And definately read his entire blog, it’s excellent:
What do you need to write cowboy poetry? Words like “tunbleweed” and “chaps.” Also, torchees, spondees and dactyls. Pencil and paper. Total cost: 79 cents. Maybe you and a half dozen other cowboy poets like to book the back room at the local bar once a month for an evening of cowboy poetry and a few beers. Total cost: couple hundred dollars. Maybe folks get word and figure you should get a bigger room and invite the pubic and charge a three-dollar admission. Why does any of this require national subsidies managed by bureaucracy thousands of miles away?
Well because these days, what doesn’t? Once upon a time, the cowboy embodied the rugged individualism of the frontier. In Harry Reid’s world, he embodies dependency without end. To “preserve” the “traditionn,” it is necessary to invert everything the tradition represents. From true grit to federally funded grit. Thus America, bouncing along in the Dead Wood Stage of history.
There’s been whispered speculation, in Nevada and now outside, that Harry’s losing it in his old age. I think this is proof someone is on to something:
And this is good for laughs, even if like me, you’ve heard Mark on this already:
The first headline basically said that Vivian Schiller resigned in the wake of this bad, bad O’Keefe sting. Now it says”NPR CEO Vivian Schiller Resigns After Board Decides She Should Go.” (Emphasis is mime.)
For the last 2 days, NPR has been trying to dance around this mess they’ve made for themselves and they can’t possibly keep up. Yesterday’s story about Ron Schiller (for the umptenth time – no relation to Vivian Schiller) and his bigoted remarks hit the air and blogosphere, and NPR couldn’t keep up with the spin. Today appears to be a repeat.
It’s becoming fun to watch the taxpayer funded arts, entertainment and ‘news’ entities in this country run scared from what they believe will be the Republican axe come January.
Right on the heels of the firing of Juan Williams and the public demands to cut tax dollars to NPR, several weeks ago PBS cut a segment of Tina Fey’s acceptance speech at the Kennedy Center. (You can watch the entire thing here, but her disparaging comments about Sarah Palin and conservative women starts at around 12 minutes.)
“And, you know, politics aside, the success of Sarah Palin and women like her is good for all women – except, of course –those who will end up, you know, like, paying for their own rape ‘kit ‘n’ stuff,” Fey said. “But for everybody else, it’s a win-win. Unless you’re a gay woman who wants to marry your partner of 20 years – whatever. But for most women, the success of conservative women is good for all of us. Unless you believe in evolution. You know – actually, I take it back. The whole thing’s a disaster.”
As a warning, this is extremely disturbing and graphic, both sexually and violently. I was hesitant to post it. But this is what Christians, the general public and children can see at the National Portrait Gallery:
Bowing to pressure from the Catholic League and fears of cuts in tax funding by the Republicans, the powers at the National Portrait Gallery (part of the Smithsonian Institution) have pulled an “art video” depicting an image of Christ on the cross, covered in ants. William Donohue, president of the Catholic League calls this hate speech (a term I personally hate) that is meant to offend and insult Christians. Congressman John Boehner’s spokesman, Kevin Smith, called this exhibit a “misuse of taxpayer dollars.”
“American families have a right to expect better from recipients of taxpayer funds in a tough economy,” Smith said. “While the amount of money involved may be small, it’s symbolic of the arrogance Washington routinely applies to thousands of spending decisions involving Americans’ hard-earned money.”
In defense of it’s decision to display this homoerotic exhibit, the National Gallery is quick to point out that the $750,000 in funding came from private donations, not taxpayer dollars. But if the gallery itself, which IS funded by taxes and the employees that are also paid with that same money, didn’t exist, neither would this exhibit.
Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute and a former senior economist on the congressional Joint Economic Committee, told CNSNews.com, “If the Smithsonian didn’t have the taxpayer-funded building, they would have no space to present the exhibit, right? In my own view, if someone takes taxpayer money, then I think the taxpayers have every right to question the institutions where the money’s going.” (CNSNews.com)
Keep in mind that this exhibit is open to the public and in fact, the National Gallery had a family weekend this fall, encouraging parents to bring their children and engage in hands on activities after their tour. (As an aside, this does give new meaning to the term “hands on.”)
This is part of what children got to see:
Another piece in the exhibit is a 1994 photograph (from a triptych) entitled “Brotherhood, Crossroads, Etcetera” by Lyle Ashton Harris. The “Hide/Seek” catalog says that Harris created the piece in collaboration with his brother, Thomas Allen Harris.
“In this provocative center image, the brothers exchange a passionate kiss as Thomas presses a gun into Lyle’s chest–conjuring the original biblical story of Cain’s treachery toward his brother, Abel,” states the catalog description (p. 265) of the piece. (also from CNSNews.com)
I’ve taken my kids to countless exhibits and museums over the years. They’ve had the privilege to see Picasso, Michelangelo and Rembrandt, as well as many other great artists. Really, I don’t have a problem with this stuff. I take that back, I do have a problem with this stuff, now that I’ve seen that video. This is more outrageous and disturbing than I first thought.
I do not advocate censorship, except where it pertains to my parental rights. As a parent, I have the right of censorship over what my young kids saw, heard and read. And I chose to pay for what they saw, heard and read.
The distinction here is that I am paying for art that I do not want to pay for: art that I would not want my kids to be exposed to: art that, in the words of Donohue, I find offensive and insulting. And why is it okay to insult Christians? The liberal art cliche would never be exhibiting art that is offensive to Muslims – mainly out of fear of physical harm and not because it’s simply inappropriate, immoral and unacceptable. And why do this during the Christmas season?
I do think that Bill Donohue is on to something here. As much as I hate the term “hate speech” because it smacks of censorship that I think should only be limited to individual choices and not government intervention, this is the way to fight this kind of thing. Again, this is an insulting and offensive exhibit to a great many American taxpayers, including me and this is not where I choose to spend my money.
Tax payer funded institutions like the Smithsonian and NPR, are not in a position to decide what is acceptable and appropriate to the public – the public makes that decision because the public is funding them. If they want the freedom to exhibit whatever they want – pornographic, anti-Christian, whatever – then they should not be funded by the American people. There is plenty of private funding out there that they can secure.
NPR said it’s “imperative” that it receives federal funding in light of a recommended cuts by the leaders of President Obama’s fiscal commission.
“Federal funding has been a central component of public radio stations’ ability to serve audiences across the country,” NPR said in a statement. “It’s imperative for funding to continue to ensure that this essential tool of democracy survives and thrives well into the future.”
If this is so “‘essential” to American democracy, then it should survive in the open market. Why it is that talk shows like Rush, Beck, Hannity and Levin can all sustain themselves without federal aide but AirAmerica went belly up? Could it be that there is virtually no market for liberal radio? Just like newspapers and magazines, radio money comes from selling advertising. If any talk show can’t get ad dollars because no one is listening, that’s not the taxpayers problem. Conservative radio stands or falls on it’s own, so should liberal radio.
Maybe Vivian Schiller should have thought of how “imperative” that funding is to NPR before she had an underling fire Juan Williams and then inferred that he was in need of psychiatric help.
Firing Williams because he was a commentator on Fox News unmasked the hypocrisy of NPR and the desire to restrict free speech when it’s not YOUR speech certainly harmed NPR in the eyes of most Americans. But beyond that, financing public broadcasting is a waste of tax dollars. We can all survive without PBS and NPR.
NPR can go the way of AirAmerica unless their so much smarter audience can keep it afloat. And they need to be worried about defunding because that should be and might be at the top of Congress’ hit list.
After the firing of Juan Williams, a couple of weeks ago, because of statements he made that he felt uncomfortable when he saw people dressed in “Muslim garb,” there have been loud calls for the defunding of NPR from the public and from Congressional members. NPR CEO Vivian Schiller said “If defunding to public broadcasting were to occur, it would be devastating to public broadcasting. That’s a fact.”
While NPR headquarters only receives about 1 percent of funding from tax dollars, member stations receive about 9 percent of their funding from tax dollars, Schiller said. She said that the 9 percent NPR member stations receive from taxpayer dollars is essential for them to stay on the air.
“For small stations, and even for large stations, that’s a big chunk of their revenue,” she said. “It’s been a critical part of keeping those stations vibrant and, so, we take these calls for defunding very, very seriously.”
Then Schiller goes on to praise her smarter-than-the -average-redneck-hayseed-Fox-News audience member:
Schiller criticized cable news during the forum for what she sees as its partisan nature. [Let me renind the reader of this ‘non-partisan’ cartoon that was featured on NPR a while back.] She also praised NPR’s audience as more intelligent than other media audiences, citing the comment section of a one-year old story about the Colorado boy who was suspected to have flown himself up in a balloon back in October 2009 on its website as evidence.
Two of the posters to NPRs balloon boy blog (I love alliteration) calculated the weight. air speed, gravitational pull and lift (okay, not all that but close) required to get this balloon off the ground with a small child on board and they contradicted each other. But they did it in a polite and civil fashion, unlike posters on other blogs who do nothing but “yell at each other.”
But let me tell you, I went to it’s blog regarding the firing of Juan Williams and I posted on it. There were many people there who were less than polite to each other over this topic. And there was some “yelling” between those who commented.
Schiller wants to paint her audience as more intelligent and elite. If that’s the case then they are intelligent enough to find the funding to keep it on the air without the need of our tax dollars.
If Hanson’s post today doesn’t “fire you up – ready to go” vote, nothing will!
This regime has to be neutralized and the only way to do it is to vote in overwhelming numbers. I don’t care if nothing gets done in the next two years, in fact, I’m hoping nothing does get done! The less this government can do, the better for all of us. And that includes defunding NPR, NEA, PBS, and the most horrible of all – HEALTH CARE! If they are defunded, nothing will be done at those entities that can offend or rob any of us.
This man and his agenda HAS TO BE STOPPED before we lose everything we’ve taken for granted. It’s time to stop taking for granted and start standing up and being counted.
Get out and vote and when you do, do so carefully!
MediaMatters lives to pillory Fox News for being too conservative — at the same time, it tries to drive moderate commentators off Fox programming.
MediaMatters doesn’t want balance on Fox News. MediaMatters doesn’t want an exchange of ideas. MediaMatters wants to push Fox further to the right. Its toxic tactics are designed to widen the left-right divide in America by marginalizing not only conservatives, but anyone who associates with conservatives.
I’ve talked to people at CAIR and MediaMatters. I know folks who work for NPR. They all think they’re smart, and yet they’ve just sent a bonehead message to the American public.
Way to go, ye titans of tolerance. You’ve just broadcasted that an African-American moderate with a solid civil-rights record can lose his job and be branded as a bigot for quoting a convicted terrorist and admitting to a moment’s hesitation if he sees someone in Muslim garb on a plane. Debra J. Saunders/Rasmussen Reports
Peasants in the Belarus region of the Soviet Union
This is an excellent read by Jeffery Lord of The American Spectator about the CEO of NPR and her interesting history in the Soviet Union, when it was still a soviet union. Apparently, Vivian has enough experience with Soviet style journalism to justify how and why she fired Juan Williams.
According to Mr. Lord, Vivian was a “fixer” in the old Soviet Union: someone who could not just speak the Russian language, but was able to navigate around the society and the country and “make things happen” for her American guests.
Judging by her recent purge of Juan Williams, Vivian learned how to silence an opinion she finds disagreeable, too.
It appears that George Soros has Murdick —oops, I mean Murdoch envy. As in Rupert Murdoch.
He’s donated over $1m to NPR to increase coverage of the legislature in “all 50 states.” Soon he’ll be a radio mogul on the level of Rush and has his sights on being another Murdoch when he takes over PBS. He runs, oh how many web blogs? A dozen or so? Which puts him above and beyond Breitbart. And then of course, if you watch Beck you already know that he funds (therefore owns) a dozen so-called community organizing groups from the Tides Foundation to Van Jones’ Color of Change. Many of these groups have members who wrote – WROTE – the recent legislations that have so infuriated the American people.
Our own legislators did not write the health care or stimulus bills. The same ones they never read.
Those bills, for all intents and purposes were written by George Soros through his surrogates.
I want my money out of NPR and PBS. Let Soros fund them.
Look at the take over this man has accomplished and he’s not done yet. He owns our medical care and has put each of us in debt to the tune of $43,000. He wants to bury Fox, Beck and Rush (and all those like Beck and Rush.) If you’ve been watching Beck you know that Soros is infiltrating our schools, as we speak and attempting to do so in our churches.
Can any evangelicals out there spell AntiChrist?
If I believed in an AntiChrist, I’d spell it: S-O-R-O-S
Update: Listening to John Gibson this morning and he mentioned that this is “PLEDGE” week at NPR. Firing Juan Williams appears to be a calculated decision at NPR in an attempt to raise more funds from the left and its leader, George Soros.
Well Juan, how does it feel to be the one thrown under the bus? How does it feel to no longer be simpatico with your leftist amigos?
NPR is taxpayer funded and yet they have the power to silence – to censor – voices that don’t go along with their leftist ideology. He’s a news analyst, someone who gets paid to broadcast his opinions.
“I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I’ve got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”
I can’t remember a time when I did agree with him. The one time he actually puts words to the feelings that most people have, he gets canned. He’s been fired for saying, finally, what most Americans think and feel by a news organization that is paid for by those same Americans.
We all know how left leaning NPR is. This is not a news flash. But to censor speech because it is contrary to what some higher-ups in that organization believe, that crosses a line. We pay the salaries of those same higher-ups and pay them to make decisions, not to cram their leftist ideology down our throats. How much more arrogance are we going to tolerate from people who are essentially on OUR payroll? The heavy handedness of this firing due to a statement that is not politically correct enough for the bleeding hearts at NPR is not just cowardly, it’s the height of arrogance.
Which one of us taxpayers gave them a promotion to speech policemen?
Along with getting rid of the Department of Education, the National Endowment for the Arts and privatizing the post office, we need to call for pulling the plug on NPR and PBS. And firing someone for having an opinion that disagrees with the so-called bosses, is one more good reason for doing so.
“Brace yourselves, because the war with Muslims has just begun,” 31-year-old Faisal Shahzad told a federal judge. “Consider me the first droplet of the blood that will follow.”
Stop Sharia in America
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Obamas Wisdom and Terror in the Street
"We can absorb a terrorist attack. We'll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever...we absorbed it and we are stronger."
Diary of a Mad Conservative 