Politiks As Usual: In The News 3/18/13

 Pope Wades Into Crowds, Shocks Bystanders In Rome

Atheism Is A Religion Too

Sacred Mystery: Blockbuster Ratings for ‘The Bible’ Confound Hollywood

Dr. Ben Carson: Obama Trying to 'Destroy This Country'

Government Steering Americans Toward a Tele-Work, Tele-Shop, Mass-Transit Future

GOP Plans Fewer Debates, More Community Outreach

Ed Schultz: ‘I Don’t Think MSNBC Has Slighted Me’

Bill Maher Defends Iraq War, Bush: ‘It’s A Country That’s Standing, I Thought It Wouldn’t Be’

Karl Rove Slams Sarah Palin for CPAC Remarks

Do Women Belong In Racing?

Ann Coulter Blasts Chris Christie, Says He’s ‘Off My List’ For 2016 In Fiery CPAC Speech

NBC Fires Employee Over “What Is Internet” Video

Crunchgear.com:

By now you’ve probably seen the Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel pondering the wonders of the Internet. It’s a bit hokey and of course shows the NBC hosts talking nonsense about something outside of their expertise. Well, NBC clearly didn’t find it as cute as everyone else and reportedly fired the employee that uploaded it. Best Buy almost did that once. Remember how that turned out?


NBC went and pulled most of the videos from the Internet. The video we embedded is dead. But of course they couldn’t get them all. Simply searching Google for Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel pulls dozens of copies. Nothing ever goes away online. NBC should know this by now. It’s called the Internet.


Seriously, NBC. No one was laughing at your then-star hosts. We were all laughing with them. It’s not like they were asking questions about the Internet now. This was 1994. No one outside of universities and X-Files watchers had any clue about the Internet. The video simply served as a nice reminder that the Internet grew in importance so rapidly that even some of the world’s most versed newscasters were simply clueless in the early days.

In Future, Cars Might Decide if Driver Is Drunk

Much needed:

An alcohol-detection prototype that uses automatic sensors to instantly gauge a driver's fitness to be on the road has the potential to save thousands of lives, but could be as long as a decade away from everyday use in cars, federal officials and researchers said Friday.


U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood visited QinetiQ North America, a Waltham, Mass.-based research and development facility, for the first public demonstration of systems that could measure whether a motorist has a blood alcohol content at or above the legal limit of .08 and -- if so -- prevent the vehicle from starting.


The technology is being designed as unobtrusive, unlike current alcohol ignition interlock systems often mandated by judges for convicted drunken drivers. Those require operators to blow into a breath-testing device before the car can operate.


The Driver Alcohol Detection Systems for Safety, as the new approach is called, would use sensors that would measure blood alcohol content in one of two possible ways: either by analyzing a driver's breath or through the skin, using sophisticated touch-based sensors placed strategically on steering wheels and door locks, for example.


Both methods eliminate the need for drivers to take any extra steps, and those who are sober would not be delayed in getting on the road, researchers said.

FCC Approves Controversial 'Net Neutrality' Rules

CNN.com:

The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday approved "high-level rules of the road" designed to ensure that internet providers grant everyone equal access to the Web.


But the 3-2 vote immediately came under attack from both flanks, with internet-freedom advocates saying the new rules don't go far enough and critics saying the government should stay out of online business altogether.


In announcing the proposed rules this month, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said they would require high-speed internet providers to treat all types of Web content equally.


The rules are designed to, in effect, keep the companies that own the internet's real-world infrastructure from slowing down some types of websites or apps -- say, those belonging to a competitor -- or speeding up others for high-paying clients.


For average internet users, the vote affects whether government will guarantee they'll continue to have access to all Web content, regardless of their internet provider's wishes, and whether they'll get that content as quickly as businesses or individuals able to pay more for it.

Politiks As Usual: In The News 8/3/09

Obama Administration May Create Military-Civilian Terror Prison

Clunker Car Rebates Will Stop Unless Senate Acts

Obama Joker Poster Popping Up In Los Angeles

Dear Abby, Is There Any 'Lifestyle' You Won't Embrace?

The Real Affirmative Action Babies

Obama's Science Czar Said A Born Baby 'Will Ultimately Develop Into A Human Being'

Pro-Family Forces Submit Challenges To Maine 'Gay Marriage'

Truce Between O'Reilly And Olbermann?

Here Comes The ACLU! Bible As Textbook Ignites Firestorm

Are Western Leaders Stupid Or Malicious In Letting Iran Go Nuclear?

Utah Court Upholds Mother's Rights Over Former Lesbian Partner

Jobless Graduate Sues NYC College For Tuition Fees

Newsweek Takes Oprah Winfrey's Pseudo-Science To Task

Finally, a magazine showing some balls by taking on Queen Oprah and the daily BS she dishes out to her weak-minded audience of suburban soccer moms:

On Oprah's show, there is one opinion more equal than others; and by the end of the program there was no doubt where Oprah herself stood on the issue. She told her audience that she found Somers's bestselling books on bioidentical hormones "fascinating" and said "every woman should read" what she has to say. She didn't stop there. Oprah said that although she has never had a hot flash, after reading Somers she decided to go on bioidenticals herself. "After one day on bioidentical estrogen, I felt the veil lift," she wrote in O, The Oprah Magazine. "After three days, the sky was bluer, my brain was no longer fuzzy, my memory was sharper. I was literally singing and had a skip in my step." On the show, Oprah had her own word of warning for the medical establishment: "We have the right to demand a better quality of life for ourselves," she said. "And that's what doctors have got to learn to start respecting."

All in all, it was a perfect hour of tabloid television. Who could look away from Suzanne Somers's sad but captivating efforts to turn back time? And if there was a stab of guilt in the pleasure we took in the spectacle, Oprah was close by to ease our minds, to reassure us, with the straightest face, that it was all in the name of science and self-improvement. Oprah routinely grabs viewers with the sort of tales of the strange and absurd that might be found a few clicks over on Maury Povich or Jerry Springer: women who leave their husbands for other women (another recent Oprah episode); a 900-pound mom (ditto). But there is a difference. Oprah makes her audience feel virtuous for gaping at the misfortunes of others. What would be sniffed at as seamy on Maury is somehow praised as anthropology on Oprah. This is Oprah's special brilliance. She is a gifted entertainer, but she makes it seem as though that is beside the point. Oprah is not here to amuse you, she is here to help you. To help you understand your feelings; drop those unwanted pounds; look and feel younger; get your thyroid under control; to smooth your thighs, nip and tuck your wrinkles, awaken your senses and achieve spiritual tranquillity so that you can at last be free to "Live Your Best Life."

Oprah takes these things very seriously. They are, after all, the answers she hopes to find for herself. If Oprah has an exquisite ear for the cravings and anxieties of her audience, it is because she shares them. Her own lifelong quest for love, meaning and fulfillment plays out on her stage each day. In an age of information overload, she offers herself as a guide through the confusion.

Her audience cannot get enough. After more than two decades on the air, the Oprah franchise continues to expand. Forty million people tune in to watch her television show each week. O magazine, which features her picture on every cover, sells more than 2 million copies each month. She has her own satellite radio channel and a very popular Web site. Forbes puts Oprah's personal fortune at $2.7 billion. Her empire is about to get bigger. Oprah has made a deal to launch her own cable television channel that will reach 70 million homes. It will be called, of course, the Oprah Winfrey Network and will include Oprah-approved programming on health and living well. In announcing the deal, Oprah said, "I will now have the opportunity to do this 24 hours a day on a platform that goes on forever

Now that it has a much smaller circulation (thanks to its old liberal leanings), Newsweek isn't as relevant anymore, but it still deserves kudos for doing what most in the mainstream press refuse to do: take on the Queen's endless parade of pseudo-science, idiot "self-help" advice, hatred for men, liberal propaganda as well as Oprah's ever-increasing ego. One could easily argue that there's no one with more influence in the world than Oprah Winfrey--way too much power for any one person to have, especially when half the time she has no clue about the type of "advice" she dishes out, much less agrees with from the mouths of the so-called "experts" she has on her show. Indeed, the Cult of O needs to be stopped before it's too late.

Politiks As Usual: In The News 12/1/08

Mumbai Attacks Strain India-Pakistan Relations

Formula For GOP Recovery: Traditional Values PLUS Limited Government

Chris Matthews Hiring Campaign Staff For Senate Run In Pennsylvania

Plea Deal Offered To 8-Year-Old Murder Suspect

Watchdog Group Cites Video Games For Violence, Sex

Planned Parenthood Condemned For 'Lethal Gift Certificates'

Obama's Foreign Policy Team Earns High Praise, But Concern About Clintons

Gay Marriage Supporters Say 'Gay Is The New Black'

Liberals Clinically Mad, Concludes Top Shrink

Is Rosie O'Donnell Calling It Quits After Her Variety Show Disaster?

Politiks As Usual: In The News 4/30/07

Wal-Mart Fires Back At Hillary

Hollywood Leftist Emulates "Rosie O'Donnell School Of Foreign Policy"

Richard Gere Apologizes In Kissing Controversy

Schools Across U.S. Are Banning iPods To Beat Cheaters

Self-Pay Jails For Those Who Can Afford It

Former "American Idol" Finalist Arrested For Drug & Battery Charges

"Very Prominent" Names On D.C. Madam List