Crosspost

About three miles south of Beverly Hills in the upper-middle class neighborhood of Beverlywood is Hamilton High School.  An otherwise ordinary Los Angeles Unified School District-sponsored juvenile detention center, Hamilton is home to a couple of well regarded magnet programs, particularly the Academy of Music Magnet.  The Music Magnet is the old stomping grounds of pop stars, Broadway talent, and even Hollywood A-listers who were drawn to a public school p

Oscar-winning screenwriter Mark Boal must be thrilled about this whole Libya thing, since he seems to be making a cottage industry out of articles, books and movies about American soldiers and how they are a bunch of incorrigible psychos whose desire to murder everyone they see is constrained only by their limited intellect.  Who knows what doors the latest “kinetic military action” might open for him in Tinseltown.

The only over-the-counter asthma inhaler sold in the United States soon will be banned from store shelves because of environmental concerns, and replacement medications may cost more, the U.S. Food and Drug administration acknowledged.

The FDA announced on Wednesday that Primatene Mist (epinephrine) will be discontinued by the end of the year, as part of an international agreement to phase out chlorofluorocarbons and other ozone-depleting substances.

President Obama in the opening days of his term made a showing of mandating openness in government.  He even stated, “Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing.  Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset.”  He then directed department heads to implement his Open Government Directive.  While this sounds good, what raises concern is the selective transparency with which his administration operates.

A prominent GOP senator on energy issues accused President Barack Obama Thursday morning of having set an “explicit policy goal” of making energy prices more costly for Americans.

“My message today is simply this: higher gas prices - indeed, higher prices for the energy we use - are an explicit policy goal of the Obama administration,” said Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla), ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “Let me put it another way: the Obama administration is attacking affordable energy.”

One U.S.-Mexico border town had more civilian casualties in its drug war last year than Afghanistan had in its entire country.

In Ciudad Juarez, Mexico--which sits across the Rio Grande River from El Paso, Texas—3,111 civilians were murdered in 2010. In all of the territory of Afghanistan, where U.S. forces are at war with Taliban insurgents, there 2,421 civilians were killed   

More civilians were killed last year in Ciudad Juarez, the Mexican city across the border from El Paso, Texas, than were killed in all of Afghanistan.

Well it’s that time of year when all of the rich leftists in Hollywood get out their $40,000 dollar gowns, put on their millions in jewelry, climb into their limos, and head up to the Kodak Theater to pat themselves on the back for being working class heroes. I couldn’t care less about which picture or actor gets a trophy, I just love listening to the political correctness and monumental hubris on display for the world to see.

I think he’s wrong about some of these things, I just can’t tell you why. – David Letterman

For his documentaries on Fidel Castro and Che Guevara Cuban-American filmmaker Agustin Blazquez’ takes a truly revolutionary approach. Rather than expecting officials of Castro’s police state to reveal facts, Blazquez interviews eye-witnesses to Castroism who are (get this!) free to reveal facts without threat of Castro’s firing squads and torture chambers!

This might be the most revealing anecdote about the intolerant culture of present-day Hollywood in, well, ever. Get this: some genius producer at Sony digitally removed the words Holy Bible from a Holy Bible in a scene because he thought the sight of a Bible might hurt the film’s appeal beyond the Christian community — probably because he’s projecting and assuming everyone’s as bigoted as Hollywood. 

After some pressure from the family on which the film is based, he did put it back, but who thinks this way (he asked himself rhetorically). Good grief, there are all kinds mainstream films today where you see glimpses of various social and political symbols. Remember all that obnoxious PETA junk in Lethal Weapon 2, a movie I’ve only watched about a million times. But how many films these days show teenagers with the chicken track peace symbol on their book bag or a Greenpeace poster on the wall?

So on his radio show, Mayor Mike Bloomberg said that the cops won’t enforce the city’s new ban on smoking at beaches and parks.

So, who will?

Us.

That’s right, Bloomie said, quote, “This is going to be enforced by public pressure. [...] Mainly….everybody’s going to turn to you and say, ‘Hey, you shouldn’t be smoking.’ And you know, most people listen.”

Yeah, most people.

He must be referring to smurfs, pixies and tree nymphs. Cuz it ain’t us.

An apparently liberal theatre group in Madison, Wisconsin, is playing victim in response to pushback they’ve gotten for putting on a play that has liberal grad students murdering “right-wingers.” Hey, we take jabs at the Left, too, or so goes the claim.

If we’ve learned anything from the Huffington Post, it’s that celebrity’ attempts at political eloquence almost always

So, the Academy Award nominations have been announced, and you know what that means: another article about lack of diversity in Academy Award nominations.

CNN.com points out that even Javier Bardem, up for best actor, doesn’t count, because he’s “European.”

Making him white – and of course, a monster.

Yesterday, in this piece about Stephen Colbert, I mentioned Jon Stewart’s attack on Fox News but couched it with as much skepticism as possible because, frankly, it didn’t pass the smell test, especially in the area of context.  To have those suspicions confirmed last night by Bill O’Reilly came as no surprise (see the video below). Furthermore, I respectfully disagree with O’Reilly that Stewart should be held to a lower factual standard because he’s a ”satirist.” Stewart isn’t a satirist, he’s a political partisan disguised as a satirist, a man as determined to defeat the right as Nancy Pelosi and Bill Maher. The difference between Pelosi and Maher, though, is that they step into the arena of political battle and fly their flag. At the very least you can respect them for that. They come to wage open war whereas Stewart and Colbert come to throw rocks while wearing the protective shield of a clown nose.

It’s never a good day when one of the most wicked organizations on the planet is pleased by anything. But how could America’s teachers unions not have been thrilled with the news that Davis Guggenheim’s damning indictment of the devastation they have brought down upon America’s public school system and millions upon millions of children was snubbed by the Academy this morning?

Grammy award-winning country singer LeAnn Rimes said her performance at a Republican fundraiser on Tuesday  in Washington, D.C., was “a job” and that she was “not making a political stance.”

Via Twitter, CNSNews.com asked Rimes, “What influenced you to participate in the GOP fundraiser tonight?”

Rimes replied, “It's a job! I'm entertainment, not making a political stance.”

The next two years, more than the last two even, depend on President Barack Obama. While conservatives and fiscal hawks pin their hopes on the newly elected House members to trim the Federal government, nothing will happen if President Obama vetoes.

In movies like "Fahrenheit 451" and "1984," neighbors inform the police about serious crimes against the State like subversion and book possession. In real America, people call 911 because McDonald’s has run out of McNuggets.

That Robert Duvall is one of the greatest actors to ever grace the silver screen is incontestable. His roles as Gus McCrae in “Lonesome Dove” (1989), Sonny Dewey in “The Apostle” (1997), and Mac Sledge in “Tender Mercies” (1983), are simply unforgettable. In addition to these characters, Duvall gave us famous lines that have literally worked their way into our nation’s lexicon over the years.

Over Thanksgiving, I read Sarah Palin’s new book, America by Heart : Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag. My first thought after finishing it? Wow, that was good. My second thought? If someone gripes about her from now on, I’m going to respond,”Have you read her book?” When the opinionated person says, “No.” I’m going to say back, “Talk to me after you’ve read her book.”

Before getting to the guts of the tome, I would like to address one thing that irritates me: When writing about Sarah Palin, it is de rigueur for friend and foe alike to use one’s criticism (and I mean criticism in the dictionary sense; here is the definition: Criticism is the judgment of the merits and faults of the work or actions of one individual by another. To criticize does not necessarily imply to find fault, but the word is often taken to mean the simple expression of prejudice or disapproval) as either an endorsement or “hit job” of the person.

The federally funded National Portrait Gallery, one of the museums of the Smithsonian Institution, is currently showing an exhibition that features images of an ant-covered Jesus, male genitals, naked brothers kissing, men in chains, Ellen DeGeneres grabbing her breasts, and a painting the Smithsonian itself describes in the show's catalog as "homoerotic."

The exhibit, “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” opened on Oct. 30 and will run throughout the Christmas Season, closing on Feb. 13.

Governor Ed Rendell (D-Pa.) said that Pennsylvania Democrats lost key House and Senate races in the midterm election because “voters don’t always vote on logical reasons,” adding that Democrats “understand” the reason for voters’ “anger” and “it’s pretty hard to quarrel with.” His comments were made while participating in a conference call sponsored by the Center for American Progress (CAP) about the need for Congress to extend unemployment benefits.

Everyone is talking about how badly President Obama is doing in the polls. Remember Harry Reid? Remember how badly he was doing in the polls? Yeah. He got re-elected.

Why will Obama win?

1. People want to like President Obama. Yes, the independents have left him, but they’re fickle pickles. If President Obama starts to make even a lick of sense on a minor issue, they’ll turn back his direction.

Regardless of its quality, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I” will likely become a huge blockbuster. It’s the seventh film chronicling the long-running book series about a wizard named Harry Potter and his two best friends. The final book of the series was split into two films and the second part will be released in July 2011.

By design or accident, it appears as though a 20 year-old single mother is using the power of popular culture to single handedly transform the left by ginning up their rage to a point where they now see the light when it comes to rewarding merit and opposing voter fraud. This quite possibly ranks as the most important political and social triumph of 2010.

A huge wave crashes into DC as I write this. Over 60 new Congressmen and six new Senators flush with a mandate to reduce the size and scope of government will now be a part of the government they’re tasked with depriving of power.

As Joe Biden would say, this is a big effing deal.

Already though, factions that make up the big Republican tent seem intent on emphasizing their differences rather than unifying around some principles that it seems everyone can agree on these days save the big government socialists aka statists aka progressives aka liberals.

So just a day after the Republicans won big, President Obama ran screaming from the “cap and trade” program like it was a hooker with herpes.

Remember, this was his solution for global warming: curb carbon emissions by hiking the price of electricity and gas, forcing us to use less.

Well, that’s deader than the nerves in Nancy Pelosi’s face.

Says Obama:

So true to character, Maureen Dowd weighed in on the election, and got it wrong. See, she believes the vote wasn’t about Obama, it was about gullible voters.