Federal judge awards 32.4 million to St. Louis couple in the Mike Huckabee robo-call case.

Courtesy of the St. Louis-Dispatch:  

A federal judge here Thursday awarded $32.4 million to a St. Louis County couple and 3.2 million others who improperly received robocalls in 2012. 

U.S. District Judge E. Richard Webber could have awarded $1.6 billion, or $500 per call, under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, but wrote “the amount of damages prescribed by the statute are so severe and oppressive as to be wholly disproportionate to the offense and obviously unreasonable.” 

Webber wrote in his ruling that the $32 million penalty, or $10 per call, “reflects the severity of the offense” and one of the purposes of the TCPA — to have a “deterrent effect and to account for unquantifiable losses including the invasions of privacy, unwanted interruptions and disruptions at home, and the wasted time spent answering unwanted solicitation calls or unwanted voice messages.” 

The calls went out to promote the “Last Ounce of Courage,” a movie about “faith, family and freedom” that opened Sept. 14, 2012. More than 3.2 million of the calls violated the act by going to people who had not consented to the calls, Webber has ruled.

God DAMN!

I first wrote about this case way back in June, because you know fuck Mike Huckabee, but I had NO idea that there would be this kind of payout.

I bet that crappy piece of propaganda did not even make 32.4 million dollars in theaters.

Unfortunately this couple will never actually see that money since the company that made those calls is now conveniently going out of business.

Hmm, I wonder if Mike Huckabee has that kind of money?

A timely warning from 1943.

1947 anti-fascist video made by US military to teach citizens how to avoid falling for people like Trump is relevant again. pic.twitter.com/vkTDD1Tplh

— Michael (@OmanReagan) August 13, 2017

Courtesy of Business Insider:  

A short, anti-Nazi film titled "Don't Be A Sucker" has reemerged after this past weekend's deadly white-supremacist rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia. 

Produced by the US War Department in 1943 and released two years after the end of World War II, the film was a warning to Americans to resist fascist rhetoric — and to condemn it even if you're not among those directly under attack. 

The film opens with an agitated man handing out pamphlets and yelling to a crowd from a podium about the threat posed to "real Americans" by black people, "foreigners," Catholics, and Freemasons. "I see foreigners with money," the man shouts. 

"I see negroes holding jobs that belong to me and you. Now I ask you, if we allow this thing to go on, what's going to become of us real Americans?

"The clip was posted to Twitter on Saturday night by an anthropologist named Michael Oman-Reagan, who said the post-World War II film was made "to teach citizens how to avoid falling for people like Trump." It had been retweeted more than 122,000 times by Monday morning.

And now I am sharing it with you here, and I encourage you to share it far and wide as well. 

The fact that it feels as if this film could have been made last year as a warning about what a Trump presidency might do to the country, is all the more reason that as many people as possible should see it now.

You can find the entire film here.

Remember, a well informed public is exactly what those who push this kind of agenda DON'T want in this country.

Ten years ago this was just a movie. Today this is our reality.

Yep we now live in a country where bullying is rewarded with the highest office in the land, Breitbart is a legitimate news outlet, and Sarah Palin can legitimately claim to be smarter than virtually every pollster in the country.

America is no longer that shining city on a hill, it is an out of control dumpster fire.

Ray "Banana Man" Comfort wins award for best science film. Wait, what happened?

So this is apparently an award given to Comfort for his ridiculous attempt to attack Atheism in a film which uses clips of Banana Man confronting scientists and college students with poorly presented "facts" and then carefully editing their responses to make them seem incapable of responding rationally.

Comfort claims to attack Atheism with science, but in fact the simply misrepresents science, refuses to accept correction, and calls that a win.

Here is how The Friendly Atheist responded to news of this "award.":  

The only time “science” appears in the movie is when Comfort asks random people how DNA could have possibly evolved on its own, a rhetorical question that he believes points to the truth of Intelligent Design. It’s not like he explains DNA. He doesn’t add to our scientific understanding of anything, unless you count ignorance as a virtue. 

The Friendly Atheist also points out that "Int'l Christian Film Festival" seems like a fly by night organization, and that there appears to have been no other films competing against "The Atheist Delusion." 

I think it is quite telling that a Christian film festival only gives a "Best Science Film" award to a movie that does nothing but attack scientific knowledge.

Pretty much says it all, don't you think?

They're bringing the movie "Idiocracy" back to theaters because, well because we are essentially living it right now.

Above is the first scene from the 2006 movie "Idiocracy." And that Clevon family, well that is the perfect representation of today's Donald Trump supporters.

Here is more from the AV Club: 

When Idiocracy was released in 2006, it didn’t make much of an impact upon the world. In fact, most people didn’t even know it existed. 20th Century Fox had a contractual obligation to release Mike Judge’s follow-up to Office Space, but they pretty much just tucked it away. After being sat on for more than a year, it initially opened in just seven cities, and with practically zero publicity—not even so much as a trailer. Now, just one decade later, Idiocracy is practically a household term, which is as much a testament to the film’s enduring satirical genius as it is to the country’s terrifying free-fall which includes, among other things, a not-totally-impossible Trump presidency. 

And since it’s hard to shiver in fear while you’re laughing, the Alamo Drafthouse And Art House Convergence Theaters have decided to screen the film for one night only this coming October 4. Alamo explained the decision in a press release: 

"Ten years ago, satirist Mike Judge told of an impossible future in which our collective intelligence had dropped so low it threatened to destroy the world. In this future, America was run by a corrupt, sociopathic former pro-wrestler with severe anger management issues, and the most popular entertainment in the land was a YouTube-esque video playlist called “Ow My Balls.” 

Flash forward to today. We are approaching the end of the most bizarre, absurdist presidential race in U.S. history. Over the past months, thousands have questioned in social media whether Idiocracy was actually a documentary. Mike Judge’s sadly prescient film has transcended its cult classic status to become a vibrant and essential facet of this election conversation."

We are where we are because while the smartest Americans have been thinking things through and carefully planning their lives and the lives of their children, the Clevons of the country have been  running around breeding like rabbits and doing the bare minimum to educate themselves or make any kind of contribution to the planet.

All of course with the full support of the Republican party whose life blood is the uneducated, hyper religious, non-critical thinking voters of America. 

And if you think that this Clevon family seems familiar well you are probably thinking of their real world doppelgangers.

Yeah, scary isn't it?

According to Dinesh D’Souza Democrats are bad. Very, very bad.

Seriously, what in the hell was that?

Here is how D'Souza describes this movie on a Right Wing website that you should never ever visit: 

“The movie begins with ‘Stealing America,’ with my trial and confinement, and then it moves into ‘Hillary’s America,'” he said. “In the rest of the movie, I am out of confinement; I’m going in search of the story to uncover the secret history the Democratic Party wants to hide from voters.” 

The trailer contains dramatic scenes exposing the role of the Democratic Party in supporting slavery prior to the start of the Civil War, lynching during Reconstruction and racial segregation through much of the 20th century. 

D’Souza pointed out that the recent controversy whipped up by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke’s endorsement of Donald Trump, shows the determination the modern Democratic Party has to pin a charge of racism on the modern GOP. 

“The Democrats try to bury their past,” D’Souza said. “But when forced to admit their true roots, the Democrats pretend as if the modern Democratic Party switched and became the good guys, while the modern GOP became the bad guys. My new movie explodes this switcheroo myth.” 

“Hillary’s America,” he said, shows the Democrats never switched. 

That's right it is not Donald Trump and the GOP that is racist, it's those damn tricky Democrats, with their social programs, work to improve the economy, and nominating of a black man to run for President.

The bastards!

Here is what Wonkette had to say about this "revelation": 

BREAKING NEWS, EVERYONE. Back during “history,” the Democrats really sucked. Although it is making us cry the sad tears to admit that, we must do so, because Wonkette strives daily to achieve Dinesh D’Souza’s journalism standards. 

Of course sometime around the passage of the Civil Rights Act, the Democrats and the Republicans switched places! The racist Democrats became the racist Republicans they are today, and yadda yadda yadda, anyone who is not a complete shit-swilling moron knows this.

Somehow we are guessing that part of “history” didn’t make it into Dinesh’s new “movie,” though. It’s probably on the cutting room floor somewhere, or maybe Dinesh destroyed it with one of the shivs he made out of a tampon applicator and a toothbrush, we don’t know. 

Funny. But also very true.

The Democratic party before the Civil Rights Movement is really NOT the Democratic party that we see today, And failing to recognize that, or rather REFUSING to recognize that, more or less undermines your entire attack against them, and against their nominee in 2016.

I imagine the ONLY audience for this movie are those on the Right Wing who are constantly seeking nourishment for their Hillary hate, and of course some of the younger folks who have been brainwashed into thinking that Hillary is the devil herself so that they would support her challenger in the primary.

There is a movie coming that will be directed by Steve Bannon (The guy who directed the Sarah Palin movie The Undefeated,), written by Rebecca Mansour, produced by Citizens United, and starring Duck Dynasty's Phil Roberston.

Courtesy of Alternet:

Right-wing moviemaking has been a growth industry in recent years, as conservative activists set out to challenge what they see as the damaging cultural impact of liberalism’s dominance in Hollywood. The latest example is “Torchbearer,” which director Steve Bannon called “a Christian war film” in remarks before a screening in Cleveland during the Republican National Convention last month. 

“Torchbearer” stars Phil Robertson, the Duck Dynasty patriarch who became a folk hero in the right-wing war on “political correctness” when the show was temporarily suspended by A&E amid controversy over Robertson's inflammatory remarks about homosexuality and black people in the pre-civil-rights-movement Louisiana. The movie was shown to distributors in Cannes and will be released in theaters in August.

The hour-long film is a collaboration between well-known right-wing groups. Bannon is executive chairman of Breitbart News; the script was written by a Breitbart editor, Rebecca Mansour. It was produced by Citizens United, the organization whose movie attacking Hillary Clinton was used by conservatives on the Supreme Court to gut regulation of political money in Citizens United the court ruling. Religious Right political operative Ralph Reed attended the premiere, and at a reception following the screening, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., took the opportunity to slam Clinton and praise the work of Citizens United.

The film is only an hour long but it manages to blame Nazi Germany on Nietzsche, mock the teaching of Evolution, use graphic images from Auschwitz and ISIS atrocities to shock and enrage, and of course blame all of the ills of the world on the "worship" of science instead of God.

My first instinct was that surely this must be something from the Onion or some other parody site, but nope it's real.

There is the trailer up above, a website, and everything.

My only surprise is that Sarah Palin does not have a speaking role, nor has she endorsed or spoken of the film on Facebook.

You would think with so many of her former collaborators working on the film, that she would be pitching it to the few simple minded morons who still value her opinion.

Perhaps this is so unhinged that even SHE gave it a pass?

Nah, who are we kidding, she probably was never even told about the film.

Well it looks as if Sarah Palin will have a busy April. You know, for her.

Courtesy of the Republican Party of Milwaukee County: 

Gov. Sarah Palin is confirmed to speak. 

Sen. Ted Cruz is confirmed to speak. 

Gov. John Kasich is confirmed to speak. 

All campaigns have been notified of this event. 

SOLD OUT!! 

Gov. Scott Walker is confirmed to speak. 

Event is from 5:00 PM to 9:30 PM Doors will open at 5 pm. Dinner at 6:30 to accommodate speakers.

Of course my first thought was that surely this must be an April Fool's prank, but nope it seems to be legit.

Which means that, despite her terrible performances in the past, Palin is acting as Trump's surrogate for this event as he is not scheduled to appear.

Wow, who would not want to be a fly on the wall when Palin runs into Ted Cruz backstage after all of the crap she has been spewing about him on Facebook?

And isn't it nice that her husband all of the sudden recovered to the point that his wife can leave him without people saying she is a terrible person?

Such a team player that Todd.

As it turns out this is not Palin's only gig in April, she also has to show up in Washington on the 14th to help deny man made climate change.

Courtesy of Climate Depot:  

The U.S. premiere of CFACT’s groundbreaking new documentary, Climate Hustle will take place at a Capitol Hill briefing in the historic Rayburn Office Building, including a riveting panel discussion on climate change featuring Gov. Sarah Palin and other notable guests. The invitation-only briefing and panel discussion will be held on April 14, 2016 from 4 to 6 p.m. The event comes just a week prior to the opening for signature of the U.N. Paris Agreement on climate change on Earth Day (April 22), and just a short time before Climate Hustle is seen in select U.S. cinemas for a one-night presentation by Fathom Events and SpectiCast on May 2, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. local time. 

With welcoming remarks by Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX), Chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee and headlined by Gov. Sarah Palin (2008 Republican Vice Presidential Candidate; 9th Governor of Alaska), the panel will be taped and shown during the national theater event. The discussion will be moderated by Brent Bozell, Founder and President of the Media Research Center, and will also include other notable experts including respected climatologist Dr. David Legates and a special video appearance by Emmy Award-winning educator Bill Nye the Science Guy. The panel will further examine some of the science, politics, and media coverage of the climate issue, and go far toward helping debunk much of the alarmism and hype exposed in the Climate Hustle film.

Well isn't THAT special?

By the way up here in Alaska our temperatures just hit the 70 degree mark for the first time in history.

Alaskans don't have the luxury of denying climate change, we live with it every day.

In fact that might even have had something to do with a recent snowmachine mishap.

You know, assuming that is indeed what happened.

I don't think that Michael Moore's next movie is going to win him any conservative fans either.

Looks pretty good, I think I will definitely put that in my Netflix queue.

Gee I wonder how the Right Wing will respond.

Oh that's right, we already know.

"Truth." I have every intention of watching this movie, and I think perhaps you should as well.

Courtesy of the 5 Minute Movie Guide:

When Mary Mapes a senior Producer at CBS who was responsible for the prestigious 60 Minutes TV Program led by veteran newsman Dan Rather, got wind of a potential story about Bush managing to avoid even his easy stint with the Guard, she started a whole investigation. With the approval of the Network's bosses, and encouraged by Rather, she got together a small very experienced team to check out documents purportedly from the files of Bush's commanding officer, the late Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B Killian that confirmed that Bush had been been AWOL for most of his alleged military service. Mapes had learned that the then-Texas Lieutenant Governor Ben Barnes had admitted making phone calls to get Bush into the Guard, as he claimed to have done for the children of several other influential Texans. The story was that Bush had received preferential treatment in passing over hundreds of applicants to enlist in the Texas Air National Guard in order to avoid being drafted and sent to fight in Vietnam after he had graduated from Yale in 1968. 

When the 60 Minute team had gathered substantial evidence supporting the claims their aired their findings in a special edition of their show, but before Rather and Mapes could even celebrate their major news coup, they were immediately subject to some to some very virulent criticism. It all focused on the actual authenticity of the documents that they had received from Bill Burkett, who was a retired Lt. Colonel with the Guard. Suddenly there was a very aggressive and effective campaign mounted to discredit the entire 60 Minute Team by some very influential and important political figures simply by rubbishing the validity of the evidence. It eventually resulted in Rather prematurely ending his distinguished career in disgrace and ignominy, and Mapes and her entire team being fired.

One of the things that I find fascinating about this whole episode was the revelation that Mary Maples had been in possession of this story back in 2000, BEFORE George W. was ever elected President, and did not pursue it due to the death of her mother.

Just imagine how different the world might have been if this story had come out before Bush was President, and had so many tools to suppress damaging stories at his disposal.

If you are looking for deep background on the allegations made about W's National Guard service, and the aggressive attacks that were launched to discredit Dan Rather and his team, you can visit Who, What, Why and read more about it here and here.

For the record I watched this whole thing unfold and have ALWAYS believed that Dan Rather was completely right in his reporting, and that what happened to him was one of the most shameful things to happen in American journalism.

Well this ought to be fun.

Hmm,  movie about Donald Trump, that Donald Trump does not want me to watch.

Hold on, I just need to go make a little popcorn.

Here is the link to whole movie.

New Benghazi film looks to provide even more confusion as to what happened the day 4 Americans died in Libya.

The film is directed by the guy who brought us the Transformer movies and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which probably tells you all you need to know about the accuracy of this film.

Here Vox has more: 

Based on the trailer, it appears that Bay's movie will attempt to squeeze and contort the painful events of Benghazi into a neat and emotionally satisfying narrative: Brave American military heroes must overcome cowardly suits and shoot a bunch of bad guys so that they may save the day. That should sound familiar; it's one of Hollywood's half-dozen or so standard cookie-cutter action movie plot lines. 

The plot sketched out in the trailer is a reassuring and simple checklist of action movie tropes, like a security blanket for the audience, protecting them from the scary complexities of the real world. Tough, bearded American men must survive in a hostile land, which fortunately is easy because they are tough and bearded and willing to "die for your country." 

Then a bad thing happens — brown people! explosions! — and the heroes fly into action. Shooting bad guys is no problem for these heroes, so surely victory is imminent. 

But wait: A bureaucrat, played by an actor known for portraying weak, feckless men on various TV shows, tells the brave bearded men that they're not allowed to go bravely shoot the bad guys. The audience cannot help but hate the cowardly bureaucrat, and be happy when the bearded man shouts him down. The brave bearded heroes, the trailer suggests, will Do the Right Thing, even if that means defying orders. But will the heroes be heroic in time? Or will the bad orders from the cowardly bureaucrat ruin everything?

So as even the casual, non-Fox viewing, person probably knows, that is NOT an accurate depiction of what happened that day in Benghazi.

But hell it makes an exciting movie so who cares if it helps to perpetuate a lie or negatively impacts a presidential campaign?

This film will undoubtedly rally the conservatives who want desperately to believe in its red, white, and blue rah rah message that we could totally have killed all of those brown people and rescued our precious white brothers if only the sniveling Obama appointed bureaucrats had not interfered.

And much the same way that the movie "Zero Dark Thirty" forever reinforced the idea that we killed Osama Bin Laden based on intelligence that we tortured out of another brown person, this will now serve as the contemporary wisdom for the low information crowd.

In fact the conservative media is already salivating over the potential impact this film might have in undermining the truth. 

Apparently trapped by self delusion Sarah Palin continues to pander for donations based on what she refers to as the "success of SarahPAC."

If you give me money, I'll show you my ass.

Courtesy of The Artless Dodger's Facebook page:  

Dear Friends, 

YOU are the success of SarahPAC! Thanks to your support, SarahPAC has grown to become one of the strongest forces within conservative politics. ( "One of the strongest forces within conservative politics?" Can you say "Delusional?") Together we are working hard to support and elect conservative leaders who will fight for what's right in America! 

You were pivotal in the efforts to reclaim majorities in the U.S. House and Senate. (Yeah way back in 201, before she destroyed her last ounce of credibility.) In a new documentary called "Building America's Future" to be released later this summer, many of the leaders you have helped elect take time to reflect and speak directly to you, SarahPAC supporters. Their testimonies will inspire you to keep the faith and never give up on our country. (And to keep sending Palin money. Must not forget that part.) They thank YOU for influencing national debate and the outcome of crucial elections. 

Here Palin asks for supporters to send their e-mail addresses so that they can receive a copy when her self glorifying DVD "Building American's Future" is ready for release. You can see the trailer for it here. Just of her previous movie "Undefeated" now containing updated footage.)

As we look to 2016, your continued support is critical to expanding our majority and electing a conservative President. Just today, SarahPAC donated to 44 strong, courageous conservative candidates (Make note to self to carefully check next SarahPAC filings for these 44 donations.), including the 34 U.S. House members who had to stand against their own leadership to do the will of the people and fight Obamatrade. (How did that work out for them?) With your support, these are the type of bold leaders we will elect in 2016. 

 It's an honor to be working with you. (She's working with them? Yeah, like the butcher is working with the lambs he slaughter's for their meat.) Thank you, and God bless you and America! 

 - Sarah Palin

Well you really only have to have one working nostril to detect the stink of desperation emanating from this post. It's pretty overpowering.

I am beginning to think that she must have spent her money unwisely in the past, and really has nothing substantial to show for all of those millions of dollars she earned back in the day.

And now without that steady Fox News paycheck she is scrambling.

So here we have Palin once again begging....begging for more money, and yet not one single word about the fact that she is about to be a grandmother yet again.

Gee one would almost think she was embarrassed by her's daughter's choices or something.

Update: Okay here's a question that suddenly popped into my head after writing this post.

Exactly WHY would SarahPAC donate to 44 candidates in a non-election year?

And the next question is how much could they possibly afford to donate, when we all know that they are taking in less money than they are paying out each quarter?

Either she's lying, or she is giving each of these candidates chump change in order to appear as if she is still a political player. 

Did I mention that smell of desperation?

Dakota Meyer and his buddies want you to help them make a movie. Is it bad? Oh God yes.

Courtesy of the Ranger 15 Movie Indiegogo site:

This movie is so hardcore military it makes Hollywood wet itself and run home crying to mommy.

Yeah that should sell tickets.

Here is how these guys describe themselves:

If you already support us, then you know us as the jackasses willing to do pretty much anything for your amusement. If you don’t, we’re nine veterans who got out of the military and believe in the American Dream that anything is possible if you work your ass off. Six of us are regular dudes that served in the infantry and special operations. One of us (Tim Kennedy) fights in the UFC. Two of us (Dakota Meyer and Leroy Petry) were awarded the Medal of Honor for extraordinary valor. They also make a fine quiche.

The guys have a sense of humor, and that's a good thing. However it appears to be the same sense of humor that allows a soldier to hold up the head of a dead Iraqi like a man posing with the picture of a fish he just caught.

I don't think "crude" even begins to describe it.

I read through the description and the whole concept looks mostly like an excuse to blow shit up, meet some of their personal acting heroes, and hook up with hot girls.

In other words it reads like a typical movie treatment you would expect from a bunch of guys in middle school.

So why am I not surprised that Dakota Meyer is part of it as well?

University of Michigan cancels showing of "American Sniper" after 300 sign letter of protest. Update: I spoke too soon.

Courtesy of The College Fix:  

A scheduled movie screening of “American Sniper” at the University of Michigan was abruptly cancelled Tuesday after nearly 300 students and others complained the film perpetuates “negative and misleading stereotypes” against Muslims. 

“The movie American Sniper not only tolerates but promotes anti-Muslim … rhetoric and sympathizes with a mass killer,” according to an online letter circulated among the campus community via Google Docs that garnered the signatures. 

The signers were mostly students, but also some staff, as well as the Muslim Students’ Association and the president of Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, a Palestinian solidarity group at UMich. 

The online memo, titled a “collective letter from Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) and Muslim students on campus,” accused the public university of “tolerating dangerous anti-Muslim and anti-MENA propaganda” by showing the movie, the highest grossing film of 2014. 

It follows U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, who served four combat tours in Operation Iraqi Freedom and was awarded two Silver Stars, five Bronze Stars with Valor, two Navy and Marine Corp Achievement Medals, and one Navy and Marine Corps commendation, according to his official Facebook page. But the protestors see him differently. 

“Chris Kyle was a racist who took a disturbing stance on murdering Iraqi civilians,” the collective letter stated. “Middle Eastern characters in the film are not lent an ounce of humanity and watching this movie is provocative and unsafe to MENA and Muslim CollectiveLetter students who are too often reminded of how little the media and world values their lives. … The University of Michigan should not participate in further perpetuating these negative and misleading stereotypes.”

No wonder the Right Wing is always attacking institutions of higher learning, apparently these students are learning empathy and respect for people who are different from them and living in other countries.

How un-American of them.

Update: Well it looks like football trumps empathy at the University of Michigan. 

Michigan Football will watch "American Sniper"! Proud of Chris Kyle & Proud to be an American & if that offends anybody then so be it!
— Coach Harbaugh (@CoachJim4UM) April 9, 2015

That tweet was from Michigan's head football coach Jim Harbaugh. And that seems to have changed everything: 

Shortly after that tweet was posted, the school announced they had backtracked on their original stance and will allow the film to be shown as scheduled. 

The school put out a statement at 10:45 Wednesday night announcing the decision. 

"The initial decision to cancel the movie was not consistent with the high value the University of Michigan places on freedom of expression and our respect for the right of students to make their own choices in such matters."

Well that is more than a little disappointing. 

Bill O'Reilly blames bad reviews of his film "Killing Jesus" on a liberal bias and because it's "open season on Christians in America."

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

Bill O’Reilly complained that he was a victim of religious discrimination because the “Killing Jesus” television movie, based on his book by the same name, received bad reviews from publications that he considers liberal. 

“The truth is, it is open season on Christians in America, and faith is not held in high esteem in the halls of Manhattan media operations,” O’Reilly said. 

The Fox News host suggested Monday night on his “O’Reilly Factor” program that critics should weigh his intentions in writing the book above its artistic merits, adherence to historical fact, and skillful use of dramatic elements. 

“A movie like ‘Killing Jesus’ is a noble endeavor, even if you didn’t like it – even though some conservative folks didn’t like it, either,” O’Reilly said, promising to read negative comments from conservatives. “But to see what actually happened to a good man, Jesus, who preached loving your neighbor and loving God above all, to see how he was abused and murdered historically, right before your eyes, is a powerful use of the motion picture concept.”

As you can see from the clip O'Reilly claims that he was divinely inspired to write his book, and that God was using him as a vessel, much like Christians believe the authors of the Bible were used by God to put HIS words down on paper.

This of course makes O'Reilly believe that his book is above criticism, despite his claims that critics had a right to their opinions. You can fairly see him bristle as he reads each negative review, and then attacks each of them as stupid, or elite, or pushing an agenda.

From my perspective the first problem with this is that it presents the story of Jesus as "historic" when in fact there is little outside of the Bible to support that label.

The second problem is that while there are plenty of theologians who are qualified to write a book about the life of Jesus, Bill O'Reilly is certainly not numbered among them.

However personally it really does not matter to me.

I have already sworn off ALL movies and television specials based on the Bible.

I made that decision after learning that there is no evidence to suggest that Moses led his people into the dessert, or that the Egyptians ever even had Jewish slaves in the first place.

I, of course, had already dismissed almost all of the Biblical stores as hogwash long ago, but after learning that even the most fundamental stories of the old testament were a steaming pile of BS I decided that I would no longer support the retelling of them with my hard earned money or attention.

I quite literally have no problem spending an afternoon in a darkened theater watching a superhero movie, or a silly horror film, or a movie with the most unbelievable premise of all, the romantic comedy. But those movies simply want to entertain me, and do not have the subtext of wanting to sell me a product for which I have absolutely no use.

Besides of all of the poorly written and unbelievable content I have ever suffered through, nothing challenges the content from the Bible. And I do mean NOTHING.

North Korea declares war....on balloons.

Courtesy of The Straits Times: 

North Korea's military on Sunday threatened to blow up balloons that South Korean activists plan to send over the heavily militarised border carrying 10,000 DVDs of the satirical Hollywood film The Interview. 

Activists plan to launch copies of the film - a comedy about a fictional United States Central Intelligence Agency plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un - as well as 500,000 propaganda leaflets across the border on or around March 26. 

"All the firepower strike means of the frontline units of the (Korean People's Army) will launch without prior warning... to blow up balloons," the North's frontline military units said in a notice to the South. 

You know I've seen a couple of North Korean weapons tests, and  my money's on the balloons.

I have little doubt that hours after the activists launch their "assault" that there will be thousands of copies of "The Interview" in the hands of the North Koreans.

The only question is how many military fatalities will North Korea suffer as their bullets invariably strike each other or soldiers choke to death on deflated balloons.

Hey, there's a reason we don't let toddlers play with them you know.

Pastor dares to give sermon criticizing the "American Sniper" movie, loses his job. Just a coincidence of course.

Courtesy of Alternet:  

On February 10th, MidAmerica Nazarene University's (MNU) chaplain Randy Beckum gave his morning sermon, which wasn't unusual – it was his job. But what was different that day was the response to the sermon – as one student paper put it, the sermon sparked an “outcry” and a torrent of criticism particularly on social media. The criticism ranged from complaints that Beckum had politicized his sermons to the idea that he had insulted Christians who served in the military.

...

Beckum's sermon that day was about America's addiction to violence, citing the film “American Sniper” as a symptom of that, and how this was problematic for Christianity, a religion founded on the ideals of nonviolence. Here's an excerpt: 

"As you know two movies came out recently. Selma, the story of one of the 20th century most influential Christian leaders, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who led a non-violent movement that changed the course of American History forever. And American Sniper, the story of the most deadly Navy SEAL sniper in American history. Selma has made 29-30 million so far. American Sniper made over 103 million in the first 4 days. Gives you an idea about who our heroes are. I don’t think it is an under-statement to say that our culture is addicted to violence, guns, war, revenge and retaliation. Unfortunately, so are a lot of Christians."

He went on to say that we have to “be very careful about equating patriotism with Christianity,” and implored his flock to be “controlled by love, compelled by love for everyone.” 

Shortly after Beckum's sermon, it was announced that he would no longer be the vice president of the university's Community Foundation.

Of course the university president claims that the sermon had nothing to do with Beckum's job loss, and that he was thinking of retiring from that position anyhow, but the pastor's daughter calls BS on that assertion.

Of course this should surprise none of us.

After all in this country you can suggest from the pulpit that Atheists are destroying the fabric of America, or suggest that Barack Obama is the antichrist, but when you dare to suggest that super duper sniper Chris Kyle was a violent thug, well then my friends THAT is when you cross the line!

Dinesh D'Souza tweets something racist about the President and then bitches about being called a racist.

YOU CAN TAKE THE BOY OUT OF THE GHETTO...Watch this vulgar man show his stuff, while America cowers in embarrassment pic.twitter.com/C9yLG4QoOK
— Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) February 18, 2015

After D'Souza sent the above tweet he received some blowback on Twitter.

Of course this just allowed D'Souza to play his indignation card.

I know Obama wasn't actually raised in a ghetto--I'm using the term metaphorically, to suggest his unpresidential conduct
— Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) February 18, 2015

Well of course that's what he meant. Which is why he suggested that George W. Bush was a boy taken out of a ghetto as well. Oh that's right he never said that.

So now D'Souza feels the need to educate his detractors.

TRANSLATING FOR OBAMA GROUPIES: A guy without class doesn't become a classy guy, even when he's in the White House
— Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) February 18, 2015

You know it is laughable that a Republican who gave George W. Bush a free pass would suggest that President Obama lacks class.

Perhaps D'Souza characterizes class as losing his job at King's College for cheating on his wife.

Or perhaps he thinks that it is classy to be convicted for illegal campaign contributions.

Or just perhaps D'Souza's idea of class is making a movie about President Obama that was so full of lies and misinformation that it got laughed out of movie theaters.

No I think I would gladly take the President's version of class over this smarmy little weasel's any day of the week.

I don't think that the Rolling Stone review of American Sniper is going to make the conservatives very happy.

Courtesy of Rolling Stone: 

The really dangerous part of this film is that it turns into a referendum on the character of a single soldier. It's an unwinnable argument in either direction. We end up talking about Chris Kyle and his dilemmas, and not about the Rumsfelds and Cheneys and other officials up the chain who put Kyle and his high-powered rifle on rooftops in Iraq and asked him to shoot women and children. 

They're the real villains in this movie, but the controversy has mostly been over just how much of a "hero" Chris Kyle really was. One Academy member wondered to a reporter if Kyle (who in real life was killed by a fellow troubled vet in an eerie commentary on the violence in our society that might have made a more interesting movie) was a "psychopath." Michael Moore absorbed a ton of criticism when he tweeted that "My uncle [was] killed by sniper in WW2. We were taught snipers were cowards …" 

And plenty of other commentators, comparing Kyle's book (where he remorselessly brags about killing "savages") to the film (where he is portrayed as a more rounded figure who struggled, if not verbally then at least visually, with the nature of his work), have pointed out that real-life Kyle was kind of a dick compared to movie-Kyle. 

(The most disturbing passage in the book to me was the one where Kyle talked about being competitive with other snipers, and how when one in particular began to threaten his "legendary" number, Kyle "all of the sudden" seemed to have "every stinkin' bad guy in the city running across my scope." As in, wink wink, my luck suddenly changed when the sniper-race got close, get it? It's super-ugly stuff). 

The thing is, it always looks bad when you criticize a soldier for doing what he's told. It's equally dangerous to be seduced by the pathos and drama of the individual solider's experience, because most wars are about something much larger than that, too. 

Deifying a man who made sure to kill more people in order to protect his reputation as the most lethal sniper in the military. Just things conservatives do.

However to be serious if you actively engage in a contest where each point on the scoreboard signifies the end of a human life, you, in no way, deserve to wear the mantle of hero.

From all I can tell Kyle was a psychopath who found a legally supported, and celebrated, outlet for his murderous instincts.

Is anybody else having Jeremy Morlock flashbacks?

Cause I am.