08/8/14

Soldiering On

Arlene from Israel

In spite of decidedly negative news I must address, below, I want to first share some very positive reports.

We start with Ari Abramowitz – a host on Israel Inspired Radio and former co-host of Tuesday Night Live in Jerusalem – who wrote a Tisha B’Av message from his unit, Battalion 969.  It explained why the battalion had petitioned to remain in Gaza fighting in order to defeat those who have been terrorizing our nation (emphasis added):

”We want to continue fighting not because we love war, but because we love you.

”On a personal level, the paradox of the past month is that in the face of heartbreaking pain and the violence of war, my experience has been one of unparalleled love.

”…The love I have felt for my fellow soldiers during this war has transcended anything I have experienced before.

”While the bond of ’brothers in arms’ is a universal phenomenon, I find the love I feel for my fellow soldiers overtaking me like a wave. It is hard to explain as I don’t fully understand it myself. All I know is that I would happily give my life for any one of my fellow soldiers and I don’t doubt for a moment that they would do the same for me. Together we would not hesitate to give our lives for you.

”Throughout this war we have felt the love you have showered upon us – you have given us so much. I have never felt so much love from so many. Jews from both Israel and the Diaspora have flooded us with more care packages, clean underwear, dry socks, candy, potato chips and toothpaste then we can use. Jewish communities, federations, missions and individuals have not let the dangers of this war stop them from coming and volunteering. Hospitals have had to issue statements requesting that people refrain from visiting the wounded, for the lines to visit them were clogging the hallways and stairwells.

”Tens of thousands comfort the families of the soldiers slain and communities around the world hold solidarity and memorial rallies.

”We hang up your children’s letters next to our beds. I know a couple of them by heart. We read the articles, videos and Facebook posts with which you defend us and support us as we fight this just and moral war.

”While there will always be exceptions, from here it seems that this wave of solidarity spans the entirety of the religious, ideological and political spectrum. From the Gaza border the unity behind us feels unprecedented.”

Credit: landofisrael.com

An extraordinary love letter in the midst of the war.  Ari Abramowitz has to be special to write this way, but he is also writing about an astounding phenomenon.  This is who we are now, who we are showing ourselves to be.  May it last and may our love for one another strengthen.

With soldiers such as this, backed by a wave of love, we cannot be defeated. God is watching.

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We have a report from Nefesh B’Nefesh (“soul by soul”), which facilitates aliyah (Jewish immigration to Israel).  The war, they say, has motivated more young people to come to Israel, not fewer: The stories of the two “lone soldiers” who died has served as an inspiration.  “…phone calls and requests by Americans to enlist into the IDF has grown considerably.”  Next week there will be a Nefesh B’Nefesh “Lone Soldier” flight that will bring 109 young people, ages 18 to 23, who will be enlisting in the IDF.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/183808#.U-OeJZvlrIV

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And then we have this:

Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox in Israel, who have resisted being drafted, are now signing up to volunteer for the IDF.

“We believe that the people of Israel are in the midst of an obligatory war against ruthless enemies who seek to annihilate us,” declared an ad that ran on several ultr-Orthodox websites.

“We believe it is a great privilege to join the military effort, in addition to our important contribution through Torah study. We too yearn for this precious mitzvah.”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/shunning-taboo-hundreds-of-ultra-orthodox-seek-to-volunteer-for-idf/

A Religious Jewish soldier is embraced by an ultra orthodox Jewish family member after attending a swearing-in ceremony for the orthodox Jewish IDF "Nahal Haredi" unit, at Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem, May 26, 2012 [photo credit: Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Credit: Miriam Alster/Flash90
I love it!  Better, I am very grateful for all of this.  For this place we are in.

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Although the first stage is not over after all, the second stage of the war against Israel is being launched now as well – the stage of delegitimization and attempts to level war crime charges against our leaders and officials.  A strong response that makes our case is exceedingly important.

The Israeli government is responding with vigor, but I ask that each of you also take the time to inform yourselves on the issue – using the material that follows – and then speak out on Israel’s behalf.  The vilification of the Jewish State must stop.  You know the drill: speak to people about this issue and share links, write letters to the editor, do talkbacks on Internet sites, do call-ins to talk radio shows, write op-eds for your local paper.  You can make a difference if you do not remain silent.

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One thing that must be made clear to people is that reporting from Gaza was exceedingly imbalanced for the simple reason that foreign journalists literally feared for their lives.  They dared not report from inside of Gaza on what they were seeing. With the beginning of the 72 hour ceasefire, however, they came out of Gaza and started talking:

Indian journalist Sreenivasan Jain has now written about how he saw rockets launched right outside the hotel where he was staying: “important to report on how Hamas places those very civilians at risk by firing rockets deep from the heart of civilian zones.”

FRANCE 24 correspondent Gallagher Fenwick aired a report showing rockets being launched…100 meters away from a UN facility: “The Israeli army has repeatedly accused the Palestinian militants of shooting from within densely populated civilian areas and that is precisely the type of setup we have here. Rockets set up right next to buildings with a lot of residents in them.”

Italian journalist Gabriele Barbati exposed Hamas in a tweet (emphasis added): “Out of #Gaza far from #Hamasretaliation: misfired rocket killed children yday (yesterday) in Shati. Witness: militants rushed and cleared debris.” And then: “@IDFSpokesperson said truth in communiqué released yesterday about Shati camp massacre. It was not #Israel behind it.”

“Another foreign reporter said that it is an open secret that Hamas uses Al-Shifa hospital as its command center, but that reporters in Gaza would not report that out of fear that it would endanger them.”

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4556016,00.html

See the stunning exclusive video by Sreenivasan Jain showing a rocket being shot from near his hotel:

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/ndtv-s-hamas-exclusive-is-an-international-headline-571487

Powerful stuff: use it!

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The charge against Israel is that the IDF does not have the right to fire at a rocket launching site if there are civilians present – which means, of course (although this is not acknowledged in the charges), if civilians are present because Hamas told them to remain even after Israel warned them to leave.

In point of fact, this is simply not the case.  The IDF has a solemn obligation to protect its soldiers and the people of Israel.  Think about it: If this were the case, Israel could never defend herself against rocket or mortar attacks, because Hamas would simply place civilians in the way every time and that would be the end of it – Hamas would be able to kill whom it wanted to. Israel has more than met her moral obligation in warning the civilians.

Prime Minister Netanyahu gave a press conference in English on Wednesday in which he addressed this issue.  He says if Israel were to fail to respond, it would be a mistake: “It is a moral mistake. It’s an operational mistake. Because that would validate and legitimize Hamas’s use of human shields, and it would hand an enormous victory to terrorists everywhere and a devastating effect to the free societies that are fighting terrorism.” (Emphasis added)

See text of his full statement, which utilizes several examples from the field:

http://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-full-text-the-tragedy-of-gaza-is-that-it-is-ruled-by-hamas/

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Israel Prize laureate Professor Asa Kasher, who helped formulate the military’s Code of Ethics, says Israel is in  compliance with the ethics of battle. (Emphasis added)

“We are fulfilling the ethical requirements. Every battalion commander has an officer in charge of locating civilians, and everything is overseen by too many lawyers, who help direct the operation on the ground. The number of casualties is irrelevant—it does not speak of omissions or any wrongdoing on the part of the IDF.”

There is aggressive criticism of Israel’s operation, he says, because “there are people whose perspective is very shallow.”

http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/08/07/ethics-expert-idf-fulfilled-all-ethical-requirements-in-gaza/

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Also on Wednesday, Israel Ambassador to the UN (what a thankless job!) Ron Prosor delivered tough and honest words to the General Assembly (emphasis added):

“It might be too much to ask you to stand on our side in this battle between civilization and barbarism, but at least have the decency to swallow your selective outrage while Israel wages war against the extremist groups seeking to eradicate the values that we all hold very dear.

If the U.N. assembly had invested a tenth of the energy invested in investigating Israel, it would reveal horrific war crimes on the part of Hamas.  The international community has lost its way. This organization was founded to promote morality, truth, and justice. Unfortunately, that is not its mission now.”

http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/08/07/israeli-u-n-envoy-says-international-community-%e2%80%98has-lost-its-way%e2%80%99/

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Lastly on this issue, I share a superb video by StandWithUs ( With thanks to Bernice S.):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEQrHkEG4Jo&feature=youtu.be

If you share this video broadly it will be great.

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“The head of Hamas in the West Bank since 2010 was recently arrested and was indicted on Thursday in the IDF West Bank Courts for organizing possibly dozens of terror cells for a wave of potential kidnappings, suicide bus bombings and attacks on settlements.

“Arrested on May 27…Riad Natzer, is accused of raising over NIS 1.5 million for terror operations, buying weapons for his operatives and organizing them into cells – each trained for a different kind of terror activity.

“…Known for allegedly running Hamas’s terror operations ‘with lust’ for his job, Natzer recruited dozens of operatives and Natzer’s arrest also led to the arrests of dozens of those operatives.”

http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Hamas-West-Bank-head-arrested-indicted-for-planning-wave-of-terror-attacks-370332

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The above was written Thursday night, but I held off on sending it to see how the situation with Hamas evolved.

Yesterday, Hamas, unhappy that its demands in the negotiations were not being met, refused to agree to an extension of the ceasefire – although Israel had already done so.  But until this morning it was not entirely clear if that was an attempt at extortion (as Lieberman called it) or a declaration of a genuine intent to start launching rockets again.

Now we know that it was very serious indeed, as Hamas has been launching rockets at the south – at Sderot, Ashkelon, Eshkol, Sha’ar Hanegev, etc. – since 8 AM, which marked the end of the three-day ceasefire.  (Actually, I understand two mortars had been fired before the end of the ceasefire.) As I write, already 35 rockets have been launched.  By the time you read this, it will be much more.

I held my breath for a while, as Israel did not respond immediately. But by about 10 AM the Air Force had begun to return fire.

Israeli airstrikes in Gaza

Credit: Reuters

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We have recalled our negotiating teams from Cairo.  Hamas had said it would agree to continue negotiating while it fired rockets.  In their dreams.

Hamas has a problem: its leaders invited destruction upon Gaza with its attacks and promised the population of Gaza that there would be a success in the end that will have made it all worth while.  But they have nothing to show the people.  Thus their shooting persists with a “go for broke” mentality.

I cited an IDF source just the other day that said Hamas had crawled to Cairo on its knees begging for a ceasefire.  Not quite. Hamas may have sought that ceasefire, but only with the intention of securing good terms in the subsequent negotiations.  It is not yet on its knees and it must be brought down if not eliminated. At present it still possess too much strength.

~~~~~~~~~~

Our troops are still at the border of Gaza and I have no clue as to whether they will be sent in again.  What I do know is that the soldiers themselves are ready and eager.  Netanyahu said there would be a forceful response if Hamas started firing again.  Truly, do I hope so.  No token bombings.

That seems to be what our MKs across the political spectrum are calling for: a very vigorous and determined response, as our deterrence depends upon this.  This is being said by the left as much as the right.

All that I so thoughtfully wrote the other day about how there is an argument for not continuing the fight in Gaza has been rendered moot now.  Currently we are in an “ein breira” (no choice) situation.  It’s not whether we think we should continue to fight or not: We must.

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Shabbat preparations call to me now. When next I write, there may be a bit more clarity on the situation, and there will be time to make comments about Obama and other players on the diplomatic stage.

08/8/14

Collateral Success of Carr vs Alexander Tennessee Race

By: Lloyd Marcus

Patriots, it is frustrating and painful when a good man of the people candidate like Joe Carr loses to a lying Washington machine betrayer of the people like Lamar Alexander. The fact that Lamar Alexander voted for Obama’s agenda 62% of the time is all you need to know about him.

My Conservative Campaign Committee team and I were boots on the ground in Tennessee, driving all over the state participating in rallies and other events for Joe Carr. We felt the pulse of the people and there was excitement and enthusiasm for Joe. http://bit.ly/1v6ifpE

At one of the Joe Carr rallies we attended, a local Carr supporter bent my ear big time, expressing his frustration with the fact that Carr did not run tons of radio ads much earlier in the campaign; missing an opportunity to win over early voters.

I tried to explain to the frustrated Joe Carr fan that his campaign simply did not have funds to run tons of radio ads. Lamar Alexander’s war-chest was $7 million dollars provided by DC power brokers. Grassroots efforts raised $1.3 million for Joe Carr.

But there were several bright spots. Joe Carr received 41% of the vote. Carr would have probably won if we had enough money to really get his message out to Tennessee voters. Thanks to the efforts of Rep. Joe Carr, Tennessee enacted the toughest illegal immigration laws in the country. Carr was eager to get to DC to help Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and our conservative troops on the front-line in the battle to stop Obama’s fundamental transformation of our great nation.

What Republican would have voted for Lamar had they known that he voted to fund Obamacare. He voted for the Gang of Eight amnesty for illegal immigrants. Lamar voted to raise income taxes, death taxes, capital gains taxes, dividend taxes and payroll taxes.

It is safe to say voters would not have selected Lamar over Carr had they known these truths about him. This is why funding is so crucial to winning elections.

Still, there were collateral successes/bright spots in the Carr vs Lamar race.

For example.

Patriot brother Michael Patrick Leahy of Beat Lamar PAC lead the charge. He organized a small army of college age campaign workers who did an amazing job; knocking on over 70,000 doors. Absolutely brilliant! Four of Micheal’s youth workers spoke at a press conference for Joe Carr about their experiences working on the campaign. They shared how Lamar kept running away from answering their questions. Please watch this video of these awesome youths (future conservative leaders): http://youtu.be/5esE48If0kM

I asked Michael how he got so many young people involved. Michael said you recruit a leader and the leader recruits their friends; all done word of mouth.

A black student told me he initially joined Micheal’s Beat Lamar team for college credit. He has since discovered he is conservative.

Another bright spot was the coming together of several national Tea Party groups to help Joe Carr. A lesson learned is that we should have gotten involved in the race earlier. Despite the huge difference in war-chests, Carr’s $1.3 million compared to Lamar’s $7 million, Carr still got 41% of the vote. Folks, that is huge. Imagine if Carr had our national Tea Party support and funding much sooner.

Another thing I found particularly enjoyable about the Carr race was my Conservative Campaign Committee working with numerous other national Tea Party groups. It felt like a political barn raising, everyone joining in to achieve success for our movement. We simply should have started sooner in the Joe Carr campaign.

I want to personally thank Joe Carr for stepping up for America. He is a great man and I pray he will run again. God bless.

Lloyd Marcus, Unhyphenated American

Chairman, Conservative Campaign Committee

08/8/14

Fisking NPR about Latinos in the movies

By: Larry Correia
Monster Hunter Nation

Damn it, people. I post that I’m trying to finish a novel by the end of the month, and what do you go and do? You post Fisk Bait articles like this on my Facebook page.

As a D List novelist, I should be cranking out more cismale gendernormative fiction, but oh no, you guys had to go and tag me with an article about how all of our entertainment needs to be filtered through the lens of righteous Social Justice, and if you don’t find racism in absolutely everything, then racist. Obviously.

This is so dumb, how can I not take the time to make fun of it?

As usual, the original will be in italics and my comments will be in bold.

Here is a link to the original article on NPR. Since this is NPR you need to imagine the article being quietly narrated in the most boring, pretentious, monotone, nasal tone possible. Trust me. It makes it so much better.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/08/06/338324139/why-arent-top-films-diverse-as-the-real-world-they-miss-hispanics?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20140806

Why Aren’t Top Films Diverse As The Real World? They Miss Hispanics

Imagine you were the most loyal customer to the hottest restaurant in town. And when you walked in the door, you were given the worst seat in the house.

That’s kind of how Hollywood is treating Hispanic filmgoers,

 No it isn’t. Your analogy sucks.

 if you believe the results of a new study by the University of Southern California. It shows that the 100 highest-grossing films of last year underrepresented nonwhite characters in speaking roles.

 Oh no. I can’t wait to hear about how awful and racist America is. The funny part is that Hollywood is who casts actors, and Hollywood is as liberal as it gets. But it is always entertaining to watch libs freak out at other libs for not being liberal enough. Holy shit, I can’t believe I’m about to defend Hollywood…

One big reason, according to the numbers in the study, was a lack of nonwhite Hispanic characters in the 3,932 speaking roles analyzed. Just 4.9 percent of those parts were filled by Hispanic characters, though they are 16 percent of the U.S. population.

I’ve never taken the time to be offended by the fact that Hispanics are underrepresented in my imaginary space battles. Thanks NPR.

But Hispanics also buy 25 percent of all movie tickets, leveraging $1 trillion in spending power. Which means Hollywood isn’t paying much of a price for ignoring a loyal constituency.

And all this time I thought that Hollywood was only ignoring me by optioning my novels and then letting them sit in development limbo.

Wait a second, me and my movie going children all fit into that 25%, because we are legally Latino and would show up that way on this survey, but you wouldn’t know what we are by looking at us… Oh, but don’t worry, I’ll get back to that.

Other numbers are less problematic.

In other words, every other possible ethnic combination came out okay in the numbers, but Social Justice Warriors need something to flip out about.

White characters were slightly overrepresented at 74.1 percent (they are 72 percent of the population, according to the 2010 U.S. Census);

Oh shit. Movies about imaginary things were off of reality by 2.1%?!?

black characters were also overrepresented at 14.1 percent (12.6 percent of the population);

Wait… What? Shoot. I was all ready to get my outrage on.

and Asians were at 4.4 percent (4.8 percent of the population).

Damn your Asian privilege!

Overall, nonwhite characters filled just 25 percent of speaking roles, though nonwhite people are 37 percent of the U.S. population and buy almost half of all movie tickets.

I’m in a unique position, on one hand I’m a really successful writer who understands storytelling, and on the other hand I’m a retired auditor who made a great living being a statistical bullshit detector. Off the top of my head I can think of a whole bunch of reasons these numbers might skew. I don’t have any raw data, but a couple of guesses:

  • The popularity of British/Australian/Canadian actors in American films. When NPR isn’t looking under every rock for racism, they’ve also done interviews about why directors love those types of actors for what they bring to the roles. Basically, these commonwealth types are sneaking over here and stealing our jobs!
  • Many speaking roles belong to the bad guys, and Hollywood is so scared of Social Justice Warrior’s perpetual outrage that they are hesitant to cast anybody who doesn’t look like Dick Cheney as antagonists. That’s why books that have Muslim bad guys have them mysteriously turn into white supremacists or some sort of pseudo-Blackwater when they’re made into a movie.
  • It might have something to do with much of Hollywood being scared of doing original things, and instead doing reboots and remakes. So if something stared a white guy when your parents watched it, the new version probably stared a white guy too. There are some obvious switches, like Will Smith in Wild Wild West or Denzel Washington as the Equalizer (I’m really looking forward to that one, because nobody does Retired Badass like Denzel).
  • Movies based on comic books make up a huge part of the market, and these comic books and their characters have been around for such a long time that they predate any of these demographics. Hispanics didn’t make up 16% of America’s population when Stan Lee was making these characters up back in the sixties, not that Stan Lee probably would have cared, because he strikes me as the kind of guy who’d say Shut Up and Enjoy Your Awesome.

And as much as people might hope successful minority-centered films such as 12 Years a Slave and The Butler may have shown increasing diversity in film roles, the study shows the percentages haven’t changed much in seven years.

Did anybody outside of NPR actually watch The Butler?

We see similar numbers in television. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation looked at diversity in the 2012-13 TV season, discovering that prime-time TV shows on the broadcast networks had 78 percent white characters, 12 percent black characters, 5 percent Asian characters and 4 percent Latino characters.

Wait… So what they’re saying is that other than Latino all of the others were within the margin of error of the actual population?

But since they are citing GLAAD, anybody want to take a crazy guess by what percentage gay characters are over represented on TV? In real life gays only make up between 1-3% of the population (don’t blame me, take it up with Gallup), but according to GLAAD 42% of FOX’s programming has gay characters, ABC is at 33%, ABC Family is at 50%, and FX is at 40%. I mean, since NPR is acting like entertainment should correspond exactly to real life demographics, do they really want to go there?  http://www.tvguide.com/news/glaad-lgbt-characters-1071960.aspx

These are almost exactly the same levels of underrepresentation for Latino/Hispanic characters that the USC study found in movies.

So my earlier guess was correct. The Social Justice Warriors need something to be outraged about, so they’re constantly on the lookout. This time it is Latinos. Tomorrow it will be something else.

The USC study also found Hispanic women most likely to be shown nude or baring lots of skin (37 percent of Hispanic female characters had such roles), while Hispanic men were the second most likely group among males to be shown that way, at 16 percent of their characters.

That’s because us passionate Latins are smoking HOT.

No, seriously. Hollywood, that bastion of moral integrity and arbiter of virtue has good looking people take their clothes off. This is my shocked face.

As an auditor, when I see somebody cite one stat without the comparable stats I become suspicious. So 37% of female Hispanics had such roles, but what percentage were the others? Hell, Game of Thrones has all the white women get naked.

Also, “nude or baring lots of skin” there is a hell of a lot of difference now, isn’t there? If you take just shows shot in Miami like Dexter and Burn Notice, count the hot Latinas in the background shots in bikinis and you’ve got your 37% right there.

Now if I was a suspicious auditor I’d notice an article—so nitpicky that it gets into two decimals earlier—leaving out all sorts of data when it was conveniently trying to portray one group as being hyper-sexualized might possibly be trying to establish some kind of narrative.

The study doesn’t suggest many reasons why these numbers have played out this way, but I have a few theories.

Mine are better.

First, Hollywood doesn’t seem to be paying a price for its mistakes. To continue the analogy from above, if you keep going back to the restaurant after it gives you an awful seat, where’s the incentive to treat you better? If nonwhite consumers keep flocking to movies that underrepresent them, filmmakers have little reason to improve.

Yes, Latinos, NPR just called you stupid. How DARE you enjoy movies and be entertained? You should totally boycott them to salve some white suburban liberal’s white guilt!

Annoying twits put their perpetual outrage ahead of their enjoyment. Everything has to be filtered through their obnoxious white guilt. Meanwhile the rest of planet Earth is throwing piles of money at a movie with a sentient tree and a talking raccoon.

Secondly, Hispanic filmgoers don’t seem to embrace movies with high-profile Hispanic characters en masse in the same way black movie consumers do. Black-centered films like 12 Years a Slave and The Butler were championed by black people across the country as must-see viewing.

You ever catch that the Social Justice Warriors don’t like when a group of people turn out to be individuals instead of a homogeneous collective? Damn it. You all check the same box on an EEOC form! You should totally think the same, have the same opinions, and like the same things! Latinos are SUPPOSED to go watch Latino movies. Blacks are SUPPOSED to watch black movies… Noticing a trend yet?

But, perhaps because there are so many different cultures and nationalities defined as Hispanic in America, such waves of support don’t seem to happen as often for the few movies featuring Hispanic stars.

No kidding? And now the author accidentally pulls back the curtain just a bit to reveal the soft racism of the left.

Maybe those lumped into the “Latino” bucket are an incredibly diverse group of humanity who are going to watch whatever the fuck they feel like?  Offically “Latino” includes people originating from the bottom half of one continent, top to bottom of another, a bunch of islands across every hemisphere, the Iberian Peninsula, and from that you get a few dozen competing cultures, thousands of years of history of badasses conquering shit, exploring the world, and making babies and bringing back wives from every genetic population on planet Earth, and NPR is upset that they don’t all fit in the same box?

But keep in mind, it is my side that gets called racist.

Also, it’s not always clear to audiences when a Hispanic actor is playing a Hispanic character. Zoe Saldana is Puerto Rican and Dominican, but in last year’s Star Trek movie, she played Lt. Uhura — a character who is of African descent in the TV series.

First off, you may have noticed that the movie diverged a bit from the TV show. Second off… is NPR trying to say that Puerto Ricans and Dominicans can’t have African ancestors? Does the staff of NPR ever leave their college campuses?

They left off a bit. In Guardians of the Galaxy, Zoe Saldana isn’t EASILY IDENTIFIABLE as Puerto Rican because she is GREEN.

Jennifer Lopez played a character called Leslie Rodgers in last year’s Jason Statham movie Parker and her mother was played by Patti LuPone. Though her ethnicity was never stated, Lopez’s character wasn’t easily identifiable as Hispanic.

If you rented a Jason Statham movie expecting nuanced discussion about race relations, you done fucked up. You rent Jason Statham movies to watch Jason Statham kick people in the face.

And is NPR implying that somebody who is genetically Latino can’t have an Anglo surname?

Oh, but wait… She isn’t EASILY IDENTIFIABLE as Hispanic. Because the SJWs are really all about keeping everyone in their proper place. Don’t worry, you let leftists run things long enough and eventually they make everybody wear these super helpful armbands for easy identification.   

This kind of colorblind casting can have two effects on diversity. Supporting characters such as spouses, parents and siblings are less likely to also be Hispanic, and audiences that want to support Hispanic characters may be confused about which roles fit that bill.

I want you to read that paragraph and think about it really hard. Colorblind casting is somehow a bad thing.

Audiences might be confused what fucking box they should assign characters to? In other words, to the modern SJW, judging somebody by their character instead of the color of their skin is racist.

Finally, the USC study found that black directors were more likely to cast black people in speaking parts (white directors cast black characters in 10.8 percent of speaking roles, compared with 46 percent of roles for black directors).

The real question is what kind of movie was the director casting? What was the setting? What kind of characters did the story call for? If I was directing an episode of the Wire set in the projects of West Baltimore I’d probably cast more black actors than if I was directing an episode of Downton Abby.

Also, auditor hat on. How many black directors are there? What is the target audience of their films? Could the most prolific of the black directors be Tyler Perry and Spike Lee, who would skew the stats because they’ve cast more black actors for movies targeting a black audience?

Yeah… You know what Mark Twain said about statistics. Unless you’re a Social Justice Warrior, then racism.

But two of the most prominent films of last year led by Hispanic directors — Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity and Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim — had just one major part for a Hispanic actor between them.

Why do Latino directors have to have some sort of Latino solidarity? Why is NPR against ethnic mixing and free association? Why is NPR in favor of keeping everyone in their ghetto? Why does NPR get a dime of tax money to produce this bullshit?

Why is NPR interested in ethnic purity, where Latino directors pick Latino actors and direct Latino films, and white directors pick white actors for their white films? Alfonso Cuaron and Guillermo del Toro are both brilliant artists making art. Why don’t you let them make their art, rather than lecture them about your artificial Social Justice bullshit? Nope. Instead SJWs try to paint artists as some sort of race traitors for not complying to their arbitrary rules.

Guillermo del Toro gave us Idris Elba rocket punching Godzillas with a giant Voltron. Your argument is invalid.   

And that character, played by the Mexican-American actor Clifton Collins Jr., was a Chinese-American technician.

Wait… Earlier they were complaining about Jennifer Lopez’s character having an Anglo last name, but now they’re upset that another Latino who has a real life Anglo last name was playing a guy named Tendo Choi, in a movie where a black British actor played a man named STACKER PENTECOST?

Make up your mind, NPR!

Once again the SJWs try to suck all the fun out of everything.

Side note, Pacific Rim might help prove one of my earlier points about British actors sneaking over here and stealing all our jobs, since the “American” lead is from Newcastle upon Tyne, which I’m pretty sure isn’t in Nebraska.

The study’s numbers suggest that Hollywood continues to have difficulty featuring a world that’s as diverse ethnically and culturally as real life.

SJWs don’t want real diversity, like opinions, thoughts, tastes, or beliefs, but rather they demand simple, easily categorized, skin-deep diversity so they can keep everybody in their proper box.

But the reasons behind the lack of representation may be more complex and interconnected than anyone realizes.

NPR is looking to manufacture some outrage. They’re just pissed that Latinos aren’t conveniently confirming to their proper racist boxes. When NPR says that some of the Latin actors aren’t “easily recognizable” that means that they aren’t conforming to accepted liberal suburban Ivy League stereotypes. NPR wants Latinos to play beaners in sombreros, hotel maids, or gang bangers… Playing a computer technician, Alderan’s congressman, or captain of the Galactica is just crazy.

Latinos will continue getting roles in movies, just like they’ll keep writing books. Those that find an audience and succeed in entertaining them will get more work. Shockingly enough the entertainment industry is all about entertainment. And while us entertainers work, hustle, and make art, Social Justice Warriors will continue to bitch uselessly about “diversity”. In time more Latinos will have success in entertainment and NPR will still be whining about how come there aren’t more left handed, transsexual, robots represented.

The real problem the SJWs have with Latinos is that we actually are diverse, and not just bullshit skin-deep, check box diversity. Most of us here just think of ourselves as Americans and go about our lives. So I’m just going to assume that missing 11.1% of Latinos do exist in these imaginary movie worlds, it is just that they look more like my kids than they look like Machete.

08/8/14

The Spread of the Caliphate: The Islamic State (Part 1)

Hat Tip: BB

We are watching genocidal conditions emerge in epicenter. U.S. President orders airstrikes on ISIS in Iraq. Pray especially for Iraqi Christians who are being beheaded & crucified.

ISIS Releases New Photos Showing Mass Crucifixions, Beheadings And Cruel Executions

WARNING GRAPHIC, RAW PHOTOS — ISIS on Christians: ‘There is nothing to give them but the sword’

08/8/14

The Council Has Spoken!! This Weeks’ Watcher’s Council Results – 08/08/14

The Watcher’s Council


Obama’s Border Plans and Some Guys Named Al

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match-up.

“It is a crime to lie to the public, to twist public opinion to insane lengths in the service of the vilest death-dealing machinations. It is a crime to poison the minds of the meek and the humble, to stoke the passions of reactionism and intolerance, by appealing to that odious anti-Semitism that, unchecked, will destroy the freedom-loving France of the Rights of Man.” – Émile Zola, J’accuse! (1898)

“If it bleeds, it leads.” – News Director Bill Applegate, WNEV-TV, circa 1980

“Think of the press as a great keyboard
on which we can play.”
– Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Information Minister

This week’s winner, Bookworm Room’s J’accuse! The Western media has the blood of Gazan children on its hands is an absolutely superb vamp on Émile Zola’s famous piece, as she turns her scintillating style to use in applying one of life’s truths – that is isn’t just the criminal who stands guilty, but his or her enabler. Here’s a slice:

At a military level, Hamas’s advantages in the war with Israel are minimal. Its rocket strikes were ineffectual against Israel because of the Iron Dome missile defense system. In the ground war, it is certainly able to kill Israeli soldiers (most recently, three died in a booby-trapped UN building), but ultimately Israel has both the overwhelming fire power and technology that will enable it to destroy Hamas’s weapons caches and tunnels.

Because of Israel’s military advantage, she could and would win the war against Hamas if only she were given enough time to do the job. You see, time is the one thing Israel lacks. Unlike all other nations warring against a savage enemy intent upon committing mass murder against her citizens, Israel is being pressured from every corner to lay down her arms, to bend down, and to take it.

Why is this? Why is a nation that is stable, free, pluralist, and humanist being urged to surrender to a terrorist group that is tyrannical, genocidal, misogynistic, anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and homophobic?

The answer is simple: Hamas has the ultimate weapon of mass destruction — its own children or, as I like to call this weapon, the Dead-Child WMD.

Hamas uses its children in two ways. Alive, they deter Israel; dead, they inflame the West. It is this second effect that triggers worldwide demands that Israel lay down her arms as she seeks to destroy rockets that fire and her homes, schools, hospitals, and civilian airports, and that she stop destroying the tunnels that were readied to facilitate a terrorist attack on Israel that would easily have rivaled 9/11 in its destructive power.

In utilizing its Dead-Child WMD, Hamas understands that Israel is a nation that values life, not just the lives of her own citizens, but the lives of all the innocents trapped in a terrorist madhouse. To that end, the IDF will immediately call off a rocket strike on a known Hamas arsenal and rocket launch pad if it sees even a single child (or, indeed, any civilian) in the area.

The problem for Hamas is that planting rockets in schools, playgrounds, and hospitals only defers pinpoint Israeli strikes, it doesn’t stop them. Israel will either try again when there are no visible civilians or it will eventually make the soul-searing decision that, if it is to save its own children, sometimes it will have to take action that harms Gazan children.

With regard to the West, Hamas’s use of its Dead-Child WMD is even more cynical and much more effective. Hamas has figured out that, when ignorant people, unaware of the real nature of the combatants in this war, see pictures of dead children, they will automatically cast Israel as the bad actor. In this scenario, Gaza – which freely elected the tyrannical, genocidal, brutal, anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, misogynistic, homophobic Hamas to govern it – is transformed into the hapless and helpless victim of a predatory Jewish nation.

Of course, any WMD is useless if it just sits there. It requires a delivery system. Fat Man and Little Boy would have been merely decorative if it wasn’t for the Enola Gay. Hamas also requires a delivery system for its Dead-Child WMD. Without that delivery system, the Dead-Child WMD is useless. If you’re a death cult, dead children are just one of those things.

So who or what is the essential delivery system for the Dead-Child WMD, without which the WMD would be inoperative? Again, the answer is simple: The Western media has become an indispensable part of the Dead-Child WMD by becoming that weapon’s delivery system.

It’s the Western media that hungers for Gazan snuff films. It has an insatiable desire to fill its pages and screens with pictures of little corpses, of screaming children covered with blood, and of wailing women and children huddled around small, still bodies. This mentality demands a steady supply of dead bodies, the more heart-wrenching and disturbing the better. Put another way, the Western media is complicit in the death of those Palestinian children because, without its endless demands for more images showing small, bloodied bodies, the Dead-Child WMD would instantly become completely useless.

Much more at the link.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Roger L. Simon of PJ Media with Welcome To The 1930′s submitted by Nice Deb . It is a superb comment on what appears to be Déjà vu in one very disturbing aspect. It will move you – do read it.

Here are this week’s full results:

Council Winners

Non-Council Winners

See you next week! Don’t forget to tune in on Monday AM for this week’s Watcher’s Forum, as the Council and their invited guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day and weigh in… don’t you dare miss it. And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter… ’cause we’re cool like that!