Journalists: "So easy a black man could do it!"

“So easy a caveman could do it!” That’s the slogan of the countless Geico commercials you and I have no doubt seen. What if you heard the phrase: “So easy a black man could do it!” I’d be pretty offended, and I’m not even African American! However some members of the elite media have suggested that the TV series based on the caveman characters (which will air on ABC) is a great opportunity to point out race inequality issues. They compare African Americans with Cavemen! How insanely divisive and racist can you get? Read this article and see if you get out of it what I get:

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) - The producers of ABC’s new “Cavemen” said Wednesday the comedy is much more than the insurance company commercials that inspired it, but isn’t designed to be an ambitious allegory about race.

Geico’s TV spots show highly evolved but shaggy-looking cavemen chafing at misconceptions about their sophistication and intelligence. The series, debuting Oct. 2, follows another trio of Cro-Magnons facing prejudice as they try to fit in contemporary society.

“If the show works, it will work because people care about these three guys under a lot of makeup and … can relate to their problems and find them charming,” producer Mike Schiff told the Television Critics Association’s summer meeting.

The pilot is being re-shot, ABC said. The network and producers said they decided it jumped ahead too far in the characters’ lives and failed to establish them properly.

Schiff and fellow producers responded to reporters’ questions about the series, many of them focusing on parallels between the cavemen and black stereotypes and the pitfalls of turning an ad into a series.

The producers said the characters’ creative potential and their “fish-out-of-water experience” was only touched on in the commercial spots. ABC obtained rights to the characters from Geico, which is not involved in the show.

It’s unusual for characters from an advertising campaign to move into shows of their own, but not unprecedented. The CBS comedy “Baby Bob” featured a talking baby that had been used in several ads.

We knew we’d be under a lot of scrutiny” adapting the Geico concept to a series, producer Will Speck said. “But I think it just makes our job a little harder.”

There was no intention to have the Cro-Magnons represent any minority group, said his colleague, Josh Gordon.

For the entire article click here.

The nerve of these reporters to suggest something so ludicrous! It’s that sort of divisive thinking that propagates racism in our culture! To make matters worse, this senseless thought is coming from the crowd that is supposedly interested in racial equality. Not so! What blatant hypocrisy.

It’s what I’ve been saying for years: Singling out someone by their skin color is racist. I think a lot of the terminology itself leads to racism. In fact I even have a problem with the term “African American.” I also don’t like being called a “European American.” If you want to get technical I guess I should be an Irish/German/French/English American. Some African Americans may actually be Nigerian/Kenyan/Ethiopian Americans. Until we get beyond names and categories I think we only further racist thought. Answer me this: When can my buddy Ralph (who happens to be African American) just be my buddy Ralph? When can I just be Andy? Why do we have to have these categories attached to us?

I didn’t necessarily mean to get off on this rant at this time, but this really upsets me. I’m really sick of people taking advantage of the race issue. Where is Al Sharpton or Jessie Jackson protesting about this blatant racism by “so called” journalists? These members of the media ought to be ashamed of themselves for this type of thought. Do you think I’m overreacting? Let me spell it out for you one more time: They compared African Americans to Cavemen. Do you realize how offensive that SHOULD be?

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You’ve heard of racial prejudice, what about shape prejudice? How fat is too fat? Who cares?

When is fat too fat and when is it anyone else’s business? Judging people on size is becoming a bigger and bigger issue, no pun intended. To be fair the obesity problem in the United States is huge. (I’ve really got to stop trying to be so punny.) The real question is, “Should anyone be telling you to get in shape?” There are some interesting stories in the news that are out the last couple of days. Let me share some with you. The first one comes courtesy of FoxNews.com:

A Missouri man claims he’s being discriminated against due to his weight, according to MyFoxKC.com.

Gary Stocklaufer said he and his wife, Cynthia, were asked to adopt Gary’s cousin’s 3-month-old son because the relative couldn’t care for the boy anymore. But a judge — the same judge who approved Gary’s adoption of his now 7-year-old son — denied the adoption on the grounds of Gary’s weight, Stocklaufer said.

Click here for a video report from MyFoxKC.com

Stocklaufer said he weighs roughly 500 pounds — though he’s lost 35 and is working to lose more — and that his weight hasn’t stopped him from working as a truck driver or playing with his son. The couple said their attorney has filed a motion for a new hearing.

What is it that makes Mr. Stocklaufer unfit to be a parent? Is his health condition such that he won’t be a parent very long? I suppose that’s the argument against allowing this man to adopt. What’s to say Joe Schmo doesn’t adopt and get hit by a bus the next day, though? This kind of speculative decision making could set a dangerous precedent. What’s next? You smoke a cigar occasionally, so you shouldn’t be allowed to adopt. You eat fast food, so you shouldn’t be allowed to adopt. You own a firearm, so you shouldn’t be allowed to adopt. You’re a church-going-right-wing Christian, you shouldn’t be allowed to adopt! OK, maybe I’m going too far, I admit.

It just seems strange to me, that in this situation you’ve got a man who’s willing to adopt an unwanted child. This man already has in his care another 7-year-old adopted son. He has a wife, which, as far as we know, is in fine health. It takes a lot of time, money, and love to adopt a child. Why shouldn’t this man be allowed to adopt because he’s overweight? Would you say the same thing to someone who suffers from cancer, or diabetes, or some other disease? Wait just a minute, no one chooses to take on those diseases, but clearly Mr. Stocklaufer chooses to be fat! So what? That’s his business. Friends and family members certainly should encourage this man to lose weight for his long term health and well being. However, it’s not the governments job to tell this man what to do with his own body.

A trend that is very popular right now is to judge someone based on their shape. A lot of times, shape comes from many different factors. It may be due to genes, it may be due to bone size, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re an out of shape slob. However, there is a real tendency for those who are obsessive compulsive about their weight, and the food they put in their bodies to come across as judgmental of others who don’t subscribe to their line of thinking. I fear that this is carrying it’s way into things such as court room decisions.

The often arrogant thought process I’ve discussed also leads to debate about laws that would force you to eat healthy. These laws, it is argued, would be enacted in the name of reducing health care costs. Again you’re starting to speculate and you see a slippery slope toward the erosion of personal choice at work here!

Another news story out today borders on crackpot research in my opinion. It comes courtesy of MyWay.com:

Study: Obesity Is ‘Socially Contagious’
Jul 25, 6:46 PM (ET)
By ALICIA CHANG

If your friends and family get fat, chances are you will too, researchers report in a startling new study that suggests obesity is “socially contagious” and can spread easily from person to person.

The large, federally funded study found that to be true even if your loved ones lived far away. Social ties seemed to play a surprisingly strong role, even more than genes are known to do.

“We were stunned to find that friends who are hundreds of miles away have just as much impact on a person’s weight status as friends who are right next door,” said co-author James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego.

The study found a person’s chances of becoming obese went up 57 percent if a friend did, 40 percent if a sibling did and 37 percent if a spouse did. In the closest friendships, the risk almost tripled.

Researchers think it’s more than just people with similar eating and exercise habits hanging out together. Instead, it may be that having relatives and friends who become obese changes one’s idea of what is an acceptable weight.

For the rest of the article click here.

So, if you have a fat friend, you may be fat. If you and your friends are fat, you need to meet skinny friends! Does that sound as goofy to you as it does to me?
I’m not sure if this research is done as an attempt to excuse obesity as a disease, and take away personal responsibility (which by the way we’re all in favor of just not at the behest of the government when it doesn’t DIRECTLY infringe on someone else’s rights.) Then again this article may also be an attempt to say that fat people need to get it in gear and make friends with superior skinny people!

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Ethanol Subsidies, are they worth it? It costs more to get a gallon of milk now than it does a gallon of gas!

Do government subsidies for ethanol need to stop? Corn producers who supply the ingredients for ethanol have been receiving money and incentives from the government to produce the fuel that is supposed to clean up the environment and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. It hasn’t happened thus far, and with new results about the environmental affects and the cost of other goods going up because of the lower supply of corn one has to ask the question, “Is it all worth it?”

Ice-cream makers frozen out as corn price rises

Suzy Jagger and Carl Mortished — The Times July 16, 2007

What’s the connection between ethanol, the biofuel produced from corn, and a cherry vanilla ice-cream?

Answer: the first is responsible for pushing up the price of the other.

This month, the price of milk in the United States surged to a near-record in part because of the increasing costs of feeding a dairy herd. The corn feed used to feed cattle has almost doubled in price in a year as demand has grown for the grain to produce ethanol.

Christina Seid, whose family have been making ice-cream at the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory for 28 years, said yesterday that she expected to have to raise her prices, along with all competitors in the short term. “We are holding out as long as we can, but prices will rise,” Ms Seid said.

Amy Green’s Ivanna Cone ice-cream emporium in Lincoln, Nebraska, has already raised its prices for a small cone to $3.50 before tax, up from $2.95 a few months ago. She also estimates that she is paying $150 more a week for the butterfat that she uses in her ice-cream.

The squeeze on ice-cream makers, chocolate manufacturers and pizza companies – all of whom use dairy produce as a raw material – is set to tighten as the price of a gallon of milk in the US – up 55 per cent in the past 12 months in some American states – is now the same as a gallon of petrol, with dairy prices accelerating faster than the cost of fuel.

For the rest of the article click here.

When should the government be handing out money to certain industries? Should this ever occur? A lot of people struggle financially, or have problems getting an idea off the ground but they don’t necessarily depend on the government to fund it. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, I’m really not sure. I do think it’s worth looking into though. What do you think?

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Liberal Spin Alert: Michele Bachmann’s victory was a "narrow" one.

Liberal spin alert: A story written by the Associated Press (the “unbiased” and “fair and balanced” standard in journalism) paints Republican U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann’s victory last fall as a “narrow” one over her Democratic challenger, Patty Wetterling.

ST. PAUL (AP) - Patty Wetterling will start working for the state on Monday. She’ll be the coordinator of the Minnesota Department of Health’s sexual violence prevention unit. The 57-year-old Democrat has been an advocate for missing and exploited children since her son Jacob was abducted in 1989.

Wetterling says she has wanted to focus on preventing sexual violence for years, after learning that it’s the motive for most kidnappings. As coordinator of the unit, Wetterling will oversee an 800-thousand dollar federal prevention grant.

Wetterling says she applied for the job in March. She was looking for new opportunities after narrowly losing the November election to U-S Representative Michele Bachmann.

Wetterling replaces Amy Okaya, who left the coordinator position after ten years to finish a graduate degree and pursue other career paths.

Information from: St. Paul Pioneer Press, http://www.twincities.com

Looking back on that election, Bachmann won 50% to 42%. That is not “narrow” in any way whatsoever. Especially when you consider the political climate nationally where Democrats had success across the nation. The victory was nearly a landslide by Bachmann. It is typical of the liberal mainstream media to paint it differently.

I see this is as a blatant attempt to make Bachmann look weaker in 2008. This kind of spin is precisely why it’s necessary to have conservative media to counteract the so called “fair and balanced” left-wing media.

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Fox News; We report on today’s filth, you decide to keep watching.

Another day, another dose of links to pornography on a “news website.” Once again, Fox News is putting out sensationalized filth in order to make money, foregoing any integrity as a news organization. I’m getting to the point where I’m ready to advise other conservatives to quit using Fox News as a source of information.

Today as I was doing the same thing I do every day (browsing the all of the news and information sites I can get my hands on) I once again came across blatant in your face sexual images and messages on FoxNews.com. Now I wanted to make sure it wasn’t just Fox News, so I did a careful search of the CNN, MSNBC, CBS News, and ABC News websites and found nothing on the main pages like I found on the main page for Fox News.

So what did I find? I found a direct link to a sleazy Hollywood picture site that shows the latest embarrassing photos of celebrities, often times nude or nearly nude. A direct link, advertising pictures of Brittney Spears with her underwear falling off. This on a news website which parents shouldn’t have to think twice about letting their kids view for news and information. There was also a video segment, rated as the top video, describing the new strategies of Playboy magazine and it shows racy clips and fuzzed out pornographic images during the nearly three minute video. Let me reiterate, both of these links were on the main page of FoxNews.com.

I looked for similar images and in your face stuff on other news sites and found nothing that came close to comparing. I found a link to a story about a lawn care business that has girls come out in bikinis to mow the lawn on MSNBC and I found a link to a Hollywood sleaze site on CBS News, but it was buried at the bottom and not nearly as racy as what I found on Fox News.

A friend of mine recently asked me, “Why do you whine about this stuff? Why don’t you actually do something?” I really think bringing this stuff to the attention of the public is my duty. Maybe I’m just a young curmudgeon. (is that an oxymoron?) I really see this stuff as harmful to kids and families. I really see our values going down the tube with increasing speed. People don’t seem to be outraged though. I talk to people about this stuff and they say “Oh, well you know, that’s just how it is now…” It doesn’t have to be this way, and it shouldn’t be this way. It wasn’t this bad when we were growing up, and kids now shouldn’t be bombarded by this stuff. I’m going to continue to fight this even if no one else joins me!

I was at Valley Fair the other day, a nice little amusement park just outside the Twin Cities, and I can’t believe the kinds of things little girls are wearing (or aren’t wearing!) I saw boys (and grown men) ogling them as if they were pieces of meat. The objectification of women and the overt sexual messages being thrown in the faces of our youth are destroying society. I’m not talking about teenagers in high school. I’m talking about 10, 11, 12, 13 year old kids. At the same time teen pregnancies and abortions continue to be a huge burden on society. The left will tell you that we need to patch these holes by teaching kids about sex at a younger age so they can have safe sex. That’s hogwash. We need to set good examples for our kids, we need to clean up the cesspool of filth in society that bombards our kids, we need to give them standards to live by.

If you’ve had enough with Fox News and it’s overt sexual messages, while playing itself as the media of choice for conservatives. I encourage you to write in, call in, and make your voice heard. Here’s the contact information for Fox News:

Fox News Channel
1211 Ave. of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
Phone: (212) 301-3000
Fax: (212) 301-4229
comments@foxnews.com

List of E-Mail addresses for all Fox News Channel programs

Special Report with Brit Hume: Special@foxnews.com
FOX Report with Shepard Smith: Foxreport@foxnews.com
The O’Reilly Factor: Oreilly@foxnews.com
Hannity & Colmes: Hannity@foxnews.com, Colmes@foxnews.com
On the Record with Greta: Ontherecord@foxnews.com

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Why can’t we tolerate radical Islam? Because it’s barbaric.

Why can’t we tolerate radical Islam? Because it’s barbaric.

A reporter embedded with the U.S. military in Iraq reports a government official has recounted a new atrocity by al-Qaida: several instances in which terrorists baked a young boy, then invited his family to lunch with the victim as the main course.

For the rest of the story click here.

Senator Byrd, the senior member of the U.S. Senate and a former KKK member called the dog fighting issues surrounding NFL quarterback Michael Vick “barbaric.” I actually agree with the senator, but I want to know why killing our own young isn’t considered barbaric? I want to know why actions by followers of radical Islam aren’t considered barbaric? There’s a lot wrong in this world, but I don’t hear anyone on the Senate floor calling some of the worst offenses barbaric.

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Let’s put politics aside and consider the serious nature of the War on Terror.

The Current Iraq War Casualties: 4,008 American military dead. Our prayers and thoughts go out to the family members of these brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom…

***

Think about this… Here are some statistics from previous conflicts involving the United States and the loss of our soldiers lives…

The Vietnam War: 58,209 Killed in Action
The Korean War: 36,516 dead (including 10,395 non-combat)
World War II: 407,300 American military dead.
World War I: 116,708 American military dead.
American Revolutionary War: 25,000 military dead.

We had the backbone to face evil once, where is our resolve now? Whether you agree or disagree with reasons for entering this theater of the War on Terror (Iraq), we are there now and we are fighting terrorists now.

Why are some of the American people ready to abandon the fight for freedom in the midst of the battle against radical Islam? The “Left” is adamant about leaving immediately. Surely they are not suggesting an end to all fighting of terrorists. The avoidance of this conflict is a pipe dream. It will either be fought in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other theaters of war abroad or it will return to our homeland.

One of the reasons we have not experienced another 9/11 is because we have the terrorists playing defense. Not to sound cliche’ but the best defense is a good offense is it not?

The strategy by some is to abandon the idea of a democracy in Iraq. They would have us give up on a base of operations for fighting the War on Terror in the region (much like German bases were set up for the purposes of holding Communism in check.) If that is the case, then what is the alternative strategy? Where will we deploy next? What will be the next front in the War on Terror? Do we pull out of Iraq so we can hit Iran? Do we pull out so we can focus on Syria? Maybe we should just nuke the entire area?

Senator Amy Klobuchar was on my program, Hot Talk, last week. She suggested leaving the battle in Iraq to be fought by our Special Forces Units. That sounds eerily like the Blackhawk Down incident and the Battle of Mogadishu. That didn’t turn out very pretty.

I’m very frustrated by the lack of patience when it comes to the report from our commanding officers in the field. A report from General Petraeus is due in September. Why can’t we wait and see what that report says before jumping to conclusions?

Great God in Heaven people! Who doesn’t want to see our boys come home? Who wanted to see as many people die as did in all the other wars that we’ve fought? There comes a time when you have to fight for freedom and for our security. This is the greatest challenge of our time! The fight against radical Islam! You can see it tearing apart countries around the world. Look at countries in Europe and Africa and southeast Asia.

If we don’t come together and show some backbone we’re going to lose this country. It’s not such a radical idea. It’s very real and it’s time everyone from the left, from the right, from the middle, or from whatever background politically, take a step back and evaluate whether or not we want to have a land of the free and a home of the brave.

Andy Barnett
(Andy is the host of Hot Talk on Newstalk 1450 KNSI in St. Cloud airing weekday mornings 6-9. For more information call in to the show at 320-251-1990 or visit http://knsi.blogspot.com or e-mail him: Andy@1450knsi.com)

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