Category Archives: Culture

Woodward’s Apostasy by Harry Stein – City Journal

by

Bob Woodward’s charge that he was threatened by a high-ranking Obama administration official after publishing a column critical of the White House was, it turns out, at least somewhat exaggerated. But it’s no accident that the media has chosen to focus on Woodward’s characterization of his exchange with White House economic director Gene Sperling, while all but ignoring the essence of the column that touched off the brouhaha in the first place: that Obama’s claims about Republican responsibility for the looming sequester were false, and that it was “months of White House dissembling” that had “eroded any semblance of trust between Obama and congressional Republicans.”

Indeed, the media treatment of the episode provides an all-too-telling glimpse into the administration’s relationship with the press. It hardly bears repeating that from the start of Barack Obama’s career on the national stage, he has enjoyed an unprecedented kinship with the media—one that, as frustrated opponents rightly observe, often seems indistinguishable from outright alliance. On contentious issues like those involving the budget, especially, the administration has been hugely dependent on a compliant press—not only to shore up public support for its ongoing campaign of class warfare, but also to marginalize competing arguments.

via Woodward’s Apostasy by Harry Stein – City Journal.

Actor John Cusack: ‘Is the President just another Ivy League A**hole?’ | WashingtonExaminer.com

by

Yes. Next question.

“One is forced to asked the question: Is the President just another Ivy League A**hole shredding civil liberties and due process and sending people to die in some sh*thole for purely political reasons?” asked actor John Cusack in a recent piece published yesterday on TruthOut.org.

Cusack was sharply critical of President Obama’s decisions to continue President George W. Bush’s drone program and continuing the war in Afghanistan.

Referring to a speech given by the president at West Point in May 2010, Cusack noted that “the Christian president with the Muslim-sounding name, would heed the admonitions of neither religion’s prophets about making war and do what no empire or leader, including Alexander the Great, could do: he would, he assured us ‘get the job done in Afghanistan.’”

via Actor John Cusack: ‘Is the President just another Ivy League A**hole?’ | WashingtonExaminer.com.

What We Lose When Kids Can’t Play in Their Own Streets – Neighborhoods – The Atlantic Cities

by

As children run and wheel and dance their way across the liberated asphalt, the adults on the street – mostly mothers — look on and smile. The things they say bring home just how much we lose when we give the streets to cars, in both urban and dense suburban settings.

“We wanted our children to have the same sort of freedom that we had to play outside,” says one of the group’s organizers, Alice Ferguson. Her co-founder, Amy Rose, adds that they were looking for “a model that took away the traffic problem and brought people together and explored the street as play space.”

via What We Lose When Kids Can’t Play in Their Own Streets – Neighborhoods – The Atlantic Cities.

Kennesaw, Georgia’s 1982 Gun Mandate Still On The Books, Every Home Owns A Gun | wusa9.com

by

Kennesaw’s 1982 gun mandate was a direct response to a gun -ban- enacted a year earlier in Morton Grove, Illinois. That was later deemed unconstitutional, but Kennesaw’s law is still on the books.

Added Lt. Graydon, “It was not meant to be an enforceable law. The police department has never searched homes to make sure you had a gun. It was meant more or less as a political statement to support citizens’ second amendment rights to own firearms.”

After the law went into effect in 1982, city leaders say they witnessed a 29% drop in crime. Over the last 30 years, the crime rate has remained low with just four gun-related homicides.

“Our crime rate is generally less than half the national average,” added Lt. Graydon.

via Kennesaw, Georgia’s 1982 Gun Mandate Still On The Books, Every Home Owns A Gun | wusa9.com.

North Korean fashion women are ‘encouraged’ to choose from 18 officially sanctioned hairstyles | Mail Online

by

Why does this make me think of Michael Bloomberg?

Back in 2005, North Korean state TV launched a five part series entitled ‘Let us trim our hair in accordance with Socialist lifestyle’ with the aim of promoting short back and sides for its male population.

At the same time, a number of reports appeared in North Korean press and radio urging tidy hairstyles and appropriate clothing.

The TV show sent out teams with hidden cameras to catch ‘rebel’ North Koreans who were breaking the North Korean strict hairstyle code.

The makers of the program went so far as to name and shame those who had the audacity to get their hair cut differently.

The program even claimed there were health reasons not to grow long hair including the bizarre claim that long hair would rob the brain of energy.

Men should keep their hair shorter than five centimeters and have it cut every 15 days.

via North Korean fashion women are ‘encouraged’ to choose from 18 officially sanctioned hairstyles | Mail Online.

Title IX for our boys: Glenn Reynolds

by

The way boys are treated in K-12 also impacts how they do with regard to college. According to a recent study of male college enrollment, it’s not academic performance, but discipline that holds boys back. “Controlling for these non-cognitive behavioral factors can explain virtually the entire female advantage in college attendance for the high school graduating class of 1992, after adjusting for family background, test scores and high school achievement.” Boys are disciplined more because teachers — overwhelmingly female — find stereotypically male behavior objectionable. Girls are quieter, more orderly, and have better handwriting. The boys get disciplined more, suspended more and are turned off of education earlier.

Female teachers also give boys lower grades, according to research in Britain. Female teachers grade boys more harshly than girls, though, interestingly, male teachers are seen by girls as treating everyone the same regardless of gender. More and more, it’s looking like schools are a hostile environment for boys.

via Title IX for our boys: Column.

Alec Baldwin’s goes on alleged racist rant against Post photographer – NYPOST.com

by

Scratch a liberal, and you get a petulant, adolescent racist.

The “30 Rock’’ star grabbed the reporter, Tara Palmeri, by her arm and told her, “I want you to choke to death,” Palmeri told police, for whom she played an audiotape of the conversation.

He then called G.N. Miller — a decorated retired detective with the NYPD’s Organized Crime Control Bureau and a staff photographer for The Post — a “coon, a drug dealer,’’ Miller’s police statement said.

At one point, Miller showed Baldwin ID to prove he’s a retired NYPD cop, which Baldwin dismissed as “fake.”

Cops were called, and Miller, 56, and Baldwin, 54, both filed harassment claims against each other.

Minutes later, Baldwin ranted on Twitter.

“Thank u 2 NYPD officers who came to my home 2day so that I could file a formal complaint against NY Post “photographer’’ who assaulted me,’’ he tweeted.

In another post, Baldwin referred to Miller, for unknown reasons, as “Ralston,” writing, “Moments after I tweet about the Post, Ralston, the ex-crackhead ‘photographer’ shows up at my door w 1 of Murdoch’s nieces in tow.”

He added, “Ralston claims he’s ex NYPD!! That can’t be!!! Ex NYPD don’t become crackhead, ex jailhouse paparazzi!”

The actor eventually removed most of the posts.

via Alec Baldwin’s goes on alleged racist rant against Post photographer – NYPOST.com.

Best of the Web Today: Critical Condition – WSJ.com

by

“One of the nation’s most prominent abortion rights groups is working to remake its image in response to concern that it may be overtaken by a growing cadre of young anti-abortion activists,” Roll Call reports. “Its message: This is not your mother’s NARAL.”

That’s undoubtedly true. If you’re under 40, NARAL’s efforts make it much likelier that your mother didn’t even have children. There’s something both poignant and funny about a group devoted to abortion puzzling over its difficulty in finding young people to support it.

via Best of the Web Today: Critical Condition – WSJ.com.

Gun accidents down, but other home accidents on the rise

by

If we care about our kids, we’ll ban medicine and stairs.

Contrary to what you might expect from all the news about gun violence, accidental deaths from guns in the home are relatively uncommon, and have actually gone down slightly in recent years, according to a new study. But other deadly accidents at home, including poisonings, falls, and burns, are far more common, and on the rise. The good news: some simple measures can help prevent most of them.

The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, looked at data from 2000 to 2008. More than 30,000 people die from accidents in the home each year, the study found. The three leading causes of accidental deaths were poisonings (43 percent), falls (34 percent), and fire or burn injuries (9 percent). Firearm mishaps accounted for just 1 percent of all accidental deaths in the home.

via Gun accidents down, but other home accidents on the rise.

Michelle Rhee: My Break With the Democrats – The Daily Beast

by

After my listening tour of families, and hearing so many parents plead for an immediate solution to their desire for a quality education, I came out in favor of the voucher program. People went nuts. Democrats chastised me for going against the party, but the most vocal detractors were my biggest supporters.

“Michelle, what are you doing?” one education reformer asked. “You are the first opportunity this city has had to fix the system. We believe in you and what you’re trying to do. But you have to give yourself a fighting chance! You need time and money to make your plan work. If during that time children continue fleeing the system on these vouchers, you’ll have less money to implement your reforms. You can’t do this to yourself!”

“Here’s the problem with your thinking,” I’d answer. “My job is not to preserve and defend a system that has been doing wrong by children and families. My job is to make sure that every child in this city attends an excellent school. I don’t care if it’s a charter school, a private school, or a traditional district school. As long as it’s serving kids well, I’m happy. And you should be, too.”

Here’s the question we Democrats need to ask ourselves: Are we beholden to the public school system at any cost, or are we beholden to the public school child at any cost? My loyalty and my duty will always be to the children.

Not everyone bought it. In fact, most of my Democrat friends remained adamantly opposed to vouchers. It was interesting, though: they were always opposed to the broad policy, but they could never reconcile their logic when thinking at the individual-kid level.

via Michelle Rhee: My Break With the Democrats – The Daily Beast.