Category Archives: Media

Collective Punishment?

Crime, Criminal Injustice, Individualism Vs. Collectivism, Justice, Media, Morality, Pop-Culture, Sport

When the events surrounding pederast Jerry Sandusky surfaced, I ventured that, to an outsider, the American football scene was obscene—starting with its incestuous fraternities, the rock-star status surrounding handlers and players, their pompom-waving, knickers-baring groupies, and the tantrum-prone fans who experience bare-fanged fury when their heroes let them down. The problem with this freak show is that the participants are pathologically invested in it.

Besides, how did the words “coach” and “legendary” ever come to be paired? Ridiculous.

Now comes the news that the NCAA, whatever that stands for— reporters no longer follow the convention of first writing out acronyms in full—has leveled a punishment on Penn State that will likely affect every student at the university.

Collective punishment for transgressions (crimes included) committed by certain individuals (who are no longer at the helm)!

The football program will also be excluded from playing in bowl games and post-season games for four years, as well as having its football scholarships reduced from 25 to 15, and having to pay a $60 million fine, the equivalent of one year’s revenues from the football program.

Thirteen team victories have been voided. So many kids must have worked hard and played their hearts out. Why are they are being penalized?

Career and camera-conscious individuals will do anything to look as if they are busy doing something. This is all Brownian Motion, and terribly unfair.

Who Pays The Way?

Government, Media, Regulation, Rights, Taxation

197 days. Or, just close on 7 months.

That’s the “Big Number” you won’t hear repeated on “news” entertainment shows that sport such trivial segments.

The landmark is “the day of the year when the average taxpayer has earned enough income to pay off his or her share of the spending and regulatory burden of government. This year,” advises the Cost of Government Center, “the taxpayers worked 197 days to pay off the cost of government.”

Aggregates are good at masking reality. And the reality is this:

The top 10 percent of income earners paid 70 percent of all federal income taxes.

The bottom 50 percent of income earners paid less than 3 percent of federal income taxes.

This celebration—“the Cost of Government Day”—masks that 6 to 7 months into the year is when a tiny, much-maligned segment of the population has almost completed slaving for the rest.

Do come up with a better name for the day on which the few finish working for the many, while getting pounded for their drive and productivity.

Have at it on Facebook or Twitter.

CNN Harpies and Their Big Daddy O

Barack Obama, Elections, Europe, John McCain, Journalism, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Media, Propaganda, Pseudo-history

“CNN Harpies and Their Big Daddy O”: That’s my latest weekly column, now on RT. Here is an excerpt:

“This must be a slow news week; we’re discussing CNN and its plummeting Nielsen ratings.

In a calculated attempt ‘to capture [its] lost glory,’ Rush Limbaugh has anticipated that the Cable News Network would ‘move further to the left.’

Question: How will we tell that CNN has made that move?

The Obama Heads at CNN are true believers. Although not as shrill as the MSNBC desperados, CNN’s John King, Jessica Yellin, Dona Lemon, Anderson Cooper, Soledad O’Brien, Piers Morgan—all are shifting into campaign mode, as the November election nears.

Especially intense are the pitches coming from likes of O’Brien (she is the Agony Aunt of the ‘Black In America,’ ‘Latino In the Same Place,’ and plain ‘Boring in America’ propaganda series), Yellin (a yelling for her man), Gloria Borges, Suzanne Malveaux, and other women.

It’s impossible to miss the sexual overtones. A gleaming flash of dentition, a glowing complexion: when the women folk report on Big Daddy O, their fondness is on display, for all CNN’s 291,000 national viewers to see.

O’Brien, by the way, was filmed fist-bumping Roland Martin, another race-issues agitator at CNN. In the CNN hood, a fist bump is the way you congratulate a comrade on a job well done for Obama.

Under the O’Brien belt is another big production, ‘Boiling Point: Inside the Tea Party.’ In this amateurish effort, a poorly written script and a scary sound track were deployed to convey a never-subliminal message: When it comes to the tea party, CNN’s dwindling viewers should run for their lives.

However, the rajah of right-wing radio gives CNN too little credit. The planners at CNN are craftier than Rush thinks.

What do I mean?

The GOP message is not worth much. But for what it’s worth, the political nerve center at CNN is working to shape that message. It does so by presenting to the public Republican commentators who are left-liberals in all but name.

CNN is cleverly crafting the meta-message. …”

READ the complete column. “CNN Harpies and Their Big Daddy O” is now on RT.

If you’d like to feature this column, WND’s longest-standing, exclusive libertarian column, in or on your publication (paper or pixels), contact ilana@ilanamercer.com.

JOIN THE DISCUSSION, AND DO BATTLE FOR LIBERTY:

• At the WND and RT Comments Sections.

• By clicking to “Like,” “Tweet” and “Share” “Return To Reason” on WND, and the “Paleolibertarian Column” on RT.

He Contorts, Tom Woods Decides

Conservatism, Constitution, Founding Fathers, Media, Republicans

If Bill O’Reilly proves anything (over and over again) it is that Gresham’s Law (generalized beyond economics) reigns supreme: Specious reasoning will always drive out careful thinking.

Against these odds, Tom Woods tackles O’Reilly’s reliably wonky “constitutional scholarship,” in a masterful YouTube clip, below:

From The O’Reilly Factor, email segment for July 5:

“Bill, you keep asking what the Republicans have to replace Obamacare. Under the Constitution, there is no role for the Federal government in healthcare.”
–Felicia

O’Reilly:
“That’s not true, Felicia. The opening paragraph of the Constitution says the welfare of the people must be promoted. A just healthcare system comes under that banner.”

[Tom Woods] couldn’t resist answering this [for which we should all be grateful].