Whose Islam?

Mark Steyn  "The "war" part of the war on terror is pretty much over, and we're now fighting it culturally, rhetorically. Which is not something we do well. Take the British prime minister and his traditional nothing-to-do-with-Islam statement, issued in the wake of the Kenyan shopping-mall carnage:"....

"....David Cameron assured us that the unfortunate incident was "a betrayal of Islam. . . . There is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act.' "
....
"It was a busy weekend for Nothing to Do with Islam. Among the other events that were nothing to do with Islam were the murder of over 85 Pakistani Christians at All Saints' Church in Peshawar and the beheading of Ricardo Dionio..." And on and on and on..

Dare we hope that this is true? "Hospitals face whole new world under health law"

Let us hope this is true, because I cannot imagine our government doing something that would bring about anything but mediocrity.
The question remains, at what cost?

USA Today   "One thing about the Affordable Care Act is clear: Hospitals will exist in a world where they are rewarded more for the quality of care than for the volume of patients they treat."

More on our media and the death of honest journalism

Mark down 2013 as part of the Dark Days of Journalism.
LA Times bans letters from climate skeptics;  "Paul Thornton, editor of the paper’s letters section, recently wrote a letter of his own, stating flatly that he won't publish some letters from those skeptical of man’s role in our planet’s warming climate. In Thornton’s eyes, those people are often wrong -- and he doesn’t print obviously wrong statements."  Much more on this here.
Hat tip to David N. Wagner in flyover country.

The pattern of free speech censorship by this same source   “ 'Useless Discourse”, perhaps?" was the phrase used by representatives of Jewish Voice for Peace a couple of years back when they came to the UC Irvine campus and referred to opinions of those who support the state of Israel. That meant that Israel supporters really shouldn’t  have a right to free speech nor a right to feel comfortable on college campuses."
Did they teach you about Yellow Journalism in school?

Yellow journalism, in short, is biased opinion masquerading as objective fact.

MSNBC's Matthews: Tea Party Racist by Using Word 'We'  "...Chris Matthews explained that Tea Party use of the word “we” was racist, and that Tea Partiers presumably still counted black people as “three-fifths” of a person. The leg-tingling host who last week explained that the term “black hole” was racist when applied to the city of Newark, added “we” to his hit list of bigotry..." 

Juan Williams Slams MSNBC: ‘I Don't Think They Even Have Any Pretense of Balance’

Media Ramp Up Rhetoric Against Right  "Just two years after launching the New Tone-era, media elites are now openly wishing conservatives dead while comparing them to terrorists, criminals, and segregationists."

MLK speaking in 1967 about the silencing of antiwar protestors
“Nothing can be more destructive of our fundamental democratic traditions than the vicious effort to silence dissenters.”
Back then it was a matter of not trusting government; today we are told to not trust anyone opposed to government's power.
Once people rebelled against government's power over us,  But today people riot in the streets, calling for government to run our lives for us. And the media have become their willing enablers.

Just words?

Even Oprah isn’t on board with ObamaCare

NY Post

"As the White House was gearing up to sell ObamaCare to the American people last summer, Valerie Jarrett, the president’s pointwoman on a host of issues, phoned Oprah Winfrey.

"She invited the Queen of All Media to join celebrities, including Amy Poehler, Jennifer Hudson and Alicia Keys, to meet with President Obama and discuss how they could generate publicity for his health-care law.

"Oprah refused."

The Love-fest is Over--Oprah and Obama No Longer BFFs
"Apparently Oprah was promised tremendous access to the White House, and exclusive material she could use for programs on her OWN network as a reward for her campaigning during the 2008 campaign.

"Now this may surprise you, but the President didn't keep his promise."

Here's how the UK Daily Mail covers it: The President asked Oprah to help him promote Obamacare 'but she refused because she feels burned by the White House'  "According to Klein, the slight is just the talk show host's latest way of getting back at the Obama administration for failing to live up to the alleged promises that they agreed to when Winfrey campaigned for Obama in 2008."

In a move out of Orwell or the Soviet Union, television shows are being asked to include propaganda about ObamaCare  Here's a line from "Breaking Bad":

Lung cancer, am I right? Say, did you know that under the Affordable Care Act, your pre-existing health condition is no longer anything to worry about?

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