Media Silence Is Deafening About Important Gun News | Fox News.
Amazing. The evidence keeps piling up and piling up and the media ignores it. Gun control advocates don’t care. They refuse to let reality get in the way of what they say is going to happen, even when it doesn’t.
The link is to a nice op-ed by John Lott, author of More Guns, Less Crime. A book I highly recommend. It gets really detailed with statistical analysis at times, but the overall theme is important to know.
A few stories from the last few days:
Roseanne Barr calls for bankers to be executed – I wonder if everyone is going to claim she’s “just joking.” Once again, if you listen to the audio, it’s incredibly clear she’s not. Also, re-education camps and beheadings probably aren’t good material for jokes given that they’ve, you know, actually happened in leftist revolutions before.
Regulation Caused the BoA debit card fee – Remember when Dodd/Frank was being debated and we all said, “This is bad for consumers, the banks will find ways to make up this revenue, say goodbye to free checking.” Here it comes. Only the leftists won’t make the connection. They’ll blame corporate greed. Surprise surprise!
PETA mocks shark attack victims – Stay classy, PETA. How do they know this guy wasn’t an environmentalist himself? They don’t care. They have zero regard for human life.
What if we didn’t live in a free country – Judge Napolitano with a powerful piece. How many of these things have already happened? How many are in the process of happening?
The governor of North Carolina recently advocated the suspension of Congressional elections. This is obviously outrageous and irresponsible, so there’s no need to beat you over the head with detailed analysis.
The real story is that, when called out on it, she had the audacity to use the lamest excuse in the book, “It was just a joke.” Well unfortunately for her, the audio is available. Listen to it yourself. Notice that she does not speak with a sarcastic or mocking tone. Notice that at no point does she, or anyone in the audience, laugh. She’s either the worst comedian in the history of the world, or just a really terrible liar. You decide.
The audio is available here: http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome/was_perdue_joking_you_decide_listen_here
The judge gives us a lesson on basic economics that isn’t normally taught in basic economics classes!
http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/1178817730001/karl-marxs-warning/
Fox freaks after Ron Paul wins debate — RT.
I’m not necessarily a huge conspiracy guy, but this is just getting ridiculous. The only other thing they can really do is just stop letting him debate at all, which is probably coming soon.
U.S. Drug-Related Deaths Outnumber Traffic Fatalities | Fox News.
Interesting. I’d have to imagine that the overwhelming majority of drug-related deaths are preventable. Obviously on occasion, you’ll get something like “pharmacist accidentally gave you the wrong pills,” but for the most part, it’s probably people not following the directions.
Meanwhile, the great strides in auto safety are a largely under reported story as well.
On September 17, 1787, 55 men drafted a document that would change the world. Today is Constitution Day. Please read it, particularly if you are in the military or work in the public sector at all. If you’d like to learn more about the constitution, there are resources far better than me through which to do so.
For more information, please see: http://www.constitutionfacts.com/
It goes about as well as you might expect. Pretty interesting stuff, he explains it very simply, they still don’t get it.
Here’s something that will shock nobody: Soulja Boy did something stupid.
Specifically, he released a song where he made it clear he doesn’t think so highly of the military, as evidenced by the lyric “F*** the troops.” As you might expect, this prompted a bit of backlash, complete with Facebook chain-posts threatening boycotts, and an announcement from AAFES (the DOD agency that runs the military exchange stores) that they wouldn’t sell his CD on base. Of course, once he (more likely, his publicist) realized the public relations firestorm he just lit, he issued an apology.
I’m sure I’m not the only one to express some doubt as to whether or not this apology is sincere. That being said, I would like to express my firm opposition to any attempts to boycott or silence Soulja Boy, or any other rappers, musicians, and artists, from expressing anti-military opinions. If any of you listen to hip-hop, especially the less popular “underground” variety, you’re likely aware that anti-military lyrics are nothing new. Soulja Boy is just a terrible wordsmith who committed the sin of expressing them directly and to a wide audience. There’s a subgenre of hip-hop that is often referred to as “conscious,” which ostensibly refers to being “socially conscious.” “Conscious” rappers are expected to rap about relevant social issues, and not rely on the standard violent and misogynistic themes that dominate mainstream rap. In reality, “conscious” rap often ends up being “rap with leftist propaganda inserted into it.” Conscious rappers do not hesitate to tell you how awful America is, how racist white people are, how capitalism is destroying the world, and yes, how the military is terrible. Because most conscious rappers have to rely on being very good with their words, they’re a hell of a lot smarter about saying those things than Soulja Boy. Typically, they rely on the classic leftist refuge of “I support the troops, just not the war.” The logic behind this statement tends to escape me. By this point, all of the troops either enlisted, or re-enlisted during these wars. How is it possible to support the troops but think they’re part of a machine that is murdering children for the purpose of stealing oil?
The point of this isn’t to get into the politics of being pro or anti-war. The larger issue is to point out that Soulja Boy is not alone. I’m a fan of many conscious rappers, and it pains me that most of their CDs typically feature at least one anti-military song. This anti-military sentiment is not unique to hip-hop, either. It is present in many musical genres, as well as other forms of media. It’s out there, and the proper response is not to silence it and to shout it down, but to be aware of it, and most importantly to ask, “How did we get to this point?” How did we reach a point in our society where the universal opinion of many of our top-selling “artists” is anti-military, anti-American, and anti-capitalism? The reason Soulja Boy released this song featuring lyrics that most Americans find appalling is because in his culture, these opinions are commonplace. He didn’t expect anyone to be offended by them. Doesn’t everyone hate the military? Remember, respected “mainstream” rappers like Ice Cube (who now stars in childrens movies) and Dr. Dre (in Dr. Pepper) commercials burst onto the mainstream by saying “F*** the police.” Do we expect a culture who denigrates the police to have profound respect for the military? Why is this shocking to anybody?
My request, to conscious rappers, to punk rock musicians, to sitcom writers, and to everyone else involved in the artistic community, is to please be honest about your opinions on these issues. Do not censor yourself. Do not apologize. Not because I approve of what you say, but because I want to know who you are. I want to know specifically which rappers hate the military, which writers hate capitalism, etc. That way, I can simply choose not to purchase their products. This is not an organized boycott by any means. Getting back to Soulja Boy, I don’t want him to be thinking “F**** the troops” and saying “F**** the troops” behind closed-doors to his friends, but rapping “Support our troops! America is the best!” just because he knows it will help his sales. This doesn’t just apply to leftists either. I don’t want anyone silenced. I want people to be able to say the n-word on TV. Not because I think the n-word should be heard, but so I can know who the racists are, and know who I need to stop listening to. It does me no good if someone is a racist off-camera, but all of their racism is edited out (either voluntarily or by the network) by the time they reach a live audience. So please Soulja Boy, don’t apologize, don’t change your lyrics. AAFES, don’t refuse to carry his CD. Let the troops make their own decisions. If his content is so objectionable, it won’t sell. This is a problem (like nearly all others) that the free market can solve on its own.
TLDR version: Soulja Boy’s controversial statements are not new or unique, but rather are representative of a common line of thought that runs throughout the entertainment industry. He was the first person dumb enough to express it without any subtlety. Censorship does us all a disservice because it makes it more difficult to identify those with whom we strongly disagree.
For further reading: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2011/09/06/soulja-boy-apologizes-after-members-armed-forces-slam-his-anti-military-song/
Dude, Where's My Freedom? 
How The Media Lies To You (Without Lying To You)
Something that really irritates me are when media outlets run a story that successfully plants the idea of a story in people’s heads while withholding all of the information necessary to determine whether the idea is valid or not.
I found the perfect example today. I got the story from Consumerist, who got it from Bloomberg. The Bloomberg headline is “AT&T Gave $963K to Lawmakers for T-Mobile.” The headline clearly suggests that AT&T bribed members of congress in order to approve its merger with T-Mobile. The evidence for this claim; however, is severely lacking. The article states that 116 of the 117 signers of a letter defending AT&T received $963,275 from “AT&T employees” in campaign contributions. Sounds like a company buying Congressional influence, doesn’t it? I guess so, because upwards of 3/4th of the comments on Consumerist were something to the effect of “SEE! I KNEW IT! CONGRESS HAS BEEN PURCHASED BY GIANT EVIL FACELESS CORPORATIONS.”
That may very well be true, but the incredibly limited amount of facts in this article are wholly insufficient to support such a conclusion. A little bit of critical thinking should immediately yield the following questions:
1. What exactly do they mean by “AT&T employees?” Does this vague definition include a minimum-wage employee donating $10 to a local campaign because they like the candidate’s stance on capital punishment? Can that really be considered a bribe “for T-Mobile”?
2. The total contribution seems like a lot of money. Almost a million dollars! But with some basic math, it averages out to about $8,300 per person. I’m no expert on campaign finance, but I’m guessing that’s basically a drop in the bucket to most campaigns. I’d venture that if eight thousand dollars is enough to “own” a Congressman, then every single Congressman is “owned” by about 100 different people, corporations, and/or pressure groups.
3. The main objections to the AT&T merger come from its main competitors, Verizon and Sprint. Who knew, they’re sticking up for us little guys! What big hearts they have! I wonder, of the Congressman who oppose the merger, how many of them received contributions from those companies, and for how much money? That information would be useful to know, and is not included.
4. Of the remaining members of Congress, the ones who are either neutral or opposed to the merger, how many of them also received contributions from AT&T, and for how much? It seems relatively common practice these days for large corporations to make donations to all of the contenders. That information would be useful to know, and is not included.
5. Of the 116 who received contributions from AT&T, how many have a strong and consistent record of supporting the right of private corporations to manage acquisitions however they see fit in accordance with free market principles? Surely a Congressman with a record of consistently supporting corporations right to merge cannot seriously be assumed to only be supporting this merger because of an 8k campaign contribution. He most likely would have supported it anyway.
None of this information is included, because it would most likely render the implied point of the article (AT&T is bribing Congress to do its nefarious bidding) obviously false. Any one of those five issues is enough to prove that this is a non-story. Instead, the media pushes an obviously biased point of view, and successfully convinces people of something despite an astounding lack of context, clarity, and useful information. Shame on Bloomberg for shoddy reporting, and shame on Consumerist for spreading it around.
EDIT: I want to make it clear, nothing in this story meets the technical definition of a lie. I have no reason to doubt the numbers they cite or the claims they make. As a result, Bloomberg will never have to issue a contraction or correction or anything of the sort. Technically speaking, they are telling the truth. It becomes analogous to a lie by intentionally withholding the proper context and relevant information which may lead people to make a conclusion that is not the conclusion they want people to make.
Read the Consumerist story here.