Archive for March 7th, 2010
Sample Dialogue to Refute "She's a quitter!" nonsense from Lefty parrots
Conservatives4Palin is one of our favorite sites out there. We read it every day, and hope you do too.
Today, they posted something we wish we’d existed in 2006 to be able to do for Hillary Clinton: a set of sample dialogues to practice how to effectively take down the talking points Leftists get from the MSM and parrot back whenever they feel the need to attack Sarah Palin.
Today’s piece is targeted at taking down the “She’s a quitter!” attacks on Palin.
This is a marvelous strategy for getting people better informed, and helping supporters rationally counter the emotional outbursts and shouting the Left engages in.
Very, very smart.
Like we said, we wish we had the idea for HillBuzz two years earlier, because maybe then we would have made an impact in Iowa before the Caucus, using sample dialogue examples and other tactics to counter everything the Left was hitting Iowans with about Hillary…in the MSM’s efforts to win that Caucus for “The Lightbringer”.
The MSM is trying to keep Sarah Palin from the nomination in 2012, using the same tricks it used against Hillary. We are glad Conservatives4Palin is just one example of people who won’t let them get away with that.
Like we keep saying, anything we can ever do to prevent what was done to Hillary from ever being done again, count us in.
Academy Awards Open Thread
It’s a busy day here in Boystown.
Last night, we all went to the Chicago Takes Off benefit for TPAN, The Test Positive Awareness Network, an organization that raises awareness of the risks of HIV/AIDS and helps those living with the virus cope and fight their battles as best they can. It’s a very worthy cause we want to become more involved in going forward. One of our good friends in Philadelphia is Positive, and we’ve been volunteering the last year or so doing whatever we can to help people with HIV we know on a personal level. But, we want to do more, so expect to hear more about TPAN and other charities here in Chicago in the future. We knew several of the dancers who donated their time and talent to dance in Chicago Takes Off last night, which was themed “TV Outside the Box”.
Here are some photos via ChicagoPride.
We’re working on a full recap of the night, for those of you who’ve never been to a big, high-production quality, extravaganza of a fundraiser in the LGBTQ community…let alone a burlesque show like Broadway Bares or Chicago Takes Off. Since we know many of the people who staged, coreographed, managed, and danced in the event, we hope it will be a fun tale for you to read…as soon as we can get together, sit down, and write up our notes from last night.
Which is hard today because it’s Oscar Night, which is another of the High Gay Holidays here in Boystown. We’re going to an Oscar-themed costume party, where no doubt absolutely no one will get what we’re dressed as, which is always the case. Everyone will, of course, adore what Panda is wearing and will “get” his costume immediately, no matter how obscure it ends up being. ”Oooooh, I get it, you are Key Grip #2 from the set of “The Hurt Locker”. Verrrrrrrry clever, Mr. Panda!”. That sort of praise, and instant applause, for holding a key in his hand (gripping it, really), with a Band-Aid on his finger, carrying a little combination lock.
We’re exaggerating slightly, and have no idea what Panda’s going to wear tonight, but it really is amazing how well he can pull off just about any outfit and totally sell it to a crowd. You should have seen him as Mr. Belvedere last night at Chicago Takes Off. But, more on that later.
As for the Oscars, we’re rooting for Sandra Bullock for Best Actress, Monique for Best Supporting Actress, and we hope Avatar doesn’t win Best Picture. We’re wondering what the crowd’s response will be to Michael Jackson when clips of him are aired during the “Dead Celebrities” montage, which will be the last of the “Michael Jackson Tributes” we’ll see for a while. Will the audience go nuts and cheer, or will it be as muted as the rest of the applause for those who passed since the last Academy Awards? Panda’s still wearing his black arm band in memory of “MJ”, but some of us think he’s just hiding a wart or something on that elbow. It wouldn’t be the first time.
We really don’t care about the Best Actor awards, and dread the political speeches many of the winners will no doubt make…but wonder just how political anyone will get seeing everyone in attendance, for the most part, at the Kodak Theater voted for Dr. Utopia and should be thrilled with the Golden Age of Hope and Change in which we are living. If they aren’t, then we doubt they will say anything about it on TV, the way they used their once-in-a-lifetime chance to speak directly to billions to criticize President Bush repeatedly through eight years.
If we had a chance to speak to that large of an audience for 45 seconds, there’s no way we’d say anything bad about anyone, no matter how terrible they are. We wouldn’t read a list of names on the air either. Instead, we’d ask all the people watching what they do after they leave a movie theater in which they sat quietly with strangers for two hours in the dark. Do you ever try to meet any of those people you shared that experience with? Do you go out into the world and interact with those around you and try to be as excellent to one another as you can? Do you find the things you share in common and embrace them, instead of focusing on the things that divide you, or the minor disagreements on certain issues the MSM exploits to keep us forever engaged in culture wars, never accomplishing anything because we’re so divided all the time.
Movies are great. Sometimes. Getting involved in your community, meeting your neighbors, organizing like-minded people to stand up to government encroachment in our lives and the radical Leftist takeover of the country is more important. Always.
We try to communicate this here on our little site every day. If we had 45 seconds to talk directly to the world, we guarantee we wouldn’t squander that chance to pump people up as much as we could to hit the ground running the next day to do some good. Volunteer with the USO. Start helping TPAN or another charity you like in your home town. Knock on the neighbors’ doors and meet them and see if they need any help with anything. DO SOMETHING. It’s fun to sit in the dark and watch movies once in a while. Movies are part of the pop culture that unites us, as they’re things all of us will typically see no matter who we are, or what we think about other things.
Just imagine if we could somehow use a love of watching movies to form a bridge to discover what else we all have in common, instead of falling into the MSM trap of focusing on what sets us apart.
What would you say if you had the chance to speak at something as huge as the Academy Awards, with 45 seconds of live speech before billions?
What would you want to communicate, how would you put it, and how would you best use your time?
Question: Do you support measures like "Soda Taxes" in cash-strapped cities raising revenue from unhealthy choices?
Our friend Joe in Philadelphia is up in arms this morning because Mayor Nutter wants to tax soda pop to raise more money for the city. ”He can’t do that! It’s wrong! I need my Pepsi”, Joe emailed us, in a huff. ”This is racist. Why aren’t they taxing milk? Only the dark drink gets taxed, I see how it is”.
Joe’s kidding about the soda-racism, but somewhere we can imagine Al Sharpton, Henry Gates, and Jesse Jackson wondering “Why didn’t we think of that? To the Race-Baiting Huckster Mobiles!”.
We’ve been trying to stop drinking soda pop altogether, but have to admit we will forever love an ice cold Coke in that red and white can. We try to limit it to one or two of those a month, and treat it like eating a candy bar for a special treat, so we don’t think we’ll remove Coke from our lives completely.
But, honestly, if soda pop was taxed so that it was definitely more expensive than healthier-choices, even on Special Treat Day we’d think twice about indulging in it. So, that’s a tax that could inadvertently help us get ready for swimsuit season here at Hollywood Beach in Boystown. It would be a tax that could raise more money for the cash-strapped city, while making us decide whether or not paying that extra fee for liquid candy is worth it.
But, we see the slippery slope here.
It’s Nanny State time, trying to alter your behavior and diet by taxing the liquid candy.
Now, the operative question is, do you knee-jerk rebel against that Nannystatism, like Joe does, because you’re purist and you do that every time you think the government is trying to social-engineer….or do you stop and think about times when taxing an unhealthy product might be a good thing?
We know about a dozen smokers who only quit because they could no longer afford to smoke here in Chicago. They never stopped no matter how much people told them they were killing themselves with cancer sticks. It took taxes and fees to make them give up the habit. That means they are healthier and better off now, because something they used to like doing became too government-mandated expensive for them to continue.
Is that a good thing? What’s the slippery slope that it causes?
What if the government decided to tax NASCAR because the Left doesn’t like conservatives and independents assembling together like they do across the country at NASCAR events? It’s a ridiculous example, but what IF the party in power leveled taxes as a weapon targeted at the things the opposing party enjoys, just to make life miserable for them?
When does the use of tax as a social change agent cross a line? How can it be abused?
Or, does the social change slippery slope argument not matter because it’s really actually a good thing to tax soda and cigarettes and other things that are bad for people’s health? If the benefit is healthier people and more tax dollars for cities that claim to need it, are these tax schemes a good thing?
What think you?
Sunday Open Thread: March 7th, 2010
What’s on your minds this Sunday?
***********
SNL 3/6/10: Democrats don't consider the popularity of what they are doing.
Saturday Night Live’s cold open spoofed Dr. Utopia’s Healthcare Rationing bill, and how unpopular it is with American voters. In the sketch, Utopia says there’s no way possible for Nancy Pelosi to lose her seat in the House, saying “Republicans in San Francisco finish fourth in elections, behind dominatrixes and homeless people”. That’s not really all that far off the mark. Utopia then says Harry Reid is a different story, and would probably lose no matter how popular the Rationing bill is, because he’s not telegenic and people generally don’t like him all that much.
The sketch’s tone was that Democrats are just completely out of synch with the public and how unpopular what they are doing is with voters. That was the world that was used repeatedly, “unpopular”.
We’re still trying to process what the writers intended with the sketch: was it to show Democrats how foolish they being in the face of what the public wants, or was it to encourage Democrats to stay the course, and not consider the “popularity” of what they are doing…meaning, to convince them popularity does not matter?
If you haven’t seen the sketch, you can watch it on Hulu here. What did you think of it?
********
Professor Jacobsen at LegalInsurrection has done it again: another excellent piece, describing the Healthcare Rationing push for Democrats not as the Waterloo some in the media have been calling it, but as STALINGRAD. Very thought provoking. What did you think of his article?
********
AmericanThinker has the Top Films of the Golden Age of Hope and Change. Something funny to read on Oscar Day.
