Fighting for #1A - Sen. Cruz Questions NTIA Assistant Secretary Strickling

I Was Wrong - #BadSelfEater Was No Rick Roll

by Kim D.

I thought I had figured it out!

I figured it out. One giant Rick roll in a few #badselfeater pic.twitter.com/QiKNOpSfvi

— Kim (@JBaileysMom) September 14, 2016

But, sadly, no - the Bad self eater (or Federal Beast) countdown was not what I expected, but I can appreciate the elaborate ruse to gather tons of social media attention to a very important issue of the day - abortion. T. Russell Hunter appeared at the end of the countdown and gave an anti-abortion presentation, which, in part, was difficult to watch, especially in the graphic medical abortion portions.

He got a bunch of flack for what some felt was a huge letdown which kind of proves Hunter's point. We are so caught up in what we perceive to be big government evils that we have been desensitized to abortion.

Not everyone was a hater and tweeted approval for the big reveal and message it promoted:

Honestly shocked at the contempt shown toward a man speaking his conviction (who just an hour ago had your rapt attention). #badselfeater

— Deni Tilley (@DeniTilley) September 14, 2016

I am in no way disappointed by the #BadSelfEater reveal. To the contrary, I am convicted and inspired. #Jesus

— Jeff Delaney (@jdelaneyNOIR) September 14, 2016

all y'all need to wake up, abortion is the real evil in our world #badselfeater

— han ct (@HannahTon) September 14, 2016

If you missed it or care to watch, be quick about it - YouTube has already put a warning on the video: The following content has been identified by the YouTube community as being potentially inappropriate. Viewer discretion is advised. If enough people complain, it will most likely be yanked from the site.

Mostly forgotten TV comedy "Love That Bob" launched numerous careers

by Mouser The King Cat

For a variety of reasons, “The Bob Cummings Show” has never been recognized as a 1950s TV classic. Reruns (retitled “Love That Bob”) faded after about a decade and now only turn up occasionally, even though the series ran four-plus seasons in prime time. Some episodes have lapsed into public domain.

Maybe it’s because the stars, Cummings and Rosemary DeCamp, are better remembered for their movie work. Perhaps it’s because the show wasn’t all that funny. Cummings played a carefree, skirt-chasing photographer in L.A. (DeCamp was his widowed sister), and the best lines were risque for those times, horribly dated now.

But looking back, there’s more to this humble back-and-white series than meets the eye. It launched some astounding careers, as many TV historians have noted.

Paul Henning, previously an itinerant sitcom writer, was the creator and producer, in addition to providing many scripts. He would go on to create iconic properties for CBS – “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “Petticoat Junction” and “Green Acres.” When CBS became disenchanted with rural-oriented shows, all proved to be gold mines in syndication.

 Ann B. Davis played Cummings’ assistant, Charmaine “Schultzy” Schultz. She was nominated for four Emmys and won twice, going on to greater fame a decade later as the housekeeper in “The Brady Bunch.”

The neighborhood bird-watcher, Pamela Livingstone, was played to perfection by the prim and proper Nancy Kulp. Henning later cast her as the banker’s spinster secretary in “The Beverly Hillbillies.” (A TV husband never came along, but an Emmy nomination did in 1967.)

The youngest member of the cast was the biggest breakout star. Dwayne Hickman played Cummings’ girl-crazed nephew Chuck while still studying at Loyola University. As the show was ending its run, Cummings tried to sell a spin-off called “Chuck Goes to College.” The idea likely was sound, but Hickman was to spend more time in high school, moving on to become a TV icon in “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,” a fixture on CBS from 1959-63.

What about the headliner? Cummings tried a couple of more sitcoms, including one where he played a psychiatrist entrusted to care for humanoid Rhoda the Robot (Julie Newmar). “My Living Doll” drew dismal ratings against tough competition and lasted only 26 episodes; Cummings was gone after 21 of them, apparently miffed that Newmar got far more attention.

Long before she matured into Catwoman, Newmar showed she had a good grasp of all things catty when she told an interviewer that Cummings was “trying to hold on to his long-gone youth.” Wonder if she has regrets now at age 83?

Several episodes of “Love That Bob” are on YouTube, including this one: 

Congress Must Protect Internet Freedom

Socialism kills: The zombie apocalypse is real

Count Down to What? #BadSelfEater

by Kim D.

#BadSelfEater I have tingles. #Awakening pic.twitter.com/K5EUTQRiIw

— ReaperofWhatever (@WatsinURWallet) September 14, 2016

What the actual hell is this?  My brother, lover of all conspiracy theories, texted me the link to badselfeater.com which displays a countdown clock.  We have less than 9 hours, folks; for what, exactly, I don't have a clue other than what I can gather from Twitter  . . .  

Have to admit an uneasy sense of fascination around #badselfeater and what it means. System reset? TEOTWAWKI? Guess we find out later today.

— Kermit Wallace (@kermitwallace) September 14, 2016

Will the #BadSelfEater Clock run down @ the sound of the #ClosingBell on #WallStreet? This is going to be historic pic.twitter.com/M3qTtX78Ox

— Diana (@divad2636) September 14, 2016

What on earth could this signify? #badselfeater pic.twitter.com/in4z9StKpA

— ♚ Dr. Philip K (@ChestnutPhil) September 14, 2016

 . . . which is a whole lot of guesswork.  According to Reddit, the word badselfeater is an anagram for "Federal Beast." Click here to review what some have pieced together on this mystery. Whether it be an elaborate hoax, publicity stunt, or apocalyptic event, I guess we'll find out around 4 p.m. PST. Personally, I'm hoping this guy is right:

The countdown is for when people realize how fuckin dumb they look #badselfeater #lolatSMSS

— Fielder (@JFielder76) September 14, 2016

One Last Kiss (Live)

This Beat Goes On / Switchin' To Glide

#HillarysHealth: The Vast White Blood Cell Conspiracy

Hillary Clinton's Weekend at Bernie's

Oh No, You Didn't - American Weird Warriors

by Kim D.

On Sunday I was at a kid's birthday party at a new trampoline jumpy place. It was the first time we had been there, and my son was super pumped that it had a ninja warrior obstacle section.  Yes, he loves to watch American Ninja Warrior; in fact, I commented to another parent that it was one of the few television shows we could watch with our son as a family.

That's exactly how both my husband and I felt until last night, when the fan favorite introduction duo of McCartney and Carver made a splash - literally. Who knows and, seriously, who cares, if these guys are or are not gay. They may simply be two goofs who use the American Ninja Warrior platform to promote their personalities and not their athletic skills. Both men did not fair well on the course and were eliminated quickly.

This is the first season that we have made it a point to DVR and watch the entire season of American Ninja Warrior so perhaps we have missed some controversial shows in the past, but in the ones we have seen the "warriors" are introduced and a small snippet of their lives is shown. For example, last night's finale show began with a fitness trainer who talked about past failures and his drive for success and a concrete worker who showed how his profession had helped train him to take on the challenge of the tough ninja warrior courses.


About a quarter of the way into the show the Rookie of the Year, an engineering student, talked about his motivation to succeed who was his first rock climbing coach who has a lung disease and would be watching via Facetime to cheer him on - he almost made it to the end, slipping and dropping into the water on the fifth section of the course.

Next up were McCartney and Carver hailed as the fan favorite duo. In their bio snippet, they only talked about their friendship and how they loved hanging with each other. McCartney (left) kept suggesting that his buddy Carver (right) should tell the audience how attractive and strong he thought McCartney was, which, I'm sorry, but doesn't sound like two macho dudes. Before giving Carver a big hug, McCartney shared his impression of his buddy - "he's precious," also not a masculine descriptor.

Now, again, these guys simply might have been goofing around but to young men watching to see inspirational stories and fantastic obstacle course runs from strong men and women, this portion of the show seemed just plain weird. The final jewel we see in the bio snippet is the two running up an outdoor stairway where at the top Carver intentionally bears his butt cheeks for viewers. 

It was at this point that my husband threw up his hands and said, "That's it - you can't escape this crap. There are no more family friendly shows on TV." Luckily, my son was distracted with a new Lego creation he had just finished and missed Carver's moon shot. To be clear, these guys were doing what they obviously love to do - being silly; however, the editors of American Ninja Warrior had the choice to show or not show a contestant's butt. Unfortunately they chose sensational ratings instead of considering the younger portion of the audience and parents who would consider this inappropriate for what they thought was G-rated television programming.

The elites' war on (your) cash goes on

by Mouser The King Cat

World governments’ ongoing war on cash, and by extension the war on freedoms of all citizens, is being fought on many fronts, including propaganda. From an essay by Dr. Kenneth S. Rogoff in The Wall Street Journal:

There is little debate among law enforcement agencies that paper currency, especially large notes such as the U.S. $100 bill, facilitates crime: racketeering, extortion, money laundering, drug and human trafficking, the corruption of public officials, not to mention terrorism. There are substitutes for cash – cryptocurrencies, uncut diamonds, gold coins, prepaid cards – but for many kinds of criminal transactions, cash is still king. It delivers absolute anonymity, portability, liquidity and near-universal acceptance. It is no accident that whenever there is a big-time drug bust, the authorities typically find wads of cash.

Gee, I thought portability and near-universal acceptance would be considered good things, but not to those of Dr. Rogoff’s ilk, who worship central bankers and their power to decree low or negative interest rates, punishing savers. The hole in that nefarious plan is that if interest rates are too low or negative at the bank, people simply stuff currency under their mattresses. He goes on:

Cash is also deeply implicated in tax evasion, which costs the federal government some $500 billion a year in revenue. According to the Internal Revenue Service, a lot of the action is concentrated in small cash-intensive businesses, where it is difficult to verify sales and the self-reporting of income. By contrast, businesses that take payments mostly by check, bank card or electronic transfer know that it is much easier for tax authorities to catch them dissembling.

Later in the article, an excerpt from his new book “The Curse of Cash,” Dr. Rogoff tries to appeal to statists: 

Perhaps the most challenging and fundamental objection to getting rid of cash has to do with privacy – with our ability to spend anonymously. But where does one draw the line between this individual right and the government’s need to tax and regulate and to enforce the law. Most of us wouldn’t want to clamp down on someone’s right to make the occasional $200 purchase in complete privacy. But what about a $50,000 car or a $1 million apartment?

His conclusion: 

Governments have let cash supplies get way out of hand, to the benefit of criminals and tax evaders everywhere. It is time, at last, to get rid of all those $100 bills.

This orange cat’s conclusion: Dr. Rogoff, who teaches public policy at Harvard, must be a budding communist apparatchik or perhaps a closet Nazi. My scholarly opinion is that he may go f**k himself.

It's Drink O'Clock: Tribute to #HillarysHealth

Clinton's fainting spell couldn't come at worse time for campaign

Cue up the #2MinutesHate for Tim Tebow

by Mouser The King Cat

With Tim Tebow back in pro sports, it’s time to cue up the predictable media hatred. At age 29, he has signed a minor-league contract with the New York Mets and will play in the fall instructional league. This after a workout in front of scouts from 28 of the 30 teams and a gaggle of baseball writers.

The Mets think Tebow, who’ll play a corner outfield position, will be a good influence on their young players and could advance quickly in a sport he has not played full time since 2005, when he was a junior in high school. The question is if he can hit a breaking ball. Said General Manager Sandy Alderson: 

“While I and the organization are mindful of the novel nature of his situation, this decision was strictly driven by baseball. This was not something that was driven by marketing considerations or anything of the sort. He is a tremendous athlete, has great character, a competitive spirit and aside from his age, this is a classic player development opportunity for us.”

If you’re reading this, you know about Tebow’s career as a quarterback at the University of Florida and in the NFL. You also know he is an outspoken Evangelical Christian. You may not know that he was homeschooled, was born in the Philippines and spent three pre-college summers there helping with his father’s orphanage and missionary work.

Tebow may not be the prototype NFL quarterback, but nobody even wants to audition him as a backup. A reasonable orange cat would conclude that he is blackballed because of his religious beliefs. So did Larry Taunton, executive director of the Fixed Point Foundation, which defends the Christian faith. In 2011, he wrote this in USA Today:

[Former Arizona QB] Jake Plummer said on a Phoenix radio station that he would like Tebow more if he would ‘shut up’ about his faith in Jesus Christ. And with that little comment, the cat, as they say, was out of the bag. Plummer said what the commentators wouldn’t say. Their dislike for Tim Tebow is not, as they would have us believe, about his throwing motion or his completion percentage; it’s all about his open professions of faith and his goody-two-shoes image. When it comes right down to it, we don’t want heroes who are truly good. We want them to fail the occasional drug test or start a bar fight from time to time. It makes us feel better about ourselves.

It is important to note that Tebow will not have to give up his day job, analyzing football for the SEC Network. His duties in the instructional league will take up a couple of days a week; if he plays in the minors next season, the season will be over on Labor Day.

Might as well close with a comment about another public symbol of the QB persuasion, Colin Kaepernick. Boo if you must, but the man is suffering enough. He’s sitting the 49ers bench while Blaine Gabbert starts.