World News Korner

Courtesy of ABC News:

Pope Francis on Monday criticized abortion as evidence of a "throwaway culture" that wastes people as well as food, saying such a mentality is a threat to world peace.

Saying hunger is a threat to world peace, he noted that not only food but human beings themselves are often discarded as unnecessary.

"We cannot be indifferent to those suffering from hunger, especially children, when we think of how much food is wasted every day in many parts of the world immersed in what I have often termed 'the throwaway culture,'" Francis said.

That culture, he said, also affects the unborn child.

"For example, it is frightful even to think that there are children, victims of abortion, who will never see the light of day," he said. Francis has generally limited his exhortations about abortion, saying church teaching is well known and that he prefers to speak less about the church's moralizing rules and more about its positive, welcoming message.

The idea that a woman deciding to terminate a pregnancy, especially in its early stages, is tantamount to throwing away a child is ludicrous enough, but comparing it to uneaten food that somebody else would take, which I take to mean they could be adopted, is intellectually dishonest.

The fact is that there are over a half million American children in this country waiting to be adopted, and millions more around the world, most who will most likely never find a home to take them in.

The idea that there is a home for every child born on this planet is a fantasy, and one that is constantly pushed by the anti-abortion zealots to guilt young women into carrying their pregnancy to term.

The statistics claim that there are 125,000 fetuses aborted each day, or 44,500,000 each year.

And according to the Pope each and every one of those children deserve to be born. That is 44,5000,000 new human beings each year, born onto a planet already bursting at the seams with 7 billion people.

7 billion people eating the available food, using the limited resources, and adding to the pollution which threatens to turn our planet into charcoal briquette in the not too distant future.

Of course the population could also be controlled through family planning methods, that used birth control to give women the choice of how many children they want to bear, and at what time they feel prepared to bear them.

But as we know the Catholic church, and the Pope, are adamantly against that as well.

Which is why the Pope's words ring so hollow.

Simply put he cannot express frustration over the number of people starving to death in the world while also demanding that every sexual act should have the option of resulting in a fertilized egg, and that each fertilized egg should result in a new life on this planet.

If the Pope really believes that the food wasted by the wealthy is enough to meet the needs of forty four and half million new lives each year, it is time for him to put down the Bible and pick up a science book.

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Courtesy of Gawker:

Women might want to think twice before working for Bill O’Reilly. According to Gabriel Sherman’s new book, The Loudest Voice in the Room, the top Fox News anchor grew so enraged at a female producer after a botched segment in 2003 that, in order to defuse the situation, “a senior Fox executive” intervened and escorted the crying producer out of News Corp’s Midtown headquarters.“

After one taping, he stormed toward his staff’s cubicles and tore into a young female producer, whom he blamed for botching a segment,” Sherman writes in Loudest Voice, which until today had been under a strict press embargo. “Staffers watched in shock as O’Reilly, easily a foot taller than the woman, started yelling and slamming his fist down on a shelf.”

“He got really close and in her face,” an onlooker told Sherman; “She was scared he was going to hit her,” said another. (The name of the producer is not revealed.)

Eventually O’Reilly vanished, after which “a senior Fox executive was called in and escorted the woman, in tears, out of the building to calm her down.” The famously vindictive anchor never apologized.

You may remember that O'Reilly has a history of losing his temper, and producer Andrea Mackris accused him of sexual harassment (the now famous falafel incident) he threatened to have Roger Ailes destroy her.

I don't think that it comes as any surprise that O'Reilly is a bully, and on a cable network that habitually presents women as blonde bimbos, and hires the likes of Sarah Palin, it should come as no surprise that nobody protected this woman from this kind of abuse.

After all as CNN's Jeff Zucker recently pointed out, Fox News is just a front for the Republican party ,and we all know how THEY feel about women.

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Courtesy of TPM:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) is not a serious threat to Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) in the 2014 senate race because she is so "disconnected" from the state, the incumbent told the Huffington Post in an interview published Monday.

"She would be a formidable opponent in the Republican [primary], but I have no worry or fear of her," Begich told the Huffington Post. "I think she is so disconnected from Alaska now that I'm not sure she even knows what's going on."

Begich isn't positive Palin is a resident of Alaska anymore.

"I'm not even sure if she still lives in the state," he said.

I think Mark is well aware that the Caribou Barbie of Alaska has now been replaced by the Scorpion Sarah of Arizona. And as for her understanding of Alaska polities, well it really was not all that good to start with, and there is little doubt it has degraded since then.

By the way I chose that picture of Mark because Dennis sent it to me, and becasue it made Begich look aggressive, and "usually he is always smiling."

I think I would be smiling too if people thought my biggest challenge in 2014 was Sarah "I quit" Palin.

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Courtesy of Click 2 Houston:

State Sen. Wendy Davis announced several education proposals Thursday aimed at recruiting new public school teachers in Texas, including guaranteeing admission to state universities for top students who want to teach, raising teacher pay and offering student loan forgiveness.

The Democratic front-runner for governor didn't say how much her ideas would cost. She said she intended to use "existing state resources" and would not seek a tax increase.

"I do believe that education must be the No. 1 priority that we address as a state," Davis said at a round table at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Davis said high school students in the top 20 percent of their classes should be guaranteed admission to the University of Texas at Austin or other state institutions and a job teaching in a state school after graduation.

She said the state should forgive one year of student loan debt for every teacher who works two years in a qualifying school, and that loan forgiveness should be available to potential teachers in all fields of study.

Davis said Texas teachers were underpaid and decried stories of some teachers working a second or third job to make ends meet, saying they "simply aren't earning enough." According to the National Education Association, the national teachers' union, starting Texas teachers were paid about $1,000 less than the national average during the 2011-12 academic year.

She also wants to boost the number of teacher's aides and school counselors in the state.

If you had asked me even a year ago if it were possible for there to be a candidate so amazing that I would actually want to move to Texas to vote for them, I would have laughed in your face.

Wendy Davis is one such candidate.

If you are reading this while living in Texas I implore you to do everything you can to help this woman get elected as governor.

I think it will do wonders for the children of your state, for the women in your state, and for the Democratic party in your state.

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Courtesy of HuffPo:

Fox News already ruled the ratings and boasts annual earnings of around $1 billion. Most network chiefs would be ecstatic. But Ailes isn’t like most –- or really, any -– other top cable news executives. A visionary in the world of political messaging on television, Ailes had advised three past Republican presidents on how to use the medium to their advantage. And now he planned to use his talents for the party once more.

With the exception of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Ailes had privately knocked the 2008 Republican field as the “seven dwarves" and wasn't impressed with the crop of 2012 contenders. He unsuccessfully tried twice to convince Christie to run in 2012 and sent an emissary to Afghanistan with hopes that Gen. David Petraeus would enter the race.

During a meeting at Fox, Ailes told candidate Jon Huntsman, who had a solid conservative record as Utah governor, he was “not of our orthodoxy” because of his views on climate change. He grew frustrated with Fox News contributor Sarah Palin, who ended up sitting out the 2012 race, and had misgivings about the party's eventual nominee, Mitt Romney. Ailes once privately told a Fox host that Romney is "like Chinese food -- 20 minutes after you eat it, you can't remember what you had."

How Ailes tried to get a Republican president elected in 2012 is revealed in The Loudest Voice In The Room, author Gabriel Sherman's sweeping biography of the television luminary, from his humble Warren, Ohio, roots to becoming the “most powerful opposition figure in the country.” The book will be on sale Tuesday.

Those revelations are not exactly shocking, but it is good that they are being presented to the public again to remind them that Fox News has NOTHING to do with journalism and everything to do with partisan politics and the naked attempt to control the narrative.

However there are more than a few tidbits that I found very interesting.

Roger Ailes is just as paranoid and crazed as Glenn Beck:

Fox News dialed up the anti-Obama rhetoric as soon as Obama took office, with Glenn Beck’s 5 p.m. show launching in Jan. 2009. Beck, who turned the network’s afternoon “black hole” into a ratings bonanza, ignited controversy months later by claiming Obama harbored a “deep-seated hatred for white people.” Sherman wrote that Ailes privately told executives he agreed with Beck’s remark.

Ailes, who is prone to fits of rage and appears in the book as increasingly paranoid, holds a number of theories about Obama and the Democrats. Sherman wrote how Ailes “told his advisers that if Obama were reelected, he could be prosecuted and jailed, like a political prisoner.” And a Murdoch family intimate told Sherman that Ailes believed the Democratic National Committee "had targeted him [Ailes] for assassination."

Allowing Palin and Beck to spout their nonsense confused Karl Rove: Ailes' TV instincts proved correct as the anti-Obama right tuned in and ratings shot up. But some establishment Republicans worried about Ailes' political acumen as polarizing figures on Fox News, such as Palin and Beck, began to define the party.

“Why are you letting Palin have the profile?” veteran Republican operative Karl Rove asked Ailes in a meeting, according to the book. “Why are you letting her go on your network and say the things she’s saying? And Glenn Beck? These are alternative people who will never be elected and they’ll kill us.”

Hate to agree with Rove about anything, but he was clearly correct.

Ailes also provided help to Paul Ryan:During the final months of the 2012 campaign:

Ailes helped prep vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan and recommended an adviser to help with his television performance, according to the book.

And was behind an Obama hit piece that aired the day after the first Presidential debate, and served as a huge embarrassment for Fox News, which claimed they were not responsible for its creation.

So I don't know about the rest of you but come Tuesday I will be doing some serious reading. This book looks like just the thing to remind me as to why I hate Fox News so much.

Not that I require much to remind me of course.

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Courtesy of the Washington Post:

President Obama will deliver his highly anticipated speech on reforms to the National Security Agency on Jan. 17, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Friday.

Carney did not elaborate on what the president will say when he outlines his vision for changes to the NSA’s vast surveillance activities. The address comes in the wake of disclosures from documents stolen by former government contractor Edward Snowden.

Obama and his aides have been focused behind the scenes this week on finishing a review of the spy programs and preparing for the president’s address to the nation. Privacy and civil liberties activists, along with top executives of technology company, are calling on the president to adopt sweeping reforms to curb the NSA’s collection of phone call metadata and personal information of online users.

These reforms are based on the 46 recommendations of the review group that was appointed by the President back in 2013. How many of the recommendations he will implement is still an open question.

I have said it before, but it bears repeating, the President HAS to do something significant on this issue or risk having his Presidency defined as an administration that had no respect for the privacy of the citizens of this country.

I think that it actually an unfair assertion, however there is no doubt that it has become a popular meme among a segment of the liberal demographic.

If President Obama wants to redefine his legacy he needs to do something that earns back at least some of that confidence in his respect for our rights.

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Click collagen injected lips to play video

This is an incredibly softball interview, where the interviewer literally gushes all over Palin for just under four minutes. However there are a few interesting tidbits to be gleaned.

For example those wondering if Todd actually accompanied Palin to this press junket, she does gesture off camera to him at the 1:32 mark suggesting that he would be a better choice to go on "Dancing with the Stars" than she would. (As if her family has not embarrassed themselves enough in the public eye.)

She also mentions that her whole family is going to make appearances on her show, which indicates that this might be more of a reality show than we have been led to believe.

Palin also delivers her usual busted out phrases, such as "live vibrantly," "bust through an open door," "freedom in America," you get the drift. However she also tries to reinvigorate her Palinisms with a misquoted reference to Plato, which as a philosophy nerd really burned my ass.

At one point the interviewer asks Palin how she "looks so awesome." Especially since she spends so much "time in the wild." (Oh gag me!)

Rather than be honest, and talk about her numerous plastic surgery procedures and wig makers, Palin instead states that her tips for "getting the glam" is to "offer to pay one of your daughter's tuition to hair school, which we did. Willow is now a hairdresser."

Palin also admits that Bristol is the one who helps her to pick out her hooker shoes and is now attending beauty school as well, however instead of hair she is focusing on skin. (So apparently, using the Palin vernacular, she is attending "skin school.")

Interesting to me that Palin has worked it so that all of her hair and makeup is now kept within the family, which insulates her from embarrassing stories getting out about the fact she is going bald or receiving plastic surgery enhancements.

Just in case you were wondering if this family could look anymore like a cult. Sure can.

So it appears that we can look forward to the Palin clan making appearances on the Sportsman channel, and selling their tired old family mythology, only it will now be sold on a channel that many of us, myself included, do not even have access to.

After this I understand that Palin will be making appearances on local public access stations until even they realize that she is driving away the half dozen viewers that tune in each each day.

Update: In another interview with Extra's Mario Lopez Palin cannot help but twist the knife concerning the cancellation of Katie Couric's talk show:

Lopez introduced a question about Katie Couric, who helped torpedo Palin’s 2008 vice presidential bid by asking her what newspapers and magazines she read, by asking Palin if she believed in karma.

“I certainly believe that what goes around comes around,” Palin said, smiling.

She told Lopez that she couldn’t remember where she was when she heard Couric’s talk show had been canceled, but she heard from several friends about it.

“I remember getting a couple of texts that said things like, ‘Oh, sorry that it didn’t work out there at CBS or ABC,’” Palin said, adding that she wasn’t surprised Couric had stepped down as anchor of CBS News.

“The ratings were going in the tank with her as one of the head honchos there in the newsroom at CBS and then it didn’t surprise me, her other move,” Palin said. “Things weren’t going real well there, either.”

Yep, that's the Sarah Palin we know and loathe, bitter and nasty to til the end.

Update 2: Here is part two of the Access Hollywood interview. (Beware, LOT'S of baby talk.)

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