Long Time Movie Critic Roger Ebert Dead at 70 after Battle with Cancer … RIP

Roger Ebert, the long time movie critic has died at the age of 70 after his battle with cancer. Ebert had previously battled cancer in his thyroid and salivary glands, losing the ability to speak and eat on his own. Ebert co-hosted the weekly TV series ‘At the Movies’ with Gene Siskel, his fellow Chicago based movie critic, who himself had passed away in 1999. The man was brilliant in the critique of movies and I can remember watching ‘At the Movies’ all of the time to hear both Siskel and Ebert’s opinions and critiques. However, as much as he was knowledgeable about movies, his liberal politics was quite something different. But that is another story for another day. As stated at Ann Althouse,  on Tuesday, Mr. Ebert blogged that he had suffered a recurrence of cancer following a hip fracture suffered in December, and would be taking ‘a leave of presence.’ Who would have known that is all would have ended so quickly?

To both Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, thank you both for your fine movie critiques over the years and we will see you both, ‘At the Movies’.

Roger Ebert: June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013, RIP

For a film with a daring director, a talented cast, a captivating plot or, ideally, all three, there could be no better advocate than Roger Ebert, who passionately celebrated and promoted excellence in film while deflating the awful, the derivative or the merely mediocre with an observant eye, a sharp wit and a depth of knowledge that delighted his millions of readers and viewers.

“No good film is too long,” he once wrote, a sentiment he felt strongly enough about to have engraved on pens. “No bad movie is short enough.”

Ebert, 70, who reviewed movies for the Chicago Sun-Times for 46 years and on TV for 31 years, and who was without question the nation’s most prominent and influential film critic, died Thursday in Chicago.

“We were getting ready to go home today for hospice care, when he looked at us, smiled, and passed away,” said his wife, Chaz Ebert. “No struggle, no pain, just a quiet, dignified transition.”

Siskel & Ebert on Film Criticism and Political Correctness

GENE SISKEL: You have to summon up the courage to say what you honestly feel. And it’s not easy. There’s a whole new world called political correctness that’s going on, and that is death to a critic to participate in that.

EBERT: Political correctness is the fascism of the ‘90s. It’s kind of this rigid feeling that you have to keep your ideas and your ways of looking at things within very narrow boundaries, or you’ll offend someone. Certainly one of the purposes of journalism is to challenge just that kind of thinking. And certainly one of the purposes of criticism is to break boundaries; it’s also one of the purposes of art. So that if a young journalist, 18, 19, 20, 21, an undergraduate tries to write politically correctly, what they’re really doing is ventriloquism.

NY Times Obit

One in Four Americans Believe Obama Might Be the Anti-Christ

Well, if the poll fits, wear it … The heck with job approval, 25% think Obama is the Anti-Christ.

From the Guardian comes the following poll and the survey says … One in four Americans think Obama may be the antichrist. Just 25%, come on America, you can do better than that! Some believe Obama is the Obamamessiah and he actually believes he is the one that people have been waiting for (VIDEO). As the Bible (Matthew 7:15) states, beware of false prophets. Is it any wonder why Barack Obama is the most polarizing President ever and sorry to say, hardly good for America. The promises Obama has made, the “Hope & Change” and the so-called bridge to the future has been far from the truth.

About one in four Americans suspect that President Barack Obama might be the antichrist, more than a third believe that global warming is a hoax and more than half suspect that a secretive global elite is trying to set up a New World Order, according to a poll released on Tuesday.

The survey, which was conducted by Public Policy Polling, asked a sample of American voters about a number of conspiracy theories, phrasing the questions in eye-catching language that will have the country’s educators banging their heads on their desks. The study revealed that 13% of respondents thought Obama was “the antichrist”, while another 13% were “not sure” – and so were at least appeared to be open to the possibility that he might be. Some 73% of people were able to say outright that they did not think Obama was “the antichrist”.

The survey also showed that 37% of Americans thought that global warming was a hoax, while 12% were not sure and a slim majority – 51% – agreed with the overwhelming majority view of the scientific establishment and thought that it was not. The survey also revealed that 28% of people believed in a sinister global New World Order conspiracy, aimed at ruling the whole world through authoritarian government. Another 25% were “not sure” and only a minority of American voters – 46% – thought such a conspiracy theory was not true.

HA, it would seem that the number of people has remained about the same since 2010 when 14% thought Obama was the anti-Christ.

Rutgers University Fires Men’s Basketball Coach Mike Rice After Video Aired of Him Shoving, Grabbing & Throwing Balls at Players and Using Gay Slurs

Rutgers University fires Men’s basketball coach Mike Rice after video surfaces …

The University of Rutgers Scarlet Knights have fired Mike Rice, the men’s basketball coach after a video went viral of him shoving, grabbing, throwing balls at players and making gay slurs during practice. However, here lies the rub, the incidents in the videos are not new, they took place last year. Rutgers athletic director Pernetti had previously seen the video and last Fall suspended Rice for three games, fined him $50,000 and ordered him to attend anger management classes. So why is there a difference now? Of course the actions of the coach were way over the top, but the question remains, why after watching the same video that is now so outrageous, was it found to be a ok to suspend him previously, but not now?

Rutgers fired basketball coach Mike Rice on Wednesday after a videotape aired showing him shoving, grabbing and throwing balls at players and using gay slurs during practice.

The videotape, broadcast Tuesday on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines,” prompted sharp criticism from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and the head of the New Jersey Assembly called for Rice to be fired.

With mounting criticism on a state and national level, the school relieved Rice of his duties after three largely unsuccessful seasons at the Big East school. There will be a national search to replace him.

Rutgers fired basketball coach Mike Rice on Wednesday after a videotape aired showing him shoving, grabbing and throwing balls at players and using gay slurs during practice.

The videotape, broadcast Tuesday on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines,” prompted sharp criticism from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and the head of the New Jersey Assembly called for Rice to be fired.

With mounting criticism on a state and national level, the school relieved Rice of his duties after three largely unsuccessful seasons at the Big East school. There will be a national search to replace him.

Some are calling for the heads of President Robert Barchi and Athletic Director Tim Pernetti.

This may be a bit syndical, but it is the truth and some one needs to say it. Mike Rice was fired because he had been at the school three years and had yet to have a .500 season. In the Big East he went just 44-51 in three seasons. Rice posted a 16-38 mark in the conference after going 73-31 in three seasons at Robert Morris. If Rice had been a successful coach, had the team headed in the right direction and was bringing $’s to the university, the outcome might have been a bit difference.

On a personal note I will say the following after playing sports my entire life from Pee-wee’s to Elementary School. High School and College … has a coach ever put their hands on me, grabbed me by the face mask, yelled (screamed) in my face or thrown a ball at me … yes. A ball at my head, no. I will also note that this coach did get a tab bit too physical with the player and cross a line. But there seem to be other issues in this incident that would not have ever been a consideration in the past. Have I ever experienced a coach ever used what today’s PC media calls a gay slur, gee ya think? I guess being told that men were playing like girls would be a no-no today as well? But of course we live in a different world today where you cannot hurt another’s feelings or make them feel uncomfortable. I do think that this coach stepped over the line, but keep in mind there is a line. Grabbing a player is hardly a fireable offense. Sometimes shoving is not either. Anyone who has ever played a sport knows exactly what I am talking about and knows that most of lives greatest lessons are taught to them in the realm of athletics.

The only conclusion I can draw from this was it was not his actions that got him fired, but the VIDEO. Let this be a lesson to every coach in a world where ever 10 year old has a video phone.

Clueless Democrat Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette Behind House Bill To Ban Large Gun Magazines Has No Idea How They Work, Thinks Magazines Can’t Be Reloaded … Responds to Constituent, “You’d probably be dead, anyway.”

STUCK ON STUPID … UNREAL … THESE ARE THE IDIOTS THAT ARE PUSHING GUN LAWS.

As reported at The Daily Caller,  Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette, the lead Democratic sponsor of a federal bill to ban high-capacity magazines has no clue how a gun magazine works. From her comments DeGette has literally no idea that a magazine could be reloaded and reused. What else would we expect from a dim-whit liberal Democrat who has no knowledge or business discussing a topic she knows nothing about, yet wants to force her liberal gun-grabbing, Anti-Second Amendment agenda on you? Diana DeGette’s comments are stunningly ignorant, even for a liberal Democrat.

Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette, the lead Democratic sponsor of a federal bill to ban high-capacity magazines, is apparently unaware that such magazines can be reloaded and reused, according to a comment she made at a Denver Post-sponsored forum on gun control on Tuesday.

When asked how limiting the number of bullets in magazines would help reduce violence, she replied: “I will tell you these are ammunition, they’re bullets, so the people who have those now, they’re going to shoot them. So if you ban them in the future, the number of these high-capacity magazines is going to decrease dramatically over time, because the bullets will have been shot and there won’t be any more available.”

Some audience members laughed, but gun-rights advocates weren’t amused.

Colorado GOP spokesman Owen Loftus told the Denver Post,  “It’s extremely alarming that Rep. DeGette is running federal legislation to ban magazine clips, when she doesn’t even know what a magazine clip is.” A note to the GOP spokesman so he does not sound as ignorant as DeGette, there is a difference between a magazine and a clip, STOP USING THE TERM LIKE THEY ARE THE SAME!!!

Weasel Zippers seconds the motion,  it is scary to think someone this clueless on firearms want to write the laws governing them. Actually, it is pretty typical from those on the LEFT who want to inflict their ignorance on others.

As if this woman’s incompetence was not bad enough, her wise-ass comment to one of her constituents who asked her how he could defend himself against a home intrusion given the restrictions.  Diana DeGette made matters worse when she responded, “Good news for you.”  “You live in Denver, the DPD [Denver Police Department] would be there within minutes. . . . You’d probably be dead, anyway.”

I would not let this woman pass legislation on a water gun, let alone federal gun legislation. What kind of morons are being elected to Congress?  Maybe we need background checks on Congress before they can run for election to see if they are actually competent in anything.

Daily Commentary – Thursday, April 4, 2013 – New Dipstick(s) of the Week Award Goes To These Moms

• After the Easter egg hunt at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle turned ugly

Daily Commentary – Thursday, April 4, 2013 Download