Barred from Communion?

Rhode Island Representative Patrick J. Kennedy was recently banned from receiving communion by the Roman Catholic bishop of Providence. Why? The bishop believes that since Kennedy supports abortion, then he is not a true Catholic. Bishop Tobin said "If you freely choose to be a Catholic, it means you believe certain things, you do certain things,” Bishop Tobin said at the time. “If you cannot do all that in conscience, then you should perhaps feel free to go somewhere else.” In a way, this is understandable because abortion is against what the Catholic Church believes, but on the other hand it seems wrong to deny any person who wishes to receive communion that right. What do you think? Was Bishop Tobin right to deny communion to Kennedy or not?

"An Inconvenient Truth" Turns Out To Be Gore's Convenient Lie...

Everyone is familiar with Al Gore's movie. Why? Because most all of us have been forced to watch this garbage in not one, but several classes at school. It has been famed for helping to "revitalize" the environmentalist movement. When the movie first came out, there were several errors found in the "facts" that Gore presented to his audience. But recently, a British court found that Gore's film contains 9 significant errors and has said that the film should no longer be shown to students in schools unless the viewing is accompanied by "guidance notes that balance Gore's 'one sided' views." Just one small example of something that Gore just threw out there that was not backed with research is the claim that polar bears are endangered. I know some of you may be reading this and thinking that I'm crazy for even questioning the profound scholar's claims. I am doubting Gore's claims for one simple reason: they are only claims and with no research. Recently, there was an environmental journalist conference where Gore was the key speaker. At the conference, Irish journalist Phelim McAleer, confronted Gore on several issues including the polar bear claims:

"When asked by McAleer whether he would do anything to correct the errors found by the British court, Gore said he wouldn't go through each of the errors but added that the ruling was in favor of screening the film in schools.

"There's been such a long discussion of each one of those specific things," he said. "One of them for example was that polar bears really aren't endangered. Well polar bears didn't get that word." The audience laughed.

Phelim countered that the number of polar bears has increased and is increasing.

"You don't think they're endangered?" Gore asked.

"The number has increased," McAleer repeated, prompting the same question from Gore. "If the number of polar bears has increased, surely they're not in danger."

Before McAleer could say anything else, he was interrupted by environmental journalists who said it wasn't a debate and shut off his microphone."

Another interesting fact that I think interesting and necessary to share is the fact that much of the temperatures that Gore presents in his movie are false. I had to do a research project on this movie, so I set out to find what I could about where Gore got all his information and facts. As a result, I found that Gore's so-called evidence of how the temperatures have increased over time are anything but evidence. He received his information from NASA on how much the temperatures have risen over the past several years. Interestingly, I found that the same temperatures Gore presents in his movie are the same ones that were edited by NASA. In other words, these temperatures were temporarily and artificially inflated on NASA's records, but were later fixed to reflect the real temperatures. Hmm.... Sounds more like a convenient lie to make money rather than an inconvenient truth....

Obama's Response to the Fort Hood Shooting

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/06/obamas-response-fort-hood-shooting-scrutiny/

As Obama addressed the nation on the Fort Hood shooting, he almost appeared to think the incident not important because he addressed other things in an informal way. One would think that a shooting on an army base would be so significant that the President of the United States would treat the incident with the utmost care and sensitivity. However, that did not seem to be the case with President Obama. He began by giving a "shout out" to someone in the audience and by using the opportunity of being on television to further push his health care agenda rather than addressing a possible incident of terrorism on an American army base. I think this behavior is absolutely inexcusable and just flat out ridiculous! In hard times, many people look to the president for reassurance, but that's not what they got this time. The American people were simply warned not to jump to any conclusions of the shooting. To me, it was just a heartless move, especially to all of those people in Texas that desperately needed to hear something reassuring from their commander in chief.

Mrs. Palin's Media Attention

Of all of the 2008 Presidential Candidates, none have kept the media's attention the way Sarah Palin has, and she was only a Vice Presidential candidate! I find it very interesting that the media continues to follow a woman that they have portrayed as ignorant and dismissed from having a place in the future politics of America. The claims have been that she doesn't have many supporters and that people couldn't care less about her, but as we have seen this week with her new book tour people have stood in lines over night for these events. Even more, Palin appeared on Oprah's show this week to discuss the campaign and her new book. Having Sarah Palin on Oprah's show drew the largest crowd and highest ratings for Oprah's talk show in YEARS. It is clear that she still has an impressive place in future politics and in the future of the Republican Party.

Everyone remembers the interview Sarah Palin had with Katie Couric. It was one of many attacks on Sarah. But the attacks continue even after the election. Why? I have found one main reason to be jealousy. If you ask people why they don't like her, they have no problem with saying how jealous they are of her. Women are jealous of her looks and of her success. So it is no surprise that the attacks continue when it is clear that Palin continues to draw huge crowds.

Just this week, another attack came from the Associated Press. This time it was on Palin's new book, Going Rogue. Reportedly, the AP has given 11 reporters the duty to fact check this new book, but did not do the same for either of Obama's books. Why? It's simple. The press is doing anything and everything in their power to try to catch her in a slip-up. It's not that I don't think that politicians should be fact checked, but I do believe that there should be some form of standardization when it comes to things like this. If Palin's book is going to be checked for telling the truth, then so should every other politician's book.

Media Doing Their Job For Once

So it seems that this website that was made by the Obama administration to track how and where the $787 billion stimulus was being spent may still "blow you away", but in a different way than the administration meant to. One of the many examples of the huge mess up is the fact that the website claims to have saved or created 30 jobs in Arizona's 15th Congressional district. The problem is the fact that Arizona has only 8 districts. The website's creators are putting the blame off on the recipients by saying that they sometimes give incorrect information, but you would like to think that a government agency would have do just a little investigating before publishing information like that to ensure that it is correct. Anyone can receive the information from the recipients and punch in a few numbers on a website. Government agencies should be held to a higher accountability. Part of me believes that the administration artificially inflated and created these numbers to simply help its image. What do you think?

Abortion under the new health care legislation

The House passed an amendment to the current health care legislation that will prohibit any federal dollars from going to abortion services. However, this does exclude abortions that are done due to rape, incest, or if the mother's life is in danger. I believe that this was an appropriate move because it is not right for people to be able to have abortions at the cost of tax payers simply because they accidentally got pregnant. This issue is important not only to Republicans, but to many Democrats as well. On this issue, 66 Democrats split from the rest of their party. It will be interesting to see how these same representatives will vote tonight on the overall health care legislation. What do you think?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/11/07/health.care/index.html

The "Balloon Boy" Excitement

So, I'm sure that everyone has heard the story about Balloon Boy by now. How could you not? The story took over all forms of media because the whole world was sitting and waiting for the balloon to land to see if the little boy was inside. When the balloon landed without anyone in it, a gasp could have been heard throughout the world. Fast forwarding a little, the boy was "found" hiding in a box inside the garage at his home. Everyone was relieved, but the story that had made its way to the headlines of every news source continued even though the actual story was over with, perhaps for a good reason. When the dad and son appeared on Larry King Live, the boy was asked about why he was hiding and he responded by saying that his dad "said it was all for the show". Immediately, it became obvious exactly what had happened--the entire thing was a hoax. But why?

Apparently the dad was hoping that this incident would help land his family a reality TV show. New information continues to come out including the fact that the parents called a news station to alert them of the incident before they even called the police. Even more, it came out this morning that the media was even in on this whole scam and that they PAID this family to do this entire stunt! Why? Because this media knew that this incident could help make them MONEY. The family did this stunt because they thought that the reality show would make them MONEY. If the media was indeed in on this hoax, it does nothing more than support the idea that the media's trust is being washed away little by little...

The Flood of 2009

As everyone knows, several parts of Georgia suffered severe damages due to the recent flooding—some right here in Cobb County. At the moment that it was clear that there would be significant flooding, the news media began to disperse in the affected areas in order to broadcast the situation to the public. They instantly jumped on the opportunity so that they could say they were the first on the scene because being first on the scene translates into more effectively serving the public. Pictures and horror stories continued to pour in of deaths, loss of homes, cars, and schools. Like the media, Governor Purdue wasted almost no time in visiting the affected areas by air to view the damage. After doing so, he held a press conference to announce that he would be sending a request to President Obama to declare 17 counties as a state of emergency in order to receive federal aid. As Georgia waited for a response, the media continued to display the horrifying pictures and stories. This effort either directly or indirectly influenced the amount of time it took to get a response from the federal government. Since President Bush had been accused by the media of taking his time to help those affected by Hurricane Katrina, President Obama probably did not want the same thing on his plate. So, he immediately sent Vice President Biden to Georgia to evaluate the damage and to speed up the process of making the federal funds available to Georgians affected by the flood. Either way you look at it, the media plays a significant role in influencing our leaders and their actions. Sometimes the public actually benefits from the media.

Breaking News: David Letterman had sex…

As I get in my car at 5:00 A.M. and turn the radio on, what is the first thing I hear that early in the morning? It wasn’t about health care, the possibility of the Olympics coming to Chicago, or about the economy. Surprisingly, the headlines of the morning were about a celebrity, David Letterman. Apparently on the previous night’s show, Letterman shared with his audience the fact that an individual had placed a letter in his car that stated that this individual knew a variety of “bad things” Letterman had done and that it would destroy Letterman’s career. The individual then proceeded to say in the letter that he wanted $2 million from Letterman in order to not come out to the media about the “bad things” mentioned in the letter. At this point, Letterman also shared with his audience what these allegations were. Apparently, Letterman had sex with a woman on his staff at the show and this individual thought he could benefit monetarily from this incident. Even though the talk show host was actually trying to be serious for once, his audience still laughed the entire time because this incident was providing ENTERTAINMENT.

Needless to say, this incident would not only provide entertainment/news for the rest of that day, but will also continue for days or weeks to come. This is just another of the thousands of examples of media losing its credibility of bringing important news to the public. A man had sex with a woman. So what? I do not really think this justifies taking over the news for days just to report something that is not out of the ordinary.

Obama Loves the Little Children, all the children of the world.......or was that Jesus?

1st Song:
“Mm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
He said that all must lend a hand
To make this country strong again
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
He said we must be fair today
Equal work means equal pay
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
He said that we must take a stand
To make sure everyone gets a chance
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
He said red, yellow, black or white
All are equal in his sight
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
Yes!
Mmm, mmm, mm
Barack Hussein Obama”

2nd Song:

Hello, Mr. President we honor you today!
For all your great accomplishments, we all doth say "hooray!"
Hooray, Mr. President! You're number one!
The first black American to lead this great nation!
Hooray, Mr. President we honor your great plans
To make this country's economy number one again!
Hooray Mr. President, we're really proud of you!
And we stand for all Americans under the great Red, White, and Blue!
So continue ---- Mr. President we know you'll do the trick
So here's a hearty hip-hooray ----
Hip, hip hooray!
Hip, hip hooray!
Hip, hip hooray!

Recently, there was a video posted on YouTube and Fox News of elementary school children in New Jersey being taught to sing both of the above songs by their school teacher. The first song uses the song “Jesus Loves the Little Children”, but the teachers have taught the children to replace Jesus’ name with “Barack Hussein Obama”. Should this be allowed? Should this song be allowed to be taught to innocent children that have almost no idea what they’re being subjected to? I don’t think so. By using this well known Christian song as praise for Obama, the teachers are merely telling the children that Obama has “savior-like” qualities. While I believe that it is of the utmost importance to teach school children respect for our government and especially our president, I think this is absolutely ridiculous. I cannot help but to think of similar situations that occurred under the infamous Adolf Hitler when the school children were corrupted into praising him. I think a stop needs to be put this and it must be stopped now. What do you think?

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/24/elementary-school-students-reportedly-taught-songs-praising-president-obama/

Mass Media: Washed Out

Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Louisiana coast on August 29, 2005. Up to that day, several warnings and evacuations had been issued for everyone that was at risk of being in the path of this monstrous hurricane. While many heeded the warnings, some (including the media) chose to stay so that they could experience what it feels like to be blown off the map. Even right up to the minute that the storm was making landfall, the media was standing in the streets reporting that the hurricane was actually making landfall, big surprise.
Immediately after the hurricane had moved through New Orleans, it became clear that there was widespread damage and an innumerable amount of people that had been killed by the storm. The media immediately jumped on this opportunity to televise looting, deaths, hunger, and destruction because they knew that would get them the most viewers. Additionally, even though the hurricane had struck more places in the United States than just New Orleans, all the media seemed to be concentrated there and only giving New Orleans the attention. What many people failed to realize is the fact that other places like Biloxi, Mississippi sustained as much, if not more, damage than did New Orleans. It almost seemed as if the media had already planned out how everything would go. Meaning, they knew that New Orleans is a predominantly African American area and if they broadcasted something as controversial as present day racism, then that would really get them the viewers they wanted. All in all, it seems that everyday the media becomes more about selling the news as entertainment rather than simply reporting what the public needs to hear. Perhaps, when Hurricane Katrina washed out many parts of the Gulf Coast it did the same for the credibility of the media.