Sunday, April 19, 2015

Crowd Trashes National Mall for Earth Day


"National Mall Trashed After Global Citizen 2015 Earth Day Concert

"Oh, the delicious, delicious irony.
"Yesterday was Global Citizen 2015 Earth Day, which was celebrated with a concert and other festivities on the National Mall. While the concert itself was powered by solar energy, the attendees could have learned a lesson or two about taking care of planet Earth.
"For instance, check out these trash and recycling cans I spotted near the National Mall, close to the Washington Monument:" . . .

The Other Side of the 'Pretty Girl Goes on a Tirade' Story

. . . "McHenry, a DC-based reporter, was apparently towed by a company called Advanced Towing, a private contractor hired by various entities around the Arlington, Va., area to make sure people don’t illegally park. Towing cars that are where they aren’t supposed to be is a necessary thing, an act of urban hygiene.

"Still, let’s look at the Better Business Bureau rating for this outfit: It’s an F. Out of 40 complaints lodged against the company in the last three years, Advanced Towing has simply ignored 37.

"Over to the Yelp reviews. Interesting.

"Yelper Mary El P. said in January she paid with a credit card, was told it didn’t work, then presented another credit card. When the statement came, she claims she was billed twice. She says she called up an employee, who was rude and insulting and informed her that disputing a charge on a credit card was a felony.

"Yelper Eric T. alleges that a tow trucker apparently spying on him zipped around the corner while he was letting his dog out to pee — and that when he protested, the Advanced Towing driver yelled out, “Don’t park here you f - - king f - - - - t,” using an anti-gay slur.

"In early April, a man who ducked into an Arlington CVS for medicine for his sick child says he came back to find his car being jacked up by an Advanced Towing truck — with his two kids inside.

"But here’s what’s worse than any of that."

"Several reviewers have complained that Advanced Towing brings in legally parked cars — and then, when you complain, simply insults you and holds the car hostage.

"Said Yelper KJ B., 'Towing serves a purpose, but this company just steals cars! The first time I was towed was from my very own parking spot at my apartment complex. They claimed they didn’t see my parking sticker (despite its obvious placement on the back where it is on EVERY CAR.)' "

 Advanced Towing Thieves and Scam Artist Arlington Virginia

All that being said, McHenry's treatment of the person behind the desk was disgusting and  beyond the pale.TD

James Baker Becomes Third Former Secretary of State to Slam Obama's Absurd Scheme for Iranian Nukes

 

Doug Ross Journal
 "Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III expressed concerns about the understanding reached between the P5+1 and Iran in Lausanne, Switzerland in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Thursday. Baker wrote that there appeared to be “serious misunderstandings” between the negotiating parties on what a final agreement would look like, most notably regarding the phasing of sanctions relief, the verification mechanism, the “snapback” re-imposition of sanctions, and Iran’s refusal to disclose information about its past work on its nuclear program, which is necessary for a robust verification regime. Baker urged Secretary of State John Kerry to convince the other P5+1 nations to support a non-negotiable stance on these outstanding questions.

"The Iranian leadership’s position that all sanctions must be removed upon signing any final agreement “is a far cry from the U.S. understanding that sanctions will only be removed over time, as Iran meets its obligations…[I]f Iran holds to it, there should be no final agreement,” Baker wrote.

"Baker is the third former Secretary of State to raise questions about the understanding between the P5+1 and Iran. Henry Kissinger and George P. Shultz wrote an op-ed earlier this month in which they expressed skepticism about a one-year breakout period, arguing that the concept of keeping Iran at a one-year breakout was a weakening of the original P5+1 stance, which was to ensure that Iran was only permitted a capacity compatible with a civilian nuclear program. One of their major criticisms was a “broad-based asymmetry” in the understanding, “which provides Iran permanent relief from sanctions in exchange for temporary restraints on Iranian conduct.”

"David Rothkopf, the CEO and Editor of The FP Group, which publishes Foreign Policy, raised the same question in a piece on Thursday. The P5+1 powers are, he wrote, “renting [Iran’s] restraint”: rewarding the regime with significant sanctions relief, which he estimated would amount to approximately $420 billion in a 15-year agreement, for Iran to freeze its program. In comparison, he wrote, Iran’s “Syrian client state had a GDP of about $65 million in 2011 before the crisis there heated up and devastated the country. Its would-be client Yemen has a GDP of about $36 billion.” The sanctions relief would allow Iran to “extend its influence, buy weapons, and underwrite terrorist groups to an even greater extent than it has been doing throughout the period the country has felt the squeeze of sanctions.”


 

Surprise! Hollywood delivers positive, clean comedy

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

150419blart2poster

"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!

Saturday, April 18, 2015

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.
Rubbishing the male of the species and everything he stands for is a disturbing  21st century phenomenon

. . . "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: FrasierScrubs, 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

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.
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
 Political Cartoons by Michael Ramirez

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

LI #19 shower scene
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." . . .