Forget what Hollywood wants you to think of fracking

Fracking is another of Hollywood's villains and one more example of why the liberal media cannot be taken at their word.
Shale Gas Is Fracking Green

"Ask a green what he or she thinks about fracking, and you’re likely to get an earful of criticism about methane leaks, poisoned groundwater, and climate change disaster. But a new report from the ecologically minded Breakthrough Institute (BI) makes the case that shale gas actually has a net environmental benefit. Nevermind the boosts to our energy security, and economy that fracking provides; the controversial drilling process is worth embracing on green merits alone."

Hollywood, hypocrisy and Matt Damon's anti-fracking film  "Successful business people? Villains, of course. Environmentalists? Heroes, naturally. And few industries are maligned by entertainment media more than oil and gas, whistleblower characters, excepted." ....
"Now, it’s the business of natural gas. A process called fracking that has come under fire from the left, and naturally it has also become the target of Hollywood writers and celebrities, on and off the screen."

TNT’s ‘Rizzoli and Isles’ Demonizes Fracking  "The plot featured an ex-Blackwater agent, masquerading as a yoga guru, who kills a vegan student and a professor in order to hide his drilling for natural gas from shale. This episode was a triple decker for left-wing stereotypes."
....

The clear anti-fracking statements throughout the show are not new for Hollywood, and they leave out important facts. Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin recently concluded that “there is no evidence” of polluted drinking water caused by fracking. EPA administrator Lisa Jackson even told the Ithaca Journal, “We have absolutely no indication now that drinking water is at risk.”

 

How's the Obama Muslim outreach working out?

Anti-Americanism flares in Egypt as protests rage over Morsi's ouster "As rival camps of Egyptians protest for and against the toppling of President Mohamed Morsi, there is a rare point of agreement: America is to blame."

...."It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't quagmire in which the U.S. appears to have alienated both sides, underscoring waning American influence and credibility as it attempts to navigate the turmoil."

This next remark reflects what Iranians as well must feel about Obama's failure to speak on their behalf:

After that, activists used a variety of foul language to describe Patterson and called for her to be kicked out of the country. Anti-Morsi protesters say such criticism is justified because the U.S. failed to speak out more aggressively when Morsi was accused of cracking down on political opponents, journalists and judges.

"It's not only about elections," said Mohammed Farahat, 27, an advertising account manager. "Hitler was elected too. It bothers me that the U.S. presents itself as a peacemaker, but then they supports a fascist regime like Morsi's."

 

Obama Call for Muslim Brotherhood Role Overtaken in Egypt   "A crackdown on the Brotherhood by Egyptian authorities in the early 1950s contributed to its radicalization. After an army coup ousted Egypt’s monarchy in 1952, the Brotherhood was accused of trying to assassinate the president. The party was banned and thousands of its members were tortured, imprisoned and held for years."

Andy McCarthy: Elections Are Not Democracy; A lesson from Egypt.
"The latter is real — a culture of liberty that safeguards minority rights. Attaining it is a worthy aspiration, but one that requires years of patient, disciplined, and often unpopular work. The former is an illusion — the pretense that if a Muslim country holds popular elections and elects totalitarian Islamists, voila, it has a “democracy,” and progressives the world over will regard it as such."
....
"The neocons have also always been right that evil must be confronted and defeated. Yet that cannot happen unless evil is recognized as such. We must not rationalize Islamic supremacism and its sharia system as something they are not — as virtuous, or at least moderate — just because, given the choice, Islamic societies will vote for them. Egypt’s real democrats are trying to tell us that there are no moderate totalitarians. We would do well to listen."

http://en.kichka.com/

Much truth in his article, but its import is a little scary to me: Can what happen in Egypt happen here in America? Should it happen here what would trigger it? Who will lead the revolution?
"The Egyptian people were tired of a government that ran roughshod over their rights. They were tired of a government that spent more money than they took in. They were tired of a government that borrowed money from other nations that future generations of Egyptians will have to figure out how to pay back."
....
[Obama and Morsi] "were educated in America. They both were former College Professors(sp). They both have close associations with anti-American groups. The both have ties with radical groups and organizations that are hostile towards Israel. They both rose to power out of relative obscurity by promising some form of “hope and change”. They both have blamed their predecessors for their current failures."

 http://antiantiunderground.com/

Pity the poor group in society that becomes Hollywood's enemy; lucky is he who is Hollywood's friend

http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/07/branco-cartoon-risky-business/

The Egyptian Uprising: Messages to the America People

Egyptian Uprising: Messages to America  

The Egyptian Uprising had the largest attendance of any event in human history. Throughout the crowd, there were clear messages to Americans.

The Lone Ranger just ain't what he used to be. (Updated)

Have you noticed who the latest villains are in the TV dramas lately? Not gangs, certainly not Islamic terrorists, not foreign spies; the evil people are those we work for, buy from and who have enriched our lives and economy. Walk around your home, or drive around your town and see the luxuries and needs that these abhorred bandits provide. They are the soft targets that nobody loves, but we cannot do without.
Now the Lone Ranger - from whom we boys of another generation learned honor, integrity, tolerance and fair play - is the latest with the identical list of  enemies; Hollywood's enemies that includes the TEA Party, conservatives, Christians, oil companies, capitalists, and pretty much everything that involves Caucasian non-Muslims.

Why do we have to pay big bucks for a movie or plan on an evening of television to be brow-beaten and indoctrinated by the shows we watch?
By wealthy Hollywood liberals no less?

The Johny Depp Lone Ranger movie, at least based on early box office results, is shaping up to be quite the bomb.
"What makes the Lone Ranger finally embrace the need for his mask, and hence the whole “secret identity” thing? In a nutshell, he realizes his fellow

white men are corrupt, and complicit in the mass murder of Tonto’s fellow Native Americans. If he takes the mask off, then he too will wind up becoming complicit. Yes, that’s right — in this film, the Lone Ranger’s mask is made of White Guilt. "And in fact, the only function the Native Americans in this film have, other than Tonto, is to die horribly so that the Lone Ranger will have a catalyst to make him Man Up."

And is it a spoiler to say that one of the film's heavies is a capitalist?

Tonto calls the Lone Ranger a "weak, pale-faced wet-brain".

Even the LA Times didn't like the show, but the PC didn't seem to register on their radar.  "...."The Lone Ranger" exists without a convincing sense of jeopardy or, more critically, any place for audiences to emotionally connect. That TV show may have been modesty itself in terms of production values, but we cared about its heroes in a way we do not here."

Crosswalk calls the movie a Wild, Wild Mess   "The final 30 minutes of The Lone Ranger....are nothing short of spectacular. Clever, well-paced and thoroughly exciting (the William Tell Overture provides the perfect musical backdrop, naturally), this last half-hour is exactly what one wants a summer movie to be.
"Trouble is, the audience has to sit through nearly two hours of utter tedium to get there...." 

When liberals elect a US world leader, what can possibly go wrong? Well, a whole reading list for starters.

Obama's Impotent Middle East Policy  "A self-interview by Barry Rubin and Barry Rubin"
" First, I want to apologize that I have often used intemperate language to describe U.S. policy and the people making it in the last 4.5 years. Perhaps I have put off some of you who would otherwise have been persuaded that something is very wrong. Therefore, I have tried to do another version of this approach. Remember, I'm not responsible for the way the questions are phrased here."  Hat tip to Jeffrey Dunetz

France Shows Its Lack of Class At U.S. Embassy 4th of July Party   "Real Classy! If Mr. Valls wanted to make a statement about the American spying program he should have stayed and told his hosts he didn't feel he could show up based on the revelation, that would have been the honorable thing to do."
Now go away or I will taunt you a second time! 

Who Lost the Middle East?  Both of these developments were reported last evening: Al Arabiya published the article “Saudi king congratulates Egypt’s new interim president”; Time magazine reported that ”Obama expresses ‘concern’ over Morsi ouster, orders review in military aid to Egypt.”

Obama Chides Egypt to Quickly Elect Government, Respect Muslim Brotherhood  "The resulting statement tried to be equally critical of each side, reflecting the administration’s continuing refusal to take a stand while the Egyptian protesters decried the U.S. president for propping up the Muslim Brotherhood regime."

 A small, irrelevant America   "From the perspective of Obama, however, our reduction to smallness and irrelevance represents a great success."

Caroline Glick; Israelis watched in shock and horror as their American friends followed the Pied Piper of the phony Arab Spring over the policy cliff

Where’s America?  ...." America might act to shape the course of events; it could, at this moment where the outcome is up for grabs, perhaps have a decisive effect."
 
Egypt: Little U.S. influence, few good choices    "Unfortunately, it is hard to have much confidence in the Obama team to figure it all out. Obama went way too far in bolstering Morsi and not making aid contingent on improved political and economic conditions. So now we see an emboldened Morsi, an aggrieved populace, an economy near collapse and secular opposition leaders who mistrust the U.S. government. We are, as has been the case for so much of the Obama administration, a bystander."

Neat NSA cartoon

I just can't get too worked up about the government keeping track of postal addresses and phone calls that they are not listening to. For years-and you have seen this referred to in police dramas- checking telephone "LUDS" helps in police work ( though it has become less controlled than it once was).
This is the reason you see few cartoons and articles on the subject in the Tunnel Wall. However a relative posted this on his Facebook page and I thought it too funny not to use:

Having said all that, phone tracking can be a dangerous weapon in the hands of those who advocate a strong central government and who have no qualms about using it to stay in power.
Obama and Democrats have demonstrated that they are sophisticated in the use of electronic means to win elections; we have certainly seen how powerful government agencies such as the IRS will be used against Obama's political enemies and that his supporters are his willing, compliant enablers..
Hat tip to Don Standlee Jr., Arlington, TX 

Satire that is too close to the real truth: Obama to College Students: Do Not Celebrate Fourth of July

The Liberty Paper  Satire, yes, but close to what he told Joe the Plumber.

America is a great country. There is no denying this. However, I caution you all as you step forward in your careers. Peer back into history and ask yourselves- Was a revolution truly necessary? Great Britain may not have had it completely right, but they had many things right. Take taxes for example. If your neighbor makes $1 Million a year, but you and your family can barely keep the heat on should he not help your family? God instructs us to help our neighbors. He does not instruct us to look down upon them though the windows of capitalism. Why then on the Fourth of July should you celebrate such a radical break from what is Godly and just? No doubt there are many voices warning you of the harm of big government. They are wrong. Government can provide you with what family and friends cannot. If this is gone what will you have?” 

 Hat tip to Rich Cutter Avallone 

Krauthammer: Obama’s Global-Warming Folly; No, Mr. President, we don’t need a war on coal.

 

Charles Krauthammer   "The economy stagnates. Syria burns. Scandals lap at his feet. China and Russia mock him, even as a “29-year-old hacker” revealed his nation’s spy secrets to the world. How does President Obama respond? With a grandiloquent speech on climate change.

 

"Climate change? It lies at the very bottom of a list of Americans’ concerns (last of 21 — Pew poll). Which means that Obama’s declaration of unilateral American war on global warming, whatever the cost — and it will be heavy — is either highly visionary or hopelessly solipsistic. You decide:"

....there is no point in America’s committing economic suicide to no effect on climate change, the reversing of which, after all, is the alleged point of the exercise.

Unemployment Stays at 7.6% Under-Employment JUMPS By Half/Percentage Point   "There is a long way to an economic recovery and look for the unemployment rate to rise in September when some of these summer jobs go away."

How's this for an apology? Wall Street Journal apologizes for being too easy on ObamaCare!

Obama decides not to enforce the heart of his health-care law.
"This is more than a typical government snafu. It relates directly to the design of the law, which was thoughtlessly written and rammed through Congress with instructions for the bureaucracy to figure it all out."
....

 "The Administration's media cheerleaders are nonetheless portraying this as a stroke of political genius to push all the pain past the 2014 elections. But if that's the goal, it is too clever by half. If Republicans have any sense, they will move immediately to delay the rest of the bill for at least a year too. They should start with the individual mandate to buy insurance or pay a tax."
....

"ObamaCare has become a rolling "train wreck," in Senator Max Baucus's memorable phrase, and it gets worse the more of it the public sees. The employer mandate is terrible policy, as the law's critics said before it passed. Now the Administration is all but admitting it can't implement it properly, and the task for opponents is to press the concession and begin to delay the rest of the law and dismantle it piece by piece."
Too good not to use again:

Could these two stories be related?

Story 1: Gallup: Republicans more proud to be American than Democrats

...."Ninety-three percent of Republicans indicate that they are “extremely/very proud” to be American while only 85 percent of Democrats feel the same way.
Eighty-one percent of political Independents indicate they are “extremely/very proud.”
"Likewise, 89 percent of poll respondents who identified themselves as conservative are “extremely/very proud,” to be American compared to 76 percent of liberals."

Story 2:  American Flags Ripped Down Day Before Turlock Fourth Of July Parade

"A stunning act of vandalism right before the Fourth of July had Turlock residents and workers scrambling to fix American flags.

"It’s almost inconceivable and it is certainly extremely disrespectful.

Vandals damaged about a dozen flags put up in downtown for Turlock’s big parade, jumping to pull the stars and stripes down with their weight, severely bending the poles."

 

Tocqueville's Warning to America: The Dangers of Despotism

First off, who was Alexis de Tocqueville, and how do this Frenchman's words relate to America, of which he was writing?
"His most famous work, Democracy in America (1835), continues to be regarded as the premier commentary on American government and society written by a foreigner."

Tocqueville's insights into what made the United States successful have proved informative to the general public and to scholars alike. His observations represented the excitement of sociological discovery, made by, and for (for he wrote for his French compatriots) the eyes of those for whom this style of democracy was entirely novel. ....

Big Government

"As Americans gather to celebrate the anniversary of our nation's freedom, we contemplate, on the one hand, the revolution in Egypt, where people crying out for freedom could only appeal to the military, having lost any power of self-government; and, on the other, the slow imposition of Obamacare in the United States, delayed only so that it might never be defeated, creeping gradually into every aspect of life, administered by agencies already shown to be hostile to freedom. We have much for which to be grateful--and much about which to be warned."
Quoting Tocqueville's conclusion:

A constitution which should be republican in its head, and ultra-monarchical in all its other parts, has ever appeared to me to be a short-lived monster. The vices of rulers and the inaptitude of the people would speedily bring about its ruin; and the nation, weary of its representatives and of itself, would create freer institutions, or soon return to stretch itself at the feet of a single master.

 

ralphandchuck.

Hat tip to Christy Waters at Conservative Bloggers on Facebook