As excerpted on FOX Nation:

While we were watching Kagan’s confirmation last week, an amendent sponsored by Senator Ronald ”Blago-pal” Burris (D-Ill.) and spawned by the Senate Armed Services Committee’s 15-12 vote in late May, will allow abortion procedures in clinics or hospitals on military installations worldwide.  The amendment to the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act passed the Senate along a partyline vote, with the exception of Ben “Cornhusker Kickback” Nelson. 

The Washington Times accurately calls it a “ruse” to “accomplish radical social change – to mainstream abortion, to press the government into providing it on a widespread scale so that it becomes respectable and ordinary”:

In late May, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved an 11th-hour amendment by Democratic Sen. Roland Burris of Illinois to overturn the long-standing restrictions on abortion in military hospitals during the committee‘s work on the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act and after protracted debate on the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. The Burris amendment passed on a party-line vote with one Democrat, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, voting no. While Elena Kagan‘s confirmation hearings directed attention away from the Defense authorization bill, Democratic Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan has called for this issue to be dealt with as soon as possible after the Senate returns from August recess.

Under current law, Department of Defense resources may be used for emergency abortions to save the mother’s life and in cases of rape or incest, restrictions first added to the U.S. Code in 1984 and 1996.

Elective abortions, on the other hand, have been disallowed in military hospitals for decades, with the exception of a brief period when President Clinton reversed the policy in January 1993, only to have Congress vote to restore it in 1995. Under current law, military women are free to leave the base and make their own private arrangements for an elective abortion.

Mr. Burris‘ amendment would overturn current law so that elective abortions are performed in U.S. military clinics and hospitals by military personnel, putting the armed forces in competition with Planned Parenthood as the nation’s largest abortion provider.

Critics of the current law say their biggest concern is sexual assault in the military, but this is highly disingenuous, as current law provides a specific exception allowing the use of military facilities to abort a child conceived in rape.

They also cite Iraq and Afghanistan and complain that abortion laws in those countries limit off-base abortion options. But this, too, is meant to deceive. If this were the real concern of Mr. Burris and his allies, he could have crafted his measure to address it. Instead, he took a bludgeon to current law across the board so that the greatest impact would be felt right here on U.S. soil, where abortion is virtually unlimited throughout pregnancy and 1.2 million children are aborted every year.

Read the rest.

This just doubly reveals the duplicitous nature of President Obama’s “no fed funding for abortions” Executive Order to get healthcare passed.

Planned Parenthood, of course, supports the amendment, saying:

The vote repealing this discriminatory and dangerous ban is the first step..

This is discrimination against unplanned persons.

I’d like to know how many servicewomen have been in danger because abortion procedures were not readily accessible to them, especially when President Obama already made it a federal requirement for all military bases to carry Plan B, the morning-after pill  back in February of this year, even though bases have always had the option to carry the abortive drug.

Our taxpayer dollars at work.

Never trust anything coming out of Chicago.

Crossposted and on the ZipWire.

HT mbecker908′s Amplify

If this man were running for President, my husband I would probably entertain the idea of voting for him.

This is a man I could rally around. I love him .. if only for a moment.

Knowing that there are men like him who exist makes me feel better. I feel hope. He is a beacon.

Now that I have this video, I’ve also the tools to better prepare my teenage kids with this racism fiasco propelled by the left.

I tried using Dumbo the other day. Seriously. It half worked.

I’d just commented on Obama calling Al-Qaeda racist online, and Dumbo was just being introduced by his momma as “Jumbo Jr.” to those persnickety elephants. They thought he was cute until they saw his ears. Then they wanted nothing to do with him.

“Jumbo? … You mean Dumbo..”

I turned to my eldest and told him, “They’re cruel because of his ears. Cruelty based on appearance, creed or color. That’s part of racism. If you were to ever cultivate feelings of hate in your heart, based on a “breed” of man, you wouldn’t survive politics and you could never justify your arguments, as a ‘white’ person.”

Then I asked him if he had heard about what had happened with “the man who wants to kill cracker babies” — the man, not the “black man” –  or the NAACP. “Has Dad discussed this with you?”

He replied, “What’s the NAACP?”

Morgan Freeman’s right. The right way to beat racism is to be completely color blind. To regard each other as men, nothing else. Children of God, children of the indigenous earth people, whatever.

This is exactly how we’ve been raising our kids. There are good men, honey, and there are bad men. Learn to distinguish. But that’s it. We don’t speak “stereotypes” and say, with this race, this is what you can expect .. with that one, expect that.

If anything, we leave the door wide open to speak of people from among the Hispanic heritage, because we’re Hispanic. They understand there’s a problem with illegal immigration, a weigh-down of the resources here in America. They need clarity on why these people, that come from their sort of background, would do things a certain way. So we speak openly, provide examples and clarify. What stands out among these discussions is the law and truth. So, even if these Hispanic people may share your ancestry, there is a law that needs to be obeyed .. and if they can’t read it, it’s understood. At the very least, it’s engraved in their heart.

My kid has black friends. They are his teamplayers. He depends on them and they rely on him.

The fact that he is clueless for the NAACP, at a time we’ve discussed pretty much everything under the sun with him and his younger sister, attests, to some measure, the fact that we don’t go there.

Either you agree or disagree.

Either you discover and reveal flaws or your argument is flawed, and we need to polish it.

Either you’re brave or a little weak, and we have to work on it.

Either it’s good or it’s bad, for these reasons. List your pros and cons.

NEVER has it been President Obama is black and he is therefore a bad president. It’s his policies. They hurt our country for these reasons. And the weaklings in our leadership are slow in opposing him, so we have to be brave, be smart and stay tough and fight for conservative values. And be ready when it’s time to vote and talk to our friends.

That’s it. It’s never been about racism.

My kids were blind to racism until they were called racist this past year, in fact — precisely because they were asked, “Do you support Obama?”

“No. His policies hurt our country,” my kids would reply.

They understood how he was manipulating the economy and manufacturing crisis — because we explained to them how Obama and his cronies cry like wee-wee children to get their way. They make a mountain out of a molehill to convince people, the same way a child will convince a weak parent. My kids understood this.

They understand lies, and they’re perceptive. They know when they’re being lied to.

I don’t want them to EVER lose this intuition — it will help them in the future.

So, yes, they know certain things about human nature.. but this. This evil, this people-hate, this horrible, horrible thing were a man will repeat “I HATE white people. ALL of them!” My kids didn’t know this.

They thought Eskeleto telling Nacho In Nacho Libre “I am sick of e-hearing about your e-stupid orphans.. I hate orphans… I hate them… I hate all the orphans in the whole worl’ ” was a hilarious, stupid joke — and they got their cue from their parents (it’s one of our favorite movies .. again, it’s a culture thing).

The kids have thought this sort of hate couldn’t be real. In our real lives here at home, we’ve fought and have been ostracized over a very real “orphan” problem where we told people in charge to quit being weaklings or step aside. Orphan-hate was a joke and Eskeleto was talking off the cuff in a fit.

But this.

We worked racism from the angle of plausible deniability. If the kids weren’t exposed to hate — and I mean real, full-frontal, full-throttle hate, the kind they have been studying on their own this summer about the holocaust — there’s some measure of safety, a measure of innocence left. A blissfulness and truthfulness with which they could respond when answering “No, I don’t know anything about that .. seriously.”

As though knowing about hate would leave them liable — and they would be susceptible to being pointed at and told, “He knows hate!”

I don’t know — 9/11 was a big thing. To know there are people who want to kill us, now, in this moment. This probably played into the delay of fully talking racism.

With the “kill some of they [cracker] babies,” it’s come time to have a full discussion with our kids.

But it’s time.

All summer, we’ve been on this World War I and World War II kick, finding whatever was available at the library for “free rentals.” Beginning with Shindler’s List on Memorial Day, we’ve seen U-571, the Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima (WWI Facism), The Pianist, Munich, even little-girlie Fairy Tale, a True Story and kiddie Valiant and Bedknobs and Broomsticks, among others.

Before this summer of patriotism, my kids never really knew about the hatred that was targeted toward the Jews. They weren’t ready. Now, my soon-to-be 13-year-old is reading Wolves at the Door. My 15 year old is reading up on Valkyrie.

Have we always been an “historical” family? No. We’re a Calvin and Hobbes family. We listen to Metallica. We play Halo. And we still go to Church.

For some mysterious reason, the kids are beginning to really dig history.

It’s a sign.

They’re gonna know, President Obama and Mr. Holder. And it’s your fault.

We can’t shield them anymore. It would be neglectful if we did, because guess what — young African American boys are hearing about this from their parents, from their cultural leaders, and from you.

What do you think they’re telling them? Who do you think they want their kids to emulate? The wanna-be cracker-killer? You? It wouldn’t matter, because you both espouse the same vitrolic “racism” that is now an official credo of the NAACP .. what is now official policy at the DOJ.

You’re telling our kids that the teapartiers are racist, and you won’t even being to condemn your own? Or hold them accountable? The first lady visits the NAACP on the eve of the NAACP resolution vote – when has she ever spoken in front of a Tea Party gathering to bring “America together”?

Neither you, nor the group who represents your “race” have a monopoly on morality. And thankfully, what the NAACP espouses is non-binding, nor does it supercede the First Amendment and our right to free speech.

My children will come away understanding this, now.

Do I want them to know this? No.

Thanks for robbing them of their sense of “equality.”

You haven’t been fair, and they’re gonna know.

You brought it on, not me.

For everything you do, we will always have an answer for.

Crossposted.

We’ve been here before.

Americans For Tax Reform culled a few things from the List of Expiring Federal Tax Provisions 2009-2020 off the government’s website:

In just six months, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect.  They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves on January 1, 2011:

First Wave: Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief

In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors, small business owners, and families.  These will all expire on January 1, 2011:

Personal income tax rates will rise. The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed).  The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent.  All the rates in between will also rise.  Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates.  The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:

- The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15%
- The 25% bracket rises to 28%
- The 28% bracket rises to 31%
- The 33% bracket rises to 36%
- The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%

Higher taxes on marriage and family. The “marriage penalty” (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of income.  The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child.  The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level.  The dependent care and adoption tax credits will be cut.

Read More →

[Edit]: A summary that exposes deeper ramifications:

New Scientist, a popular site with over 3 million unique visitors a month, initially responded to the nation’s first abortion ban based on fetal pain in April 2010 with a simple “briefing” that wasn’t widely repeated throughout the web. The article focused on discrediting Nebraska’s 20-week abortion “Fetal Pain” restriction as “debatable.”

Late last week, New Scientist followed up (HT Tabitha Hale’s Amplify) with a direct refutation of the “pain claim” by citing a UK study that had been picked up by UPI and the AP for mass distribution.

This study has subsequently appeared in Time, CBS, The Money Times, MSNBC, and The Washington Post.

The headliner for these articles on the UK study generally state, ” Fetus Can’t Feel Pain  Before 24 Weeks.”

What these articles aren’t telling the public is that this study advocates absolutely no regard for the pain (and therefore treatment of pain) of the unborn before or after 24 weeks – throughout the duration of the pregnancy, in fact – even for corrective procedures performed on fetuses in utero, something that is typically done here in the United States.

In the United States, we have our own studies concluding the opposite of the UK study. Methods of administering fetal anesthesia are widely discussed. This is the neonatal care standard we’ve practiced here in the United States as our technology advances. Neonatal care is a profession.

The widespread dissemination by the leftist mainstream media of this worthless UK study that can readily by discredited by medical studies and medical methodology accepted and practiced here in the US flies in the face of reason — so much so, one can easily assume why abortionists would be interested in dismissing the pain of the littlest ones.

Back in April, Nebraska passed the first-ever “Fetal “Pain” abortion bill — the “Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act” (LB 1103 ) — to prevent the abortions of fetuses older than 20 weeks…

…by an overwhelming pro-life majority of 44 in favor and 5 against. The governor wasted no time in signing the measure into law.The law portends a fresh challenge and new look at the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton cases, which led to the virtual legalization of abortion on demand. The Nebraska law applies a different standard – that of the unborn child’s ability to feel pain – for restricting abortion, while the high court used the standard of what they then considered to be point of fetal viability.

The Supreme Court considered fetuses “viable” beginning at 24 weeks when deciding Roe v. Wade, a mistake subsequent Justices would argue :

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor argued in a 1983 decision that Roe was on a “collision course with itself.” She said that improvements in technology would continually push the point of fetal viability closer to the beginning of the pregnancy, allowing states greater opportunity to regulate the right to an abortion.

Nebraska’s LB 1103 would be is the first state to regulate abortion according to the interests of the baby, not according to the interests of the mother:

“The Nebraska Legislature took a bold step today which should ratchet up the abortion debate across America,” said Julie Schmit-Albin, Executive Director of Nebraska Right to Life in a statement.

“LB 1103 creates a case of first impression for the courts to acknowledge the capability to feel pain as a compelling state interest to protect those unborn babies from an excruciatingly painful death.”

The legislation bans abortions after 20 weeks of post-fertilization age except in two cases: first, when the pregnancy puts the mother in danger of death or “substantial and irreversible” physical harm to a major bodily function. The second exception allows an abortionist to perform an abortion in order to increase the probability of a live birth, or to preserve an unborn child’s life and health after a live birth.

This is important, because this law shifts the argument from the focus of time restrictions for would-be aborting mothers to the focus of the effects of the abortion itself on the fetus — from the interests of the mother to the interests of the child. It forces society and the courts to admit the human-ness of the fetus and consider their suffering in a very real death.

To pass LB 1103, Nebraska cited the 2004 testimony of Kanwaljeet Anand from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center who testified on the federal partial birth abortion ban (subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court in 2007):

Kanwaljeet “Sunny” Anand, a pioneer in the study of fetal pain and now a professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, testified in 2004 on the federal partial birth abortion ban that after 20 weeks gestation, an unborn child would experience “severe and excruciating pain” from an abortion.

The pain may even be more acute than it would be for older humans, as some research indicates their immature nervous systems have not developed coping mechanisms that help the body better endure pain.

The law notes that unborn children have been observed to “seek to evade certain stimuli” in a manner that “would be interpreted as a response to pain.” Additionally, the bill says unborn children exhibit “hormonal stress responses to painful stimuli” that were reduced with the application of pain medication.

Abortion supporters want to call that evasion of “certain stimuli” a reflex action, similar to a knee-jerk responding to a tap on the knee or a finger removing itself from a heat source before being sensed by the brain.

When Nebraska passed LB 1103 in April of this year, New Scientist.com came out with a 2-page rebuttal to the law’s fetal-pain argument. The site claimed that changing the terms of abortion is inappropriate because pain experienced by fetuses as young as 20 weeks is “far from certain.” The site’s most vile assertion is the lie that “before most abortions the fetal heart is stopped by a drug – usually digoxin or potassium chloride . The fetus cannot feel pain after that.”

Using digoxin or potassium chloride on fetuses did not begin to be seriously considered by abortionists until after the Supreme Court upheld the federal partial birth abortion ban in 2007, and only then for the abortion of fetuses older than 20 weeks. Even so, an “interest” by those who slaughter the unborn does not constitute a widespread, enforceable mandate.

Potassium chloride is also the same chemical used for the lethal injection of prisoners, a practice New Scientist claims is inhumane .

So while New Scientist will consider the inhumane manner of death of a condemned person, this same publication will blatantly dismiss the pain of the unborn as merely “reflexive,” “irrelevant,” and even “completely irrational.”

Last week, New Scientist reiterated their support for abortion by using a study by the UKs Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) to refute the opinion of American researchers. Keep in mind that the UK has full-blown socialized medicine , where abortion on demand has been rising for years and where medical procedures are pre-determined by committee according to “harms and benefits” — or cost-effectiveness.

New Scientist cited a “working party report ” that argues that since the pre-born fetuses exist in a state of unconsciousness, that consciousness is needed to experience pain. Therefore, pre-born fetuses, regardless of gestational age, “even after 24 weeks” would not benefit from pain medication.

“After 24 weeks there is continuing development and elaboration of intracortical networks” .. “Such connections to the cortex are necessary for pain experience but not sufficient , as experience of external stimuli requires consciousness . ..[T]he fetus never experiences a state of true wakefulness in utero … [ i]s in a continuous sleep-like unconsciousness … [that] suppress[es] higher cortical activation in the presence of intrusive external stimuli. ..

[I]n the light of current evidence, the Working Party concluded that the use of analgesia provided no clear benefit to the fetus. … [F]etal analgesia should not be employed where the only consideration is concern about fetal awareness or pain . Similarly, there appeared to be no clear benefit in considering the need for fetal analgesia prior to termination of pregnancy, even after 24 weeks , in cases of fetal abnormality.

New Scientist ends their article with

“It is only after birth, with the separation of the baby from the uterus and the umbilical cord, that wakefulness truly begins.”

According to the RCOG, only once that umbilical cord is cut can a child experience pain, never before.

By citing this wretched study, the argument of New Scientist and all pro-abortion advocates is clear:  pain experienced by fetuses in utero is hardly significant, and whatever ground the pro-life camp makes, the tide must be turned around, 360 degrees. Therefore, define fetuses as sub-human, never requiring pain medication, regardless of gestational age.

If the Supreme Court were to agree with the RCOG study, the issue of viability in Roe v. Wade would be moot. The experience of pain would be the true threshold, and that would only occur once the umbilical is cut when everyone can hear the newborn cry.

Abortionists like these subscribe to ideas similar to this one:

When a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, it doesn’t make a sound.

Since these abortionists aren’t there in the womb with the baby to see it writhe in pain, the baby’s pain must not exist.

It would follow that neither does “a baby.”

Crossposted .

.. to raise cash to kill off our monstrous federal debt?

It could happen.

Greece is already doing this

From The Guardian, several paragraphs in:

Greece has embarked on the desperate measures after being pushed into a €110bn (£90bn) bailout by the EU and the IMF last month, following a decade of overspending and after jittery investors raised borrowing costs to unbearable levels.

The sale of an island – or convincing a member of the international jet-set to take on a long-term lease – would help to boost its coffers. The Private Islands website lists 1,235-acre Nafsika, in the Ionian sea, on sale for €15m. But others are on for less than €2m – less than a townhouse in Mayfair or Chelsea. Some of the country’s numerous islands are tiny which could barely fit a single sunbed.

Only 227 Greek islands are populated and the decision to press ahead with potential sales has also been driven by the inability of the state to develop basic infrastructure, or police most of its islands. The hope is that the sale or long-term lease of some islands will attract investment that will generate jobs and taxable income.

“I am sad – selling off your islands or areas that belong to the people of Greece should be used as the last resort,” said Makis Perdikaris, director of Greek Island Properties. “But the first thing is to develop the economy and attract foreign domestic investment to create the necessary infrastructure. The point is to get money.” In its battle to raise funds, the country is also planning to sell its rail and water companies. Chinese investors are understood to be interested in the Greek train system, as they already control some of the ports. In a deal announced earlier this month, the Greek government also agreed to export olive oil to China.

After the socialist government of prime minister Geórgios Papandreou responded to the IMF bailout with draconian budget cuts, rioters took to the streets..

Socialist.

Welfare state.

Raise your hand if you’re still averse to using the term “socialist” around your friends. Not me. We don’t keep libbies around the house, and I know there’s a time and a place to whisper “.. socialist!.. ” but it’s here, it’s now.

They always say the first step toward solving a problem is to accept you have one in the first place. Like alcoholism .. or whatever. You have it, you got it? Admit it, solve it.

And baby, we have socialism.

There’s a particular book that’s in my hubby’s possession right now. I can’t say the name of the author, because we just got through with a tiny round of bickering over my including it in this post (he plans on using it in his own post tomorrow… he’d better have a good article!), but he was a popular, conservative fellow.

Hugo’d been carrying this soft-covered copy he’d picked up at Half-Price Books for $5, and today, I stumbled upon a stack of hardcovered copies at Barnes and Noble and my interest was piqued. I went home and bothered the hubby — while he was driving; this book hasn’t left his side.

I picked it up to leaf through it, only to have it snatched it back: “It’s MINE .. you’re going to have to wait.”

Me: “Oh, geez, Hugo … at least let me read the damn Intro!”

Hugo: “No..”

Me: “Fine!” [chucks it between us on the center console as we drive.. instigates womanly pout]

Hugo: “Ok.. Just read the Forward.”

Me: [very girly] “The Forward?”

Hugo: “..Yeah, just the Forward, and no more.”

I couldn’t get passed the second paragraph.

This man — I will give you the hint that he is as big as Reagan in his day — spoke as though he could have been speaking now.

He wrote of fighting liberalism, the incredible reach of the government’s pursuit of its preceived “responsibility” to care for everyone. He wrote of how, through his thousands of cross-country travels, he knew by speaking to countless more farmers, businessmen, mothers, and the American citizenry that there was predominant conservative vein in all of America — but that he understood how the federal government still stubbornly progresses forward with its blasted liberal agendas, big government plans and power grabs.

He knew it was the welfare state, cemented by the New Deal years before his writing, that continued in his day.

It’s what’s carried forward now.

Yes, he was pre-Reagan.

And he wrote this over 50 years ago.

My point is, what we are fighting now — this veiled socialism that exists in our country under various and sundry names — it is nothing new.

If you can find, beg or borrow Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism — again — and read and reread the first few chapters, you will become familiar with the source of sadistic power that thrives on enslaving the will of the free people. It’s been around for over 100 years and the threads of its existence are alive and well in America.

Familiarize yourself with the history, but don’t become callous and desensitized and accepting. That’s a key danger to understanding, to believing, “Oh, it’s been around forever .. it’s just how things work.”

No.

Tell me the last time any country sold its property to raise money to offset an economy wrecked by the havoc of the welfare state.

In the past, there had been exploration, colonialism, imperialism .. but now, asking to be conquered? To trade away a nation’s independence and self-sufficiency? To trade away it’s sovereignty?

Over fifty years ago, someone spoke of the the danger of the welfare state. His message of truth, that same message of the countless conservatives throughout this past century who saw the emergence of socialism and every other -ism that was contrary to our American values, resonates clearly with us — because Truth never ages.

We know what they are doing, how they’re doing it, why they’re doing it.

And today, we see real-time examples of what can be our future.

We cannot be complacent. We need to know our history, now the history of our enemy, and not rest until it is defeated. If the mission is not completed with us, we must prepare our children to carry on the fight.

This is a fight for the life or death of America, for our legacy, for posterity.

– Long live liberty and freedom.

Just posted at my blog.

Let me put it to you this way. 

After seeing Iron Man 2 at midnight, I had to put the original Iron Man into the Blu-Ray this morning to get the bad taste out of my mouth. 

For serious Iron Man fans and those who’ve followed other Marvel franchises as part of the Great American pastime, Iron Man 2 disappoints on so many levels. 

I’ll summarize it for you this way:

When you go see Iron Man 2, be prepared to see Obama’s America on screen.

The CGI was exceptional, but limited, Downy’s and Johansson’s acting was dead-on, but Iron Man’s nemesis Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) came straight out of The Wrestler — complete with grunge-look, top-knots, cheap bifocals and brooding, shifty-eyed mannerisms. 

But let’s get into what dogged the entire movie and dragged the plot. 

First of all, Terrence Howard’s Col. Jim Rhodes was a stand-in:  Traitor’s Don Cheadle. The official story from Marvel Studio revolved around the typical “big ego/big money/bad behavior” excuse that typically flies with the viewing public. Then we come to find out that his dismissal surprised Howard as much as anyone:

Yeah, I found that out, too.. It was the surprise of a lifetime. There was no explanation. [The contract] just…up and vanished. I read something in the trades implicating that it was about money or something, but apparently the contracts that we write and sign aren’t worth the paper that they’re printed on, sometimes. Promises aren’t kept, and good faith negotiations aren’t always held up.

Where have we heard about the worthlessness of contracts before? 

Terrance Howard made Rhodie. The moment he uttered “Next time, Baby,” moviegoers knew there was going to be a sequel with Howard as Stark’s partner, wearing the suit that inspired his utterance. The excellence of the first Iron Man propelled this expectation as well.

Replacing Howard, who played a critical role in the first Iron Man is equivalent to replacing Spiderman’s Harry, Batman’s Lucius Fox or Alfred, or the X-Men’s Professor Xavier. You just don’t do it. You don’t mess with the formula. Didn’t they learn from Coke? 

Instead, they kept to a formula of  writing on the fly, kept the other original actors, and knew notto mess with the character relationships from the first film. When spicying up Johansson’s character, for example, Director Jon Favreau noted:

“That one’s an interesting one, because the relationship between Tony and Pepper is so special to the audience that it’s [delicate],” Favreau said of making Johansson’s sensual character appear to be too close to Tony. “If you let him and Scarlett get too flirty and get too close, the audience turns off really quickly, because they really want to root for [Tony and Pepper] together.”

I love Don Cheadle, but the moment he walked into the screen and up until after the 2nd action sequence about 1:50 into the movie (yes!), Cheadle channeled his cop from Traffic. This alternated with flashbacks of “Traitor” in every scene Cheadle was in. 

If Marvel insisted on replacing Howard, they should have replaced him with an unknown. The audience wouldn’t've spent so much time finding a “fit” for Cheadle to counter what Howard had already created. 

Case in point: when Cheadle finally appeared in “the suit” in the middle of a crowd to diffuse “a situation”– I swear this happened — the audience began to laugh, thinking the set-up was meant to be a joke. Almost an hour into the film, we still didn’t get Cheadle. 

Unknowns also cost less. 

The story from insiders is that Howard had been the first to sign on to the first Iron Man, setting the salary cap for the other actors. While creating the storyline for Iron Man 2, Favreau and his screenwriter Justin Theroux began limiting Howard’s appearance, so, Marvel wanted to cut Howard’s pricetag. 

These and other speculative stories don’t draw the obvious conclusion that in this economy, Marvel probably wanted to cut costs in the first place, ultimately resulting in Favreau and Theroux limiting Howard’s acting time to reduce Howard’s pre-nego’d asking price. 

Howard’s performance in Iron Man was not lackluster and at least on-par with Stark and Paltrow, and as one watcher chimed:

Was Howard too make-up lady ass-grabbing happy on the set? Isn’t that, like, an actor’s right?

If money was such a factor, they could have done away with lesser actors who ended up exiting the screen early anyway, like Clark Gregg’s SHIELD agent and Stark’s Vanity Fair Trash. 

I don’t know what they were thinking. 

Movie Magic requires you keep the actors that made your first movie a success. Smart producers keep their original crew so they don’t waste too much of the audience’s time re-introducing characters. Keeping the main actors also plays into brand loyalty. 

Character development in “1,” new villains and new storyline in “2″. Changing your guys out for sequels is so 20th century. 

Howard”s presence was sorely missed, and the writers ended up providing cheap filler that deviated from the plan of character originality. They blew up Happy and made him more chatty and less of a stoic backdrop, they hyper-motivated Pepper and made her less of a fun juxtaposition to Stark’s eccentricism, all over-compensations because of the loss of Howard’s subtle Rhodie. 

You pay your key actors to come back, especially if they have a pre-negotiated contract, otherwise you’re jeopardizing repeat audience receipts while you limit the word-of-mouth draw that drives blockbusters. 

But let’s consider Marvel’s other cost-cutting measures. 

Aside from Terrance Howard’s noted “Stark” absence which compromised the movie, gone was the lavishness of Stark’s lifestyle and the excesses of Corporatism, which had less to do with problems Tony Stark was experiencing and more to do with the producer’s effort to give an accurate, current depiction of “life.” 

Stark’s awesome man-cave was austere, conspicuously missing its car collection. Stark’s dull, off-the-rack wool suits matched Pepper’s dowdy, matronly greys, sans Louboutins.   Stark’s cheap-looking sunglasses, his same old Rolls-Royce and Audi,  his own home decimated throughout most of the movie  to re-enact the “box of scraps” cave scene – these were all pointed representations to shy away from the excesses of the Iron Man shot in 2007. 

The ”war” in an Eden-like Peace sanctuary, the lack of chic and wealth in Tony Stark’s world was all-too obvious. We wanted something different than the politicized world and rotten economy we’re living in. 

Marvel has forgotten that audiences who want to see their superheroes are already willfully suspending their disbelief. We wanted to fully experience our escapism, not have it married to “real life.” 

Iron Man 2 was really “Stark Meets Obama’s America.” 

Marvel just didn’t get it. 

They could have at least lowered the price of admission.

Crossposted.

I want to share something with you. Before I do, know that I don’t share a shred of guilt over posting and saying what I’m about to say. To be clear, I am sorry for all victims of abuse. No one should suffer what they suffer. Memories last unto death.

**

Hubby and I came across an article this morning about a Cardinal being dismissed from a Latin Mass in DC. I could not find the original article for the longest time — there were specific words I remembered while discussing it with my husband, and when I googled I could not, for the life of me, find the original article.

Everything on the Catholic abuse scandals we’ve been hearing about these past several days were parsed and snipped, which, to me, is very unusual. For any given link on any major current event, you will find at least one full page of google links with the same article, pasted everywhere over the net.

Only the Washington Times had the complete article, with complete information. To me, this speaks volumes about their accurate reporting.

The article — Cardinal asked to step aside at D.C. Mass, 4/21/10

The main celebrant of a pontifical solemn high Mass on Saturday at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception has been asked to step aside by organizers because of security concerns following reports he was linked to the Catholic Church’s clergy abuse scandal.

According to a statement by the Bethesda-based Paulus Institute, Colombian Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos has agreed to step aside from celebrating the Mass, which has been in the planning for three years. It will be the first time in about 50 years that the Tridentine Mass, conducted in Latin, will be said from the Shrine’s high altar.

Organizers now are searching for a bishop or cardinal who is proficient in how to celebrate the complicated rite.

…

The 80-year-old cardinal was named in the French press reports last week for praising French Bishop Pierre Pican of Bayeux-Lisieux in a 2001 letter for refusing to denounce one of his priests, the Rev. Rene Bissey, who went on to be sentenced to 18 years in jail for raping a boy and abusing 10 other young men. The bishop received a suspended three-month jail sentence for not reporting the priest to police.

…

“I congratulate you for not denouncing a priest to the civil administration,” Cardinal Hoyos wrote in French. “You have acted well and I am pleased to have a colleague in the episcopate who, in the eyes of history and of all other bishops in the world, preferred prison to denouncing his son and priest.”

On Tuesday, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) called on Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl to intervene to prevent the cardinal from celebrating the Mass and hinted it might demonstrate Saturday if its demands were not met.

Disgusting. Vile.

Strangely, as devout Catholics, my husband and I did not become unglued at hearing this news about the abuse. We hadn’t been following it, and we believe more information will be coming out for years about abuse within the Church. But we are catechized Catholics who understand that the men who run the Catholic Church are different and set apart from the tenets of the Church.  The tenets of the Church are for all time, distinct from these corruptible men who can succumb to temptation.

We also know that the Devil has his tenticles everywhere, with abuse occurring even within our own home.

This is not to minimize the responsibility of those leading the Church. By hiding abuse, they are participants of abuse. This is a great, profound pastoral failure, almost comparable to the great Constitutional failure we’re experiencing with our own elected officials.

The theory is sound. It’s the men who practice it who are corrupt.

And so, when we read this news this morning, especially the praise “for not denouncing a priest to the civil administration .. preferr[ing] prison to denouncing his son and priest,” we had no qualms about thinking there’s a whole mess of bad people who need to be drawn and quartered. Neutered, too.

I’m serious. There exists no circumstance for which abuse should be tolerated.  None.

It’s evil.

It should be rooted out, beginning with the men who perpetrated the crime, ending with the men who corroborate, excuse, and cover up.

If this occurred in my family, I would have no hesitation to call the authorities, and nag, bitch and whine at my relatives if they were so much as inclined to follow along with the immorality of emotionally, physically, or sexually scarring another. 

In fact, it has .. and I did. On more than one occasion.

God bless the victims, especially the little children — all whom God warned that we should not scandalize, as ”it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea.”

Jesus also said render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.

So, buddy, if you break the law, you belong unto the law. I tell this even to my children, lest they decide to join forces with scoundrels and hoodlums and revel in tomfoolery. If you’re a dude doing bad things, I love you, but God be with you. See ya.

Cardinal or son, brother or friend, you cannot be mine if you choose evil over good. That’s just how we operate.

So, husband sits there at the kitchen table this morning, laptop before him and he asks,

Why did this happen?

Me:  I don’t know, why do you think?

Hubby: Well, they say this would have been the first time the Tridentine [the Latin Mass, as opposed to the regular Mass on Sundays] would’ve been celebrated there for the 1st time in 50 years.

Me: Sure.

Hubby:  And it would have been at a National Shrine. The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Why would God do this?

Anyone who’s been closely following conservative politics knows about the heartache we’ve been dealing with since Obama  came into office and he and his cohorts in the democratic-controlled Congress have been stripping away our liberty and freedom.

You’d understand that yesterday, Earth Day, symbolized more than “doing wee in the shower today!” (as one local radio host giddily proclaimed).

You’d understand that yesterday’s assault on one of our nation’s great conservative leaders, Mark Levin — President of the Landmark Legal Foundation and author of Liberty and Tyranny — was more than just a book critique than happened to fall on a National-Day-Turned-National-Mandate.

You’d understand that yesterday represented a window into the future Death of Freedom.

Where our choices, our natural God-given rights, our wealth, blood, treasure, national identity, and sovereignty are stripped from us, where we are no longer a nation of individuals, but a nation of collectivists whose toil and treasure are harvested at the expense of broken backs, broken homes, and broken dreams.

Earth Day isn’t America.

Have we forgotten that the day was founded by a killer who stuffed his girlfriend’s body in the closet and who was represented and defended by Arlen Specter??

Yet, Earth Day was touted all across America as though it were American — conservatives feeling the dread while liberals and Obamabots frolicked in a day fraught with empty diatribes that progressives tried to dress up with meaning.

And so this morning, the Catholic sexual abuse scandal and the Basillica story.

For years now, there has Catholic infighting over the solemnity of the New Mass following Vatican II in the 1960s. Some Catholics during John Paul II’s Papacy risked excommunication from the Church to have the Latin Tridentine Mass said in places and by priests not sanctioned by the Church. There were accusations of apostasy, sedevacantism, and heresy over the preservation of the dignity of the Church.

In recent years, there had been steps toward reconciliation between Rome and those who were willing to separate themselves for the sake of hearing the Latin Tridentine Mass. First there was dialogue, then occassional Masses said in a church or two in a particular diocese, then more, then several. Finally, a reunion. Now, a restructuring of the liturgy to include Latin in our Sunday Mass.

And so, to hear of a Latin Tridentine Mass being held at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, a National Shrine, no less, after 50 years! This was a very, VERY significant event in the eyes of Catholics who understand their recent history.

This was to be a beuatiful, dignified event. That a figurehead of such scandal and sorrow was removed inspires dignity.

But, what is most delightful out of what transpired in the Basillica story, what is most filled with meaning, is the people – rising up to oppose this deceiver of men and corroborator of a great sin against innocents. The people. The Church, who are the people.

Everyone — this was a remarkable, remarkable thing.

And for it to be accomplished. For the Cardinal — a Cardinal! an 80-year-old steward of the Church and Her Traditions, with all regal stature and strength of the office that comes with it – being forced to step down, forced to face the accusations of illegitimacy by the very flock he shepherds.

What this told me and what this told my husband, what this told us as a couple, as parents and as family members, as neighbors and as friends, as Catholics and as American citizens, was that have we the courage, the tenacity, the confidence and the faith in God that we, his Church will prevail, then we have the assurety that God will listen and help us re-defeat the Demon whom He has already defeated with his Death and Resurrection.

And I mean the Progressives. The baby-killers and wage-stealers, the theives of the innocents whom God has already warned of condemnation in the Bible.

We are the people, the Republic. We are America. No one defines us, no Progressive, no foreigner, no news correspondent, no liberal, no radical, except us, through what has already been written before us and stood the test of time through the Constitution.

And like those people of the Church who willed themselves to rise up and rid themselves of the carcass of disillusion that was about to stand before them and represent them in a Mass before God, We, the America Citizenry can and will do the same — We will give voice to our loves, our concerns, our rights and our God and our country and force these men and women to represent us as Americans, not liberals or Progressives or radicals, but as honorable, timeless souls whose rights have been forged in the Wars and Trials of our Heritage for the past 200 years of these United States.

We will remember our Our Sacred Honor and remind those who represent us to remember Our Constitution, Our Nation, and Our People.

You work for Us and for This Country, my friend. It’s not the other way around.

Long live liberty and freedom.

This is a true story.

My little 1st grader got home, just as Mom was pulling out and plugging in the vacuum.

Me: “Hey, Baby, how was your day?”

7-Year-Old Baby: “Great, Mom. Today was Earth Day.”

Me: [shouting over vacuum]: “Okaaay, great. Your snack’s on the table. I’ll be right with you.” [VRRROOOOOM!!!!]

..

Pardon me, PC-ers. Hell. It’s not even about PC anymore. In today’s American progressive body politic, we are openly being bullied into adopting a lifestyle not many of us would have chosen for our own. No one even thinks about who funds the junk science anymore, or who the researchers, hungry for cash to keep themselves employed in this freaking economy, are really working for — science or the state?

Enviro-statism has wormed its way into every crevice of society, without even being legistlated through Congress. It was Ban ki-Moon, the Secretary-General of the UN, who said that these sort of progressive ideas needed to be “embedded into the culture.”

Right.

So, now we have children coming home throughout the year, mumbling about recycling, badgering us about our light-bulb usage, showing us their colored recycling diagrams alongside their completed math handouts. We have “Environmental Stimulus Cash Back!” stickers posted on every appliance at Sears (where we just got our new energy-efficient dishwasher). We have recycled milk jugs, our spouses filling out energy consumption reports, our corporations reporting on how they protect the environment via corporate citizenship.

All without passing a single Environmental piece of legislation through Congress.

Some would say, “Without firing a shot.”

Do many of us consider the depth of environmental “embedding” into our culture? Do many of us try to trace back or apply true meaning to the policies that are manifest in our daily lives? No.

Too many of us are trying to survive, keep our jobs, feed our children. The time we do have, the time we try to carve out of our meager existence here in America, we try to have fun and remove ourselves from the obvious: that nearly everything we do is politicized.

Where is our “life”?

Well, I know the depth of the embedding .. I know how the progressive agenda is trying to put “meaning” into my life, so to counter that, today, in honor of Earth Day, I will do this: make ferocious love to my husband and fuck like there is no tomorrow, in remembrance of God creating man to be stewards and lord of all the Earth and of all the creatures and slimy things.

I will remember the naturalness of our bodies, and how they fit together and were intended to procreate.

I will remember how marriage and procreation glorify God.

I will remember that “children are the embodiment of the marital embrace,” as my husband has whispered to me during our lovemaking, and celebrate how children, the fruit of our lovemaking, are a blessing, not a burden or a punishment.

I will remember that we come from the Earth, to be lord over the earth, not its slave, and that the Earth is a gift from God, but that the Earth is not God. Nor is the almighty dollar nor that guy in office.

I will remember that my life is a gift from God, and that lives of my husband and children are gifts from God, and are a gift to me in my lifetime, and are an expression of His love for me.

I will remember that my husband is a gift to me, a most precious gift, from God.

And I will reward my husband, with my body, and show him how much I love and appreciate that he is a conservative, God-fearing man who loves his wife, kids, friends and country.

Today, when he gets home, I will show him that no single man has it better than him, and that for all his sacred honor and the noble life I know he would give in a moment to protect me, our kids, and our country, I will be Me, Every Woman and No Other Woman to him.

This is the prerogative and duty of every conservative woman out there.

The femni-Nazi, pro-abortion whiners who belittle the Conservative Woman and the Conservative Mother, they have no holds over us, girls. We will love our men and steal our families back from the brink of hell, which is Progressivism, even if it means doing it with our own bodies, just as the men we love would sacrifice their bodies so that we may live.

Our bodies.

They’ve been to hell and back and we can handle it. Especially while giving joy to the ones we love most, and having fun while doing it.  

What we can give, the pleasure we can bestow, it’s almost nothing, yet everything at the same time.

..

So.. after the vacuuming:

Me: Okay, Baby, tell me what happened today.

7-year-old-Baby: Mom, we’re having a very special day..

Me: You mean Earth Day?

7-year-old-Baby: No, Mom .. we have a very special day coming up.

Me: What’s that?

7-year-old-Baby: Mother’s Day! Today we started making our cards for you!

What a damn, cool teacher.

Earth Day, ladies and gents. Go celebrate your earthy selves, maybe try to make an earthy baby to add to the conservative population to kick these Progressives the hell out of office in future, and steal back our American democracy they want to steal away from us for all perpetuity.

Tonight, log off of Twitter, close your browser, shut down the computer, and put down your cell phone with all those cool apps. 

Tonight, make love, not political war.

Let’s thank and remember God, first and foremost, for our ability to do so.

While we still can, before the size of our family is “embedded” away.

Note to America:  These.

 Not these.

No dissent. 

Only useful service.  

- with Hugo Estrada.

Crossposted.

Despite recent job gains, one grim statistic casts a long shadow over the recovering economy and the futures of more than 6 million workers: Fully 44 percent of the nation’s 15 million unemployed have been out of work for more than six months.And evidence suggests many of them may never rebuild their working lives completely.

Never since the Great Depression has the U.S. labor market seen anything like it. The previous high in long-term unemployment was 26 percent in June 1983, just after the deep downturn of the early ’80s. The 44 percent rate this year translates into more than 6.5 million people.

In fact, nearly two-thirds of these workers actually have been jobless for a year or longer, new Labor Department reports show.

From The Detroit News’ AP survey: Recovery to remain sluggish into 2011:

The pillars of Americans’ financial security – jobs and home values – will stay shaky well into 2011, according to an Associated Press survey of leading economists. The findings of the new AP Economy Survey, released Monday, point to an economic recovery that will move slowly and fitfully this year and next. As a result, the Federal Reserve will be forced to keep interest rates near zero until at least the final quarter of this year, three-fourths of the economists said. ..

By keeping interest rates at record lows, the Fed intends to encourage people and companies to spend more and invigorate the recovery. But anxiety over unemployment, and a reluctance or inability to borrow, will also restrain consumer spending, economists say. 

“We’re not going to see any irrational exuberance from consumers [what an idiot - my edit] this year,” says Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors, another survey participant. ..

The recession wiped out 8.2 million jobs. Zandi and other economists had previously forecast that unemployment, which reached 10.1 percent in October, would peak at 11 percent this year. Zandi now expects joblessness to climb again from the current 9.7 percent and reach 10.2 percent by December. That’s because many people who have quit looking for work and aren’t counted as unemployed will start looking again and because job creation will remain weak. 

Employers have begun to add jobs recently, including 162,000 in March. Economists surveyed foresee additional job creation over the next three months, but not enough to reduce the unemployment rate significantly. They predict job gains of roughly 200,000 in April, 250,000 in May and 125,000 in June. 

About 125,000 new jobs are needed each month just to keep up with population growth and prevent the unemployment rate from rising. To reduce the jobless rate significantly, employers would need to consistently add 200,000 to 300,000 a month. 

“The labor market is the scar left over from the economic trauma that we’ve been through,” says Sean Snaith, economics professor at the University of Central Florida, who took part in the survey. “It will be slow to fade.”