So, THAT Happened: Ted Cruz has a Coloring Book out in Time for Christmas!

Ugh. As anyone who reads my blog knows, I find Ted Cruz to be exceptionally creepy looking in virtually every photograph. To say nothing of his smarmy demeanor, his craven politics, and on and on. The perfect subject for a children's coloring book. In hell.

[Excerpt]



Image from source, Think Progress. They didn't
quite capture the creepiness.

There’s Now A Coloring Book To Teach Your Children To Love Ted Cruz
 
Are you a new parent terrified that the liberal media will turn your child into an Obama supporter? Or do you just need something to entertain your kids during those long drives to Tea Party rallies? If so, then a brand new coloring book is just the thing for your family! The “Ted Cruz to the Future™ – Comic Coloring Activity Book” is a “non-partisan, fact-driven view of how Texas Sen. Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz became a U.S. senator and details, through his quotes and public information his ideas for what he believes will help America grow,” according to its publisher Really Big Coloring Books. . .

Read more at: Think Progress

Dispatches from the War on Christmas, Parts 1 - 4 (Kenny Pick)

These are truly hilarious and well done Ken Burns-style parodies, as if "The War on Christmas" was a real thing, by Kenny Pick who (like Rocky Mountain Mike and several other talented folks) is famous partly for his appearances on The Stephanie Miller Show. I'll run some more clips soon, but they're all available at Kenny's SoundCloud portal, here.

 

Sarah Palin, The Little Dumber Girl (Rocky Mountain Mike Song Parody)

Ha! Some holiday cheer from Rocky Mountain Mike.

Satanists to Build Monument Next to Oklahoma Ten Commandments?

Image from source, Wonkette

Unintended consequences. That's what "good Christians" tempt, every time they try to insert their religion into matters of state. If you allow The Ten Commandments or a crèche at the state courthouse, you have to allow similar things from other religions. They're not all "nice" religions, from the Christian perspective. But they should have thought of that, shouldn't they? And what constitutes a "religion," anyway? Couldn't just about anybody invent a religion, ordain themselves a priest, and--ahem--erect any kind of monument their religion might think of?

[Excerpt]

Satanists Generously Offer To Build Monument Next To Oklahoma Statehouse’s 10 Commandments Display

In a move that pretty much says “I’ll see your rhetorical question and raise you an ugly public monument,” a group calling itself the “Satanic Temple” has offered to display a big ol’ monument in honor of the Hornéd One, to be installed on the Statehouse grounds near the state’s display of the 10 Commandments. These are the dadaist religious trolls who made “God hate Fred Phelps’s mom last night back in July. Best of all, the epic trolling appears to be sanctioned under the 2009 law that erected the 10 Commandments at the statehouse. We hope the Pastafarians will be next, because noodles are yummy. . .

Read more at Wonkette

Blast from the Past; Holiday Cheer Edition: Christmas Specials!

The Christmas fairies (both of us) blew in to our household this weekend, featuring a) a spectacular full-wrap of light grids on the big bush out front (eight packs of lights!), and a small display (with a smaller tree) on the coffee table. That's about it this year. We'll be in and out so much over the holiday, there's just no point going overboard. But it's brought the Christmas spirit to Greenlee Gazette with it. However, I'm still shaking some flu-bug symptoms and I'm a little tuckered out. So, I'm going a little easy on myself for this post.

Below are the full videos of every Christmas specials I could find. Not the songs, best parts, or opening themes, the whole episodes. I don't even know as I type this how many I can find, but I'll give it a go! This will save you the time and effort of finding the shows on TV or on video.

1. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964, Rankin-Bass)
2. Jack Frost (1979, Rankin-Bass)
 

3. Year Without a Santa Claus (1974, Rankin-Bass) Part I
4. Year Without a Santa Claus (1974, Rankin-Bass) Part II
 

5. Frosty the Snowman & Frosty Returns (1968, 1992, Rankin-Bass/Lorne Michaels)
6. Yes, Viriginia, There is a Santa Claus (1974, Bill Melendez)
 

Those are the biggies I could find.  I could only find bits and pieces (or Spanish language versions) of Santa Claus is Coming to Town and the original A Charlie Brown Christmas. There are lots of others, but these are--to me--the quintessential Christmas specials of my childhood. Hope you enjoyed 'em! In the next couple of weeks, I'll be posting numerous Holiday Cheer posts on the blog, so be on the lookout. Happy Monday, and Merry Christmas!

Someone Please Explain This "War on Christmas" Video to Me

Seriously, I mean, WTF?

 

Liberal Talk KTLK-AM in Los Angeles to Become Conservative "The Patriot"

The drugster. Image from source, LA Times.

Well, crap. I've been listening to liberal talk radio at work since 2004, when searching for The O'Franken Factor, Al Franken's original show on the late "Air America Radio." Since those days, there have been several challenges to continue listening. We've never had liberal talk in Las Vegas (even though we voted for Barack Obama twice), so I've always had to seek out online stations to get my fix. iheartradio.com has been my solution, but I've still had to change stations here and there.

KTLK-AM out of Las Angeles has been my primary home. From that station, I can listen to The Stephanie Miller Show (highly rated in LA, by the way), and The Randi Rhodes Show. The rest of my listening day is really just filler, since I don't much care for Ed Schultz, and since The Thom Hartmann Program is on at the same time as Randi. But now that's going to change.

For some reason, KTLK is being changed to a conservative station, in liberal Los Angeles, California, which already has talk radio on KABC, KFI, KBRT (Christian talk), KOSS, and KRLA. KFI (which currently airs Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity) will change to all local talk. This leaves my programming up in the air again. Allegedly, this is to somehow boost KTLK's ratings, when in fact it will lose its entire current audience, and apparently absorb most of KFI's. Since both radio stations are owned by Clear Channel, I'm not sure I understand what they're doing, besides killing two stations and alienating their audiences.

Stephanie Miller is much more entertaining than a
drug-addled gas bag.

I'm sure I'll be able to find Stephanie Miller and her mooks somewhere on the dial, as long as this squeeze doesn't force them off the air altogether. But this move inspires quite a bit of frustration, irritation, and anger for me. For one thing, how does the myth of a "liberal media" persist when there is so little outlet for liberal political opinion? Where does Clear Channel get off using a circa-2002 branding of "Patriot?" Why on earth would they think killing their KFI brand is a good idea (I'm no fan of KFI, but it's a huge name in LA for conservatives)? Why yank Stephanie Miller, who is huge in the LA market?

I know that radio is a fickle business, and that KTLK has managed to stay in one format for quite a while, despite shake-ups with Air America, Nova-M, shuffling lineups caused by time-slot changes, and other issues. And I also know that every station, pretty much, has an audience that feels alienated by every format change. I think this move is for the sake of movement though. KFI is already owned by Clear Channel, and already runs the shows that are shifting to KTLK. How can bumping both sets of audiences, and then paying a whole new roster of local hosts be more cost effective and profitable?

I will be sniffing the air for whatever station picks up Stephanie Miller and Randi Rhodes. If the LA market doesn't offer a suitable alternative, I'll take my listening ears elsewhere. And you know what? If that station offers something better than LA has on from 9-noon and after 3, I might just stick around for that too. And I really hope it's not Clear Channel.

[Excerpt]

Clear Channel moving Rush Limbaugh from KFI to revamped KTLK

Rush Limbaugh's radio tirades will have a new home on Los Angeles airwaves next year. KFI-AM (640) is losing the conservative host's three-hour show, long a fixture on the station, to KTLK-AM (1150), which owner Clear Channel is hoping to pump up as an outlet exclusively dedicated to right-leaning chatter. . .

Read more at: Los Angeles Times
 

Sarah Palin Has No Idea What Happened with Martin Bashir

A world class idiot. Image from source, Raw Story.

MSNBC fired (or accepted the resignation of) Martin Bashir, after he made a very well-phrased suggestion that Sarah Palin eat shit. More or less. Palin had made a typical really bad analogy comparing the budget to slavery. Bashir gave a history lesson on the horrors of actual slavery, along with an allusion that Palin might deserve a very specific punishment afforded some particularly unfortunate slaves in the past. This begat a Right Wing World freak-out, followed by a very sincere (and I think, more thorough than necessary) apology by Bashir, followed by more faux outrage, followed by his dismissal.

So, the man apologized profusely, continued to take a critical drubbing and then was run out of his job. Apparently, FOX "News" thinks more should have been done to him, and has--as far as I know--not even broached the question of whether or not Palin's original comments were over the line. The question would be academic anyway, because Palin hasn't the first, foggiest clue what she herself is talking about.

Palin learned the art of the non-answer, either on the pageant circuit, the news studio, or the political stage. So, I will acknowledge that she has a very specific talent, and an aptitude for learning this one "stupid human trick." She can talk around any topic, sprinkling words that sound like she's saying something, maybe even something related to the topic. If you were a conservative fan, or an indifferent person who isn't paying attention, her peppy delivery, confident demeanor and that sparkling glint off of her lip gloss would make you think she's just a firecracker!

But Martin Bashir got something very, very right. He said, in part. . ."America’s resident dunce, Sarah Palin, scraping the barrel of her long deceased mind, and using her all-time favorite analogy in an attempt to sound intelligent about the national debt. . ." He also said, ". . . Given her well-established reputation as a world class idiot, it's hardly surprising that she should choose to mention slavery in a way that is abominable to anyone. . ."

In her response to questions by another of America's lesser lights, Elizabeth Hasselbeck, Palin proved Bashir's assessment accurate. Responding to the question of whether or not Bashir has been sufficiently shamed, Palin replied,

“My role is to accept his apology and be humble enough and to, you know, accept it and move on,”  So far, so good, though "role" was probably not the right word, she's hardly humble, and she had to throw in a "you know." She continued.  [Story continued below]



"But I just hope that unprovoked attacks like that don’t result in people being hesitant to jump in the arena anyway, to get out there and serve the public or start a business or really commit themselves to changing within their family, their community, their world, doing whatever they can despite the fact that, in this world, you are going to be hurt and attacks will come your way." Utter word salad, stream-of-consciousness, nonsense. The "attack" wasn't unprovoked. And what arena are these mythical "people" stepping into. . .starting a business and. . .changing within their. . .what? Martin Bashir is now going to be out there randomly criticizing people opening their own restaurants or, I don't know, putting a Florida room on their house?

But she didn't stop with that random, run-on sentence. She finished with this doozy: “The target of the attack is usually more significant than what the attack, the articulated words used, actually are, and that’s part of that doubled standard.” So, the target--Sarah Palin--is more significant than what Martin Bashir said about her, and that's a. . .double standard?

She has no idea what she herself is talking about. Martin Bashir's mistake was in assuming she had any clue what had come from her own mouth. She is a world class idiot.

[Excerpt]

Sarah Palin: People might be afraid to ‘start a business’ because Martin Bashir attacked me
 
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Thursday responded to Martin Bashir’s resignation from MSNBC by saying that she was used to being the victim of liberals, but she hoped that the former host’s attack did not stop other people from starting businesses. On Wednesday, Bashir had announced that he was resigning from MSNBC after suggesting that Palin deserved to eat human feces the way that slaves were once forced to for her remarks comparing the federal debt to slavery. . .

Read more at: Raw Story

Nelson Mandela Dead at 95

Image from source, CNN

You'd think I'd be more knowledgeable about Nelson Mandela and Apartheid in South Africa. After all, I'm a liberal, I came of age in the 1980s, and other than hunger in Ethiopia, Apartheid was the big liberal issue. But somehow, it just didn't resonate with me in Columbus, Ohio. I suppose if I'd been in a proper college for more than a year and a half, I may have been more involved in a student protest or something. But I couldn't miss stories about Mandela's imprisonment, release and later ascendance to the presidency.  I also couldn't miss his Morgan Freeman-like gravitas and class. RIP, Mr. Mandela.

[Excerpt]

What made Nelson Mandela great

Nelson Mandela was always mindful that his leadership role in the liberation of South Africa from apartheid might not have been possible if he had not been imprisoned. "It is possible that if I had not gone to jail and been able to read and listen to the stories of many people. ... I might not have learned these things," Mandela said of the insights that he gained during his 27 years in jail. . .

Read more at: CNN

Holiday Cheer: Make it So! (Star Trek: The Next Generation Christmas Carol Parody)

Captain Picard must be under the control of Q. . . .

 

Elizabeth Warren: Will Complete Senate Term, Not Run for President in 2016

Image from source, Raw Story

Well, rats. Senator Elizabeth Warren does not play coy, so it's understandable that when asked, "will you run for President before your term is up," she's going to answer directly. It's fine, I'll get over it. After all, she's not running for president. . .but that doesn't mean she couldn't still be selected to be someone's running mate, now does it? One doesn't usually plan for that (and those that have don't often get picked). It's probably just as well. She's in an important place where she is.

[Excerpt]

Elizabeth Warren pledges to finish term and not run for president

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren (MA) pledged on Wednesday to serve out the full extent of her six-year Senate term and not run for president. . .

Read more at: Raw Story

ObamaCare Enrollment Up After Web Site Fix

Image from source, ThinkProgress

Well, whattaya know? Turns out, even with a relentless, years-long assault on the ACA, to turn public opinion, people apparently still want affordable  health care.

[Excerpt]

Obamacare Enrollment Up Sharply After HealthCare.gov Fix
 
Enrollment on HealthCare.gov in the first two days of December, after the Obama administration declared the website fixed, eclipsed enrollment in the entire month of October. About 29,000 people signed up for health coverage on Sunday and Monday through the site, according to a source familiar with the numbers. October enrollment on HealthCare.gov totaled less than 27,000. State-specific data is not yet available, and the figures are preliminary. . .

Read more at: Think Progress

Jon Stewart Takes Another Swing at "The War on Christmas"

I wrote a fresh opinion piece on the annual faux FOX "News" War on Christmas, just a couple of posts ago. But if you want a professional's take, here's Jon Stewart.
 

Another FOX "News" ObamaCare Horror Debunked

Does the FOX "News" fan base even know that many (if not most) of the ObamaCare horror stories that have been presented on the "news" channel have been debunked? In fact, if they're outraged about it on Hannity, the Factor or Greta Van Whatsername, it's almost always trumped up in some way. And I'm not sure if their viewers ever figure out they've been lied to, or if they simply don't care.

 

The Fake, Annual, War on Christmas

I've written on this subject many times in the seven holiday seasons I've been blogging. And I'll continue to, considering how it keeps cropping up as though it's a legitimate "problem." In reality, the "War on Christmas" is a manufactured outrage, a complete nonsense story that has been an unlikely success story for Bill O'Reilly, FOX "News," Sarah Palin, and others in Right Wing World.

Contrary to the claims, there is no organized effort to shunt Christmas to the sidelines, and if there were it would likely be a) by Christians, offended by the crass commercialization of the holiday, and b) considered a complete failure by now. With the backward creep of "Black Friday," and the appearance of Christmas trimmings starting to appear in August in some places, Christmas is more visible than it ever has been.

In my opinion, the success of this faux crisis came about in a perfect storm of a number of elements:
- Conservative outrage over challenges to religious displays on public property.
- Conservative paranoia toward the ACLU, atheism, "secularism," and diversity.
- Conservative antipathy toward anything deemed to be more "inclusive" or sensitive to other beliefs.
- Occasional overboard actions or reactions by individual school administrators or jurisdictions. A declaration that the word "Christmas" be struck or replaced from a musical program, and the like. Outliers depicted as a trend, in other words.
- The tendency of conservatives to feel like a victimized minority, even though they're statistically part of the majority (read: heavily white and Christian).
- A strange confluence between the "Put the Christ back in Christmas/reason-for-the-season" sort, and the prosperity gospel, "greed-is-good" modern-day conservative base, resulting in an orgy of consumerism that must be labeled CHRISTmas!
- A populace with a limited memory, and the difficult-to-pin-down origins of the perennial "Seasons' Greetings" and "Happy Holidays" phrases.

O'Reilly claims that those two phrases were a plot, in the last 10 years or so, to supplant the word, the concept, the holiday of Christmas. This is of course, preposterous. I'm 47, and have a good memory. I know for certain that both phrases were being used in the early 70s. I'm positive they go further back. Back then, the only controversial wording was "X-Mas," and even that is misunderstood (the "X" is actually a cross, folks). So right off the bat, we know that O'Reilly is blowing smoke: the phrases have been on greeting cards and in ads for decades now. I have a program from our school winter musical, in festive, snow-capped letters, reading: "1978 Winter Holiday Concert!" That's 35 years, Bill, and it included Hava Nagila.  [Story continues below]



So, we should be able to conclude that there is no conspiracy, and if there were, it isn't working. But let's flip it, shall we? Why should we take O'Reilly's side, and be forced to say "Merry Christmas" from late November until (presumably) New Year's? Why "merry" and not "happy," "festive," "joyous" or "groovy?" Why does the Christmas holiday--one day, incidentally--get to override every other holiday (and holiday party, and gift exchange, and work gathering, and Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa and New Year's Eve), with the insistence that "Merry Christmas" is the only proper and legitimate greeting? It's preposterous, as well as a little too precise when you want to wish someone a happy holiday season, rather than just the one day.

I'm no longer Christian, but I was raised one. I still celebrate Christmas, and when I can, take off the whole week. I'm not offended by the phrase "Merry Christmas," and believe me, most people aren't. Not even Jewish, Muslim or atheist people. People taking offense are almost entirely fabricated, part of this phony-baloney "war." You might find a nutty activist, trying to ban the word in some Podunk school system in Backwater, Pennsyltucky.  But not a movement. FOX "News" is fighting a straw man. . .snow man?


 

Will Farrell Gives Entire Newscast in Character as Ron Burgundy

Though he's played a ton of hard-to-take characters, there's no denying that Will Farrell is talented and funny. He gives Stephen Colbert a run for his money here, staying in character for an entire news broadcast.

[Excerpt]

WATCH: Will Ferrell plays ‘Ron Burgundy’ on a local North Dakota station’s nightly newscast

 

KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

As part of his promotional tour for Anchorman 2, comedian Will Ferrell hosted a North Dakota local newscast this past Saturday night. Ferrell stayed in character throughout the broadcast, though the other onscreen talent often found it difficult to keep their composure as “Ron Burgundy” misbehaved. . .

Source: Raw Story

Derailed Train Was Going Much Too Fast Around Corner

Image from source, TalkingPointsMemo

Since I've been down with the flu, I haven't kept up with the news like usual. Of course, since this was a holiday weekend, news was low on my agenda anyway. But what news I did get seemed either deeply weird (Paul Walker dying in a fiery high-speed car crash) or came with a dash of deja vu. The tragic commuter train crash, in particular, seems to have happened before. The "going too fast around the corner" bit even seems like the same reason. Maybe the flu moved me through time or something?

[Excerpt]

NTSB: Derailed Metro-North Train Entered 30 MPH Curve At 82 MPH

The National Transportation Safety Board said Monday that a Metro-North train that derailed in New York this weekend leaving four people dead and more than 60 others injured entered a 30 mile per hour curve at approximately 82 miles per hour, citing a recovered black box from the crash site. . .

Read more at: Talking Points Memo

Healthcare.gov Shows Signs of Life

Image from source, ThinkProgress

You know what? I'm hoping the site is fixed, that problems are few, and I'd even settle for a nice, middle-ground, where there is little to complain about or brag about. I mean, if things turn out sunny, that would be great. But I'd be satisfied to just not have to hear about the topic for a while. Months, preferably. The topic was beaten to death for a couple of years, then it passed, then the Congress spent all their time trying to both repeal and sabotage it. Now that it's fairly clear that it's here to stay (or at least for the foreseeable future), Republicans are tossing it around to get a new angle on attacking it, and Democrats are still playing defense. It's tired and played out, and I don't want to play anymore!

[Excerpt]

Obama Administration: HealthCare.Gov Now Works ‘For The Vast Majority Of Users’

The White House announced on Sunday morning that it has met its “goal” of ensuring that HealthCare.gov “will work smoothly for the vast majority of users,” noting that the beleaguered site can now accommodate 50,000 concurrent users and 800,000 consumers throughout the day. As a result, close to 80 percent of users can now enroll online, which is up from 30 percent in October. . .

Read more at: Think Progress

Blast from the Past: Syndicated TV Showcase!

As I said earlier, I've had a fever most of the weekend, which combined with Thanksgiving lent itself to no blogging this weekend. I almost wrote off my "Blast from the Past" feature for the week, but then remembered this older post of mine. I thought it was a good time to update it to include the opening/closing theme of Throb, the sitcom that featured Paul Walker--star of The Fast and the Furious series, and the unfortunate victim of a lethal fiery car crash this weekend. It's a forgotten gem (albeit very 1980s).

ORIGINAL POST (with revisions):

Back in the eighties, there was the strange phenomenon of "syndicated" TV shows. Actually, that's not a great description, since shows still are syndicated. What I mean is, network shows that got cancelled, and then padded their episode runs by running new ones in syndication. Sometimes, shows that never got run on regular networks in the first place made a stab at it in syndication instead. This worked spectacularly for shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation and Babylon 5. But I'm not after the spectacular successes here. Just the cheesily notable.

All of these shows either got cancelled and then were extended in syndication, or lived nowhere else but syndication. See if you remember any of them.



#1 - Mama's Family - This series--before it was reborn in syndication--was actually spun off from The Carol Burnett Show in the first place. After a short run on NBC, the show was cancelled, and then resurrected to run for several years.It was never high art, but Vicki Lawrence was shrewd enough to parlay her much older character into a Vegas act. She's still not old enough to be Thelma Harper, so she's got many years to go. Oh, and adding Alan Kayser as Bubba Higgins was a master stroke. No, uh, pun intended.

#2 - Charles in Charge - Scott Baio made his career with Happy Days. He was good looking, not a bad actor by 80s sitcom standards, and a hot property (even after the crash and burn that was Joanie Loves Chachi). So, they gave him his own sitcom. And it didn't work. But for some reason, they syndicated it two years after it was cancelled. It also extended the 15 minutes of Eight is Enough heartthrob, Willie Ames.  The theme song is one of the worst ever, by the way.



#3 - It's a Living - This series about T & A waitresses at a swanky restaurant limped through two seasons (with two different titles) on ABC. Later, they syndicated it with some of the same cast, most prominently, Ann Jillian. It had a much longer afterlife, and for some reason I loved this show. Maybe it was the theme song.

#4 - Small Wonder - One of the strangest sitcoms of this genre was Small Wonder. It was a show about a robot disguised as a 10-year-old. It never--not surprisingly--had a network run. But it lasted in syndication for years. Even Edie McClurg (playing a variation of the nosy neighbor she played on The Hogan Family) couldn't save this abomination. I wonder what they'd have done if the show had lasted longer, and Vicki the robot had become Post-pubescent Wonder?



#5 - Throb - Diana Canova of Soap starred as the center of the storm at a very 80s record company. Jane Leeves of Frasier got her notoriety here, and it's an early appearance by the afore-mentioned, sadly now deceased Paul Walker. He eventually left the show to be replaced by a boy who looked nothing like him.

#6 - The New WKRP in Cincinnati - One of the best shows of the late-70s/early-80s (and most mistreated by a network) was WKRP in Cincinnati. Aside from the fashions of the time (which only serves to make the show a period piece), the show still holds up as a top-notch comedy. The syndicated sequel brought back the "suits" but (mostly) not the "dungarees" of the group, and never really clicked like the original.

If you slogged down this very odd trip down 80s TV-lane, here's a bonus:  The theme song from Joanie Loves Chachi.  They couldn't even save this one with syndication.

Blogger Down!: Post-Thanksgiving Flu Strikes ye Editor

Well, not only has it been a holiday weekend (when I tend to barely blog at all), I've been down with the flu. Yes, kids, temperatures all the way to 102.8! Ain't that fun? Probably picked it up from a grocery cart or something. I've got to start grabbing those handi-wipes they've got there.

 

So, we'll see if any blogging gets done before Monday. Or even Tuesday! I'll try, but no promises. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, and didn't get trampled on Black Friday!