see how mega-corporations creatively spend millions of dollars for one Super Bowl commercial. Some Super Bowl ads are brilliant and successful. Budweiser knows it has hit one out of the park when its ad is Monday's water-cooler talk. But never understimate the ability of some people to go too far, where talent and imagination are rejected for sophistry and shock. Take the ad geniuses for Doritos and PepsiMax, who posted on YouTube some entrants... continue reading
Our national media elite reviewed 2010 with great sorrow for how America has besmirched itself in the eyes of the world with its "seething hatred" of Muslims. CBS anchor Katie Couric announced on her Internet show that there wasn't enough evaluation of"this bigotry toward 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide" which was "so misdirected, and so wrong - and so disappointing." Couric even embarrassed herself by suggesting "Maybe we need a Muslim version of The Cosby Show." A ridiculous idea - unless it were to run every night instead of Couric's lame half-hour "news" report. While Katie crinkles her face that anyone... continue reading
2010 may have been an encouraging year for political conservatives but it wasn't so rosy for America's culture. The most depressing result was the Second Circuit Court of Appeals granting our television networks the right to employ the nastiest curse words in front of children at any hour of the broadcast day. In her opinion, Judge Rosemary Pooler insisted that the TV networks weren't pushing the envelope like "a petulant teenager angling for a better curfew," they were good people with a "a good faith desire to comply with the FCC's indecency regime." The judge should win some sort of... continue reading
There is nothing the Left believes in more robotically than the stupidity of conservatives. Otherwise, they would not be conservatives. When liberals get routed in an election, they do not question themselves. The first, and for most, only verdict is that the American people were disastrously flooded by a tsunami of stupidity and misinformation. So it's not surprising that left-wing bloggers would rejoice when they can write the headline "New Study Proves That Fox News Makes You Stupid." That's the Daily Kos headline. According to them, Fox News is "deliberately misinforming their viewers" to help Republicans, who "benefited from the... continue reading
The metaphor "The War on Christmas" can be mocked - as if Santa and his reindeer are dodging anti-aircraft fire. But many of our public schools have church-and-state sensitivity police with an alarming degree of Santaphobia. Anyone who's attended a school's "winter concert" in December with no traditional Christmas music - not even "Frosty the Snowman" - knows the drill. The vast Christian majority (that funds the public schools) is told that school is no place to celebrate one's religion, even in its most watered-down and secularized forms. There are real-life stories of Scrooge-like school administrators, like the one at... continue reading
There is some very dangerous - as in red-hot incendiary - hatred going on, and it's being advanced by the national news media directly. The panel of judges for the Media Research Center's Best Notable Quotables of 2010 found that theme time and time again while selecting the year's worst reporting and punditry. PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley won "The Poison Tea Pot Award for Smearing the Anti-Obama Rabble." On May 25, he was interviewing author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a bold critic of radical Muslims - at the risk of a fatwa against her own life since 2004. Ali... continue reading
You may have never heard of the 17-year-old actress Taylor Momsen, but she represents everything that's wrong with pop culture today. At seven, she starred as the adorable Cindy Lou Who in Jim Carrey's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," but there's nothing adorable in what she's done lately. Momsen is a "multiple threat," matching acting on CW's smutty teen series "Gossip Girl" with a "music career" with a band accurately titled "The Pretty Reckless." In July, still aged 16, Momsen's music video for the song "Miss Nothing" featured her in raccoonish eye makeup wearing a white silk bodysuit, fishnet stockings... continue reading
When ABC's Barbara Walters deems Sarah Palin one of the year's "Most Fascinating People," it's a back-handed compliment. Walters knows Palin has an adoring fan base, and she's definitely not part of it. When the December 2 special began, Walters greeted Palin with, "Many people find the thought of you as president a little scary." This is not what Walters asked President Obama in yet another gooey Barack-and-Michelle hour-long ABC interview on Thanksgiving night. Clearly, a large, energized chunk of the American electorate believed - and continues to believe - the idea of Obama as president to be horrifying. Instead,... continue reading