Outrage burst forth from lawmakers in Washington when the story broke that insurance giant AIG still planned to dole out $165 million in bonuses to executives while it teeters near bankruptcy, kept afloat by taxpayers. But the outrage is mostly coming from hypocrites. Just days earlier, President Obama signed an omnibus spending bill with $12.8 billion in self-serving earmarks for legislators during the economic crisis. How can the president and Congress lecture AIG? Don't the earmarking hogs look like hypocrites? Liberals dismiss complaints about their drunken spending habits as just a conservative distraction. Why, it's only a couple percentage points... continue reading
Since 2005, Nicole Bernard has been Fox Television's senior vice president for standards and practices. Someone should put her face on a milk carton, because anyone who watches Fox must suspect she's never shown up for work. Exhibit A (and through Z, and back again) is "Family Guy," Fox's animated Sunday night spectacle of mind-numbing garbage . The March 8 episode, titled "Family Gay," was absolutely riddled with revolting scenes that would make people wonder about if anyone at Fox has an ounce of decency, or taste. Here's what anyone who would dare publicly state, "I work for Fox," knows... continue reading
On March 3, President Obama said something remarkably stupid, wrong and politically tone-deaf. Our Obama-loving media either ignored it - or actually quoted it without comment. He claimed "The stock market is sort of like a tracking poll in politics. It bobs up and down day to day and if you spend all your time worrying about that, then you're probably going to get the long-term strategy wrong." The Dow has now fallen more than 50 percent from its peak. Last month, it saw its biggest one-month drop since 1933. Grandpa's retirement savings just half-vanished over the last few months,... continue reading
Lent is a season of sacrifice and repentance. Most commonly, the discussion of Lenten commitments revolves around our obesity problem, sounding like a recommitment to already dissolved New Year's resolutions about a better diet or more exercise. Sometimes, we can sound like we're more focused on Jenny Craig than Jesus Christ. Christians are supposed to concentrate on denying themselves in some smaller way that resembles the sacrifice of the Savior's death on the cross. This is a part of religion that can easily caricatured by the cultural elite. The search for self-loathing and mortification easily transforms into the psychosis of... continue reading
As Gov. Bobby Jindal began to offer a Republican response, it became apparent that he would be no match with Barack Obama in the soaring-oratory department. The Republicans really should have tried a gimmick instead. Perhaps Jindal could have simply walked on and said, "Today, the president held what he called a fiscal responsibility summit." He could afford a wide smile at that point, knowing his audience had erupted in laughter. Honestly, now: Are we quite ready finally to declare the Era of Obama As Fiscally Conservative is over? Last year, Republicans warned that Barack Obama was ultraliberal - a... continue reading
Everyone who enjoys NFL football games knows they're going to be sitting through an avalanche of those awkward ads for erectile-dysfunction drugs, and ads soaked in sex and violence selling new movies or prime-time TV shows. Despite this barrage, the NFL has managed to show some standards, believe it or not. They refused a Super Bowl commercial from the website AshleyMadison.com because of its unusual product, a dating service for married people who want to commit adultery - or as they strangely describe it, they enable "married dating." Their slogan is "Life's short. Have an affair." But this Home Wreckers... continue reading
We've endured two years of endless journalistic jawboning about Barack Obama, the great racial healer who would bind us together, the man who would get everyone singing on a sun-soaked hilltop with a bottle of Coke and a smile. So now that he's in, what have he got? We have Obama's attorney general Eric Holder telling us how Americans remain "voluntarily socially segregated," and that while we have the foolish pride to think of the United States as an ethnic melting pot, we have always been and continue to be a "nation of cowards." Whether you support him politically or... continue reading
The dictionary defines prejudice as premature judgment: making a decision before becoming aware of the relevant facts of a case or event. Some forms of prejudice are fading, racism being the primary and obvious example. The backlash against prejudice is so intense it has spurred its opposite, the call toward tolerance. But for one sector, the prejudice remains intact. It is perfectly acceptable to spew intolerance against Christian in general and Catholics in particular. But the bonanza of prejudice is reserved for Catholic priests. In our sex-drenched society, the idea of a single man taking an oath of lifelong celibacy... continue reading
As the Democrat-dominated House and Senate thoughtfully passed judgment on a 1,100-page "stimulus" bill that Sen. Frank Lautenberg admitted no one would read before the vote, the media elite were positively giddy. On the "NewsHour" on PBS, liberal analyst Mark Shields proclaimed "I think it's a monstrous success" for President Obama. That's correct, with an emphasis on the "monstrous." Our news media have insisted on playing the White House soundtrack on this battle, to wit: the "stimulus" is vitally necessary, and by opposing it, Republicans are risking being flattened by the Great Obama Steamroller. A partisan victory is okay, but... continue reading
Daniel Bergner isn't the devil's advocate, but he is a pervert's apologist. This author and contributor to the New York Times Magazine has a new book titled "The Other Side of Desire" which argues it is unfair to judge bizarre, harmful, and disgusting sexual attractions as bizarre, harmful, and disgusting. Bergner's book focuses on four real-life fetishists: a husband with a secret foot fetish, a man with an attraction to amputees, a vicious female sadist, and a man who longs for sex with his 12-year-old stepdaughter. Book reviews and interviews suggest he hasn't written a book to judge the fetishists,... continue reading