Surprise! Hollywood delivers positive, clean comedy

WND   Drew Zahn reviews 'Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2'

"Box office returns over the last few years have revealed Hollywood can make money on comedies … if they’re really, really raunchy.

"In fact, it’s getting harder and harder to see a good comedy that’s also clean enough for family fare.

"And while I won’t go so far as to call “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2″ a “good” comedy, it does buck the trend by being surprisingly clean, and it even includes a positive message on self-sacrifice and servanthood.

"Unfortunately, the first half (or more) of this film is spectacularly, painfully bad. The set-up to the action drags through lame jokes, tired clichés and melodramatic blech that feels very dated. Comedian Kevin James (who plays Blart) can play an outstanding secondary character (ala the film “Hitch”), but he struggles to generate laughs in a lead role.

"However … once the action begins, once Officer Blart hoists up his drooping pants and determines to save the day, " . . .

The Death Coaster!

Crazy Weird News

The denigration of men: Ridiculed, abused, exploited - the triumph of feminism has made today's men second class citizens, argues a deliciously provocative new book And it's time the chaps fought back

Daily Mail  . . . " So why is it that, today, there has there never been a worse time to be a man? Rubbishing the male of the species and everything he stands for is a disturbing — and growing — 21st century phenomenon. It is the fashionable fascism of millions of women — and many, many men, too. Instead of feeling proud of our achievements, we men are forced to spend our time apologising for them. When people chide us for not being able to multi-task or use a washing machine we join in the mocking laughter — even though we invented the damned thing in the first place.

. . . "By the time your son is 18, he will probably have absorbed the social message that his dad is much less valuable as a parent than his mother — that fathers in families are an added bonus, not a crucial cog." . . .

 Bumbling, childlike and the butt of endless jokes, why are men constantly portrayed as idiots on television, asks Dominic Utton. . . "And yet… if you were to form your opinion of the male of the species through the examples presented on TV, you’d think I wasn’t a man at all. (The exception that proves the rule, of course, are psychopaths, timelords, terrorists and morally-ambiguous genius private detectives. But guess what? I’m not one of those either.) Because when television wants to portray a modern man, it portrays him as a fool. 
. . . "From supermarkets to home insurance, from booze to cleaning products, the theme is the same: men are stupid. Men are there to be laughed at.
The worst of the lot, however, has to be Kentucky Fried Chicken. I would say their commercials leave a bad taste in the mouth, but…
In one, a generic dad-type asks his smartphone-fixated kids what they’d like to do that afternoon (“bowling? Cinema?”). They ignore him – and then Mum appears and asks EXACTLY THE SAME QUESTIONS. And they put down their phones! And respond! Dad is left to check his own sad little Nokia… on which, inevitably, there are no messages. Hurray! Stupid dad!" . . .



The Depressing Depiction of Men in the Media "Millions of men are driven, capable, intelligent, honorable, responsible, etc. At present time, why is this not regularly celebrated on film and television? I wonder if the media is deliberately trying to degrade men, because I know there are ways of infusing positive aspects of manhood and masculinity into content while maintaining the comedy and excitement. Case in point: Frasier, Scrubs, and Jim Carrey’s, Liar Liar.

I hope media outlets will revamp their destructive strategies. The current template has the potential to be catastrophic to men (and women). There’s a reason why Kay Hymowitz wrote Manning Up, and it’s not solely because of the economy and Feminist movement. The media has contributed to a portion of this plight. Perpetuating images of the “man-child” has established the need for academic and sociological involvement. Thank you, Kay Hymowitz.
To the executives at ABC and beyond, men deserve better. Every protagonist should not be painted as a pinhead, and all antagonists shouldn’t be written as angry Neanderthals. The superfluous use of these stereotypes is depressing.  It’s time to redesign the formula.  Good men are everywhere; let your content reflect this fact.
- See more at: http://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/the-depressing-depiction-of-men-in-the-media/#sthash.L3vbWRHk.dpuf

" 'Millions of men are driven, capable, intelligent, honorable, responsible, etc. At present time, why is this not regularly celebrated on film and television? I wonder if the media is deliberately trying to degrade men, because I know there are ways of infusing positive aspects of manhood and masculinity into content while maintaining the comedy and excitement. Case in point: Frasier, Scrubs, and Jim Carrey’s, Liar Liar.

I hope media outlets will revamp their destructive strategies. The current template has the potential to be catastrophic to men (and women). There’s a reason why Kay Hymowitz wrote Manning Up, and it’s not solely because of the economy and Feminist movement. The media has contributed to a portion of this plight. Perpetuating images of the “man-child” has established the need for academic and sociological involvement. Thank you, Kay Hymowitz.

" 'To the executives at ABC and beyond, men deserve better. Every protagonist should not be painted as a pinhead, and all antagonists shouldn’t be written as angry Neanderthals. The superfluous use of these stereotypes is depressing. It’s time to redesign the formula. Good men are everywhere; let your content reflect this fact.

Why DOES TV love to portray men as idle, feckless idiots?

Man arrested in the middle of his haircut

www.funny-meme-pictures.com

Mike Huckabee Says You Should Wait Until Obama Leaves Office To Join The Military

 

 The Huffington Post    "Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) suggested Friday that young Americans planning to join the military should wait until President Barack Obama leaves office to do so because his administration has an "open hostility toward the Christian faith."

"The possible 2016 presidential contender was asked about a Washington Times report citing "religious freedom advocates" who said that Christians are leaving the military because of a “hostile work environment."

"Huckabee told Iowa talk radio host Jan Mickelson that the Obama administration “orders its chaplains to put its Bibles away, not to pray in Jesus' name, not to counsel people on the issues of sexual morality.”

“ 'When you have this attitude that is more about promoting gay marriage and gay rights in the military than it is about being able to protect religious liberty for those people of faith,” Huckabee said, “it’s going to be hard to find people that are truly devoted people of faith and Christian believers and Orthodox Jews and others.”

"He then suggested that parents should stop their children from enlisting until America has a new commander in chief.

“ 'I’d wait a couple of years until we get a new commander in chief that will once again believe ‘one nation under God,’ and believe that people of faith should be a vital part of the process of not only governing this country, but defending this country,” he said.

"Huckabee said this week that he will unveil his 2016 plans in Hope, Arkansas, early next month."

 

Sharansky: The U.S. has “lost the courage of its convictions”

Legal Insurrection   When did America forget that it’s America?

. . . "Sharansky correctly notes that reinforcement of the Mullah regime’s expansionist and aggressive posture seems to be a concession the U.S. is willing to accept:

Reality is complicated, and the use of historical analogies is always somewhat limited. But even this superficial comparison shows that what the United States saw fit to demand back then from the most powerful and dangerous competitor it had ever known is now considered beyond the pale in its dealings with Iran.

"And then Sharansky zeroes in on the problem — the Obama and modern liberal world view of moral equivalence:

While negotiating with the Soviet Union, U.S. administrations of all stripes felt certain of the moral superiority of their political system over the Soviet one. They felt they were speaking in the name of their people and the free world as a whole, while the leaders of the Soviet regime could speak for no one but themselves and the declining number of true believers still loyal to their ideology.
But in today’s postmodern world, when asserting the superiority of liberal democracy over other regimes seems like the quaint relic of a colonialist past, even the United States appears to have lost the courage of its convictions.

"So, When did America forget that it’s America?

"Don’t say 2008. That’s too simple. Obama’s election was the symptom, not the cause.

"We abandoned the educational system over two generations ago, and allowed people who think that the U.S. is the main problem in the world to get control of our children. Obama will be out of office in two years, but the problem will live on."

Obama is going Alinsky Rule 12 on Republicans

 

Thomas Lifson  ---"Although he doesn’t reference Saul Alinsky the Associated Press’s Jim Kuhhenn does notice a nasty turn in President Obama’s rhetoric:

With a tone of outrage and eye-rolling dismissiveness, President Barack Obama and his White House team are working out their aggressions on Republicans. Well into the final quarter of Obama's presidency the White House approach is, if you can't join 'em, beat 'em.
Even with a whiff of bipartisanship in the air, the president is going on offense and building on a strategy employed since Democrats lost control of the Senate. Disagree with a Republican? The White House approach is to single a lawmaker out, pick a fight and don't mince words.

"Rule 12 from Rules for Radicals:

“Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions

"For the Mainstream Media, any notice of Barack Obama’s radical roots is out if bounds, so I suppose that we should be grateful that the AP even notices nastiness as a political strategy of the White House.

This is a White House unleashed, forgoing niceties for the kind of blunt talk some of Obama's allies have been demanding for some time. But the rhetoric carries risks of sounding peevish and signals that a president who once ran on the promise of changing the tone in Washington has fully embraced its political combat.

 
"Obama is not a nice man, he is full of anger and resentment. He has been packaged, building upon his radiant smile, as a healer, someone who would bring us together. His essence is the opposite."  Hat tip: Ed Lasky

Obama (The international mall cop) has made America the weak horse, not to be feared nor respected

The Unbearable Lightness of Obama’s Anti-Terror Policies  "There is a pretend quality to Obama’s stance on radical Islamic terrorism. It starts with his refusal to utter that phrase, preferring the meaningless term “violent extremists.” Well, at least those words do not make America’s enemies uncomfortable. But it gets worse.'.  Read more...

http://news.investors.com/photopopup.aspx?id=748432

Obama now open to immediate lifting of Iran sanctions?  “'This is the new America. We had better get used to it.”

"Those were the words of an Israeli TV analyst upon learning that Obama is open to negotiating an immediate lifting of sanctions on Iran as part of a nuclear deal — the exact opposite of what he and others in the administration have been saying.

Legal Insurrection @LegInsurrection  ·  16h 16 hours ago

Obama now open to immediate lifting of Iran sanctions? http://legalinsurrection.com/2015/04/obama-now-open-to-immediate-lifting-of-iran-sanctions/ …

 The Times of Israel reports:   . . . "The president also weighed in on Russia’s announcement earlier this week that it would lift a five-year ban on delivery of anti-aircraft missiles, giving the Islamic republic’s military a strong deterrent against any air attack. The White House initially objected, but Obama said, “I’m frankly surprised that it held this long.”

Russia signed the $800 million contract to sell Iran the  S-300 Missile System in 2007, but suspended their delivery three years later because of strong objections from the United States and Israel. “Their economy is under strain and this was a substantial sale,” Obama said." . . .

"Defense system"?  These missiles are to protect the atomic weapons that Iran promises to use to destroy Israel! They are fully as offensive as the weapons they will protect. TD

 

An Engineered Drought: Shortsighted coastal elites bear most of the blame for California’s water woes.

Californians can now be fined for long showers! California’s 
crops are also being blamed for our water woes.

 . . .  Again, the California paradox: those who did the most to cancel water projects and divert reservoir water to pursue their reactionary nineteenth-century dreams of a scenic, depopulated, and fish-friendly environment enjoy lifestyles predicated entirely on the fragile early twentieth-century water projects of the sort they now condemn.. . .

 

Victor Davis Hanson   . . . " We do know two things. First, Brown and other Democratic leaders will never concede that their own opposition in the 1970s (when California had about half its present population) to the completion of state and federal water projects, along with their more recent allowance of massive water diversions for fish and river enhancement, left no margin for error in a state now home to 40 million people. Second, the mandated restrictions will bring home another truth as lawns die, pools empty, and boutique gardens shrivel in the coastal corridor from La Jolla to Berkeley: the very idea of a 20-million-person corridor along the narrow, scenic Pacific Ocean and adjoining foothills is just as unnatural as “big” agriculture’s Westside farming. The weather, climate, lifestyle, views, and culture of coastal living may all be spectacular, but the arid Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay-area megalopolises must rely on massive water transfers from the Sierra Nevada, Northern California, or out-of-state sources to support their unnatural ecosystems." . . .

 

'Man-made disaster': Critics say California drought caused by misguided environment policies

Fox News

"The blistering drought that has Californians timing their showers, driving dirty cars and staring at brown lawns and empty swimming pools is a “man-made disaster,” according to critics, who say the Golden State’s misguided environmental policies allow much-needed freshwater to flow straight into the Pacific.

"In an average year, California gets enough snow and rain to put 200 million acres under a foot of water, but environmental opposition to dams over the last several decades has allowed the majority of the freshwater to flow into the ocean, even as the state’s population exploded to nearly 40 million people. The current drought has left farms parched and residents under strict water consumption orders, but some say it didn't have to be that way.

“ 'This is a man-made disaster,” said Bonner Cohen, senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research." . . .

Hat tip to Harley Standlee; Placerville, CA

L. Ron Obama and the Church of Progressivism

Victor Davis Hanson

 

. . . "But to progressives, they are scientific facts, so anyone who disagrees is either hopelessly ignorant or willfully evil, blinded by bigotry or in thrall to religious superstition. This explains the nastiness of progressive attacks on those who disagree with them, the quick recourse to ad hominem smears of the sort that appear only on the conservative fringe. Just as Scientology defames critics and defectors with false accusations and character assassination, so too progressives frequently hurl epithets like “racist” at those who criticize Obama, or indulge preposterous tropes like the “war on women,” or throw ugly names like “denier,” redolent of Holocaust denial, at anyone who questions that anthropogenic global warming is a scientific fact rather than a hypothesis. And progressives are eager to use the power of government and institutions like the IRS and college administrations to silence and stigmatize those who oppose them." . . .

Compare and contrast: Same TV reporter approaches Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio

Thomas Lifson  "The following contrasting videos should be enough to chill the bones of every Democrat sensibly worried about how good a candidate Hillary Clinton will be. Dan Calabrese, of Herman Cain’s CainTV.com website brings us the two videos of the same TMZ reporter walking up to both candidates at an airport as they arrive.

"First, here is Marco Rubio:

"All smiles and affability, Sure, the reporter is not hostile, but anyone could get annoyed at questions about a spouse's past. Instead, Rubio laughs, makes a joke at his own expense, and comes across as a totally likable guy.

Hillary, not so much:

"The Democrats destroyed Mitt Romney’s candidacy by portraying him (absolutely falsely) as unfeeling, rich, out of touch, and uncaring. In contrast, Hillary does a great job of portraying herself in exactly this light.

"Please, Hillary, don’t let the naysayers discourage you. Hang in there, girl, and see this election to the end." Hat tip: iOTWReport