Good evening!
Blessings on you and your family, and from all the Huckabee staff! Topics include:
- Bible Verse of the Day - Colossians 4:2
- Baldwin shooting update
- The Deep State strikes again
- "Vulgar threats"
- How bad is Biden? This bad...
- Tragedy and comedy
- Too many obituaries by Pat Reeder
Sincerely,
Mike Huckabee
DAILY BIBLE VERSE
Baldwin shooting update
By Mike Huckabee
As the investigation into the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins by Alec Baldwin on the set of the movie “Rust” continues, here are some of the latest developments (note that this is from media reports; the official investigation results have not yet been made public):
It’s been reported that it was not a “prop gun” but a real gun that the crew had recently used for target shooting. There was also a report that live ammo had been kept near where the blanks were kept, and that a live round was in the gun when it was given to Baldwin. That bullet passed through Hutchins’ body and struck director Joel Souza, who is now out of the hospital.
It was also reported that the person in charge of the movie’s weapons had previously been cited for safety violations on another production.
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/alec-baldwin-prop-gun-crew-member-safety-complaint
There was an accusation that on a previous shoot, the person in charge had loaded a prop gun on the ground with gravel around and handed it to a child actress. Other crew members were concerned and took the gun away to make sure nothing had lodged inside the barrel.
Here are two articles on whether Baldwin might face criminal or civil liability.
https://www.westernjournal.com/baldwin-face-negligent-manslaughter-charges-fatal-shot/
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/alec-baldwin-shooting-civil-criminal-liabilities-jonathan-turley
Finally, Kurt Schlichter wrestles with the question of whether to take the high road in dealing with this story or use it to attack Alec Baldwin just as harshly as he would have attacked any conservative who was in the same position he’s now in.
This story has many people in Hollywood demanding stricter standards for handling prop guns and the people who are in charge of ensuring they’re safe. It would be ironic if, just as producers must have a tutor on set if there are child actors and an SPCA monitor if there are animals, they would be required to have an NRA member on set to make sure they’re handling guns safely.
The Deep State strikes again
JFK assassination obsessives who have been waiting on pins and needles for the release of long-classified documents will have to sit on those pins a while longer. The White House announced Friday that those documents “shall be withheld from full public disclosure” until Dec. 15, 2022 — over 59 years after Kennedy was killed.
The stated reason for the delay is that because of the pandemic, the short-handed National Archivists need more time to finish redactions to minimize “identifiable harm.” Trump already released thousands of these documents, but even he withheld some, citing “national security concerns.”
There’s a lot more info at the link, but the author is just as baffled as I am by what possible national security concerns would still need to be covered up after nearly six decades. His guess is that it might have something to do with Cuba, but is that really something we still need to be concerned about? Will Fidel Castro get mad at us in Hell? The writer makes the point that keeping documents hidden so long just feeds into JFK conspiracy theories.
On the other hand, do we really need to hide 59-year-old documents to convince Americans that Washington is home to a Deep State cabal that operates outside the law?
"Vulgar threats"
By Mike Huckabee
I’ve commented before about how, as much as I dislike the policies of the Biden White House (note that I didn’t say “Joe Biden” because I doubt that’s where these policies are really coming from), I wasn’t happy about all the “F--- Joe Biden” chants, if for no other reason than I don’t think people should use such vulgar language, especially not in front of kids. I was actually relieved when the “Let’s go, Brandon” euphemism took off, since that offered a humorous alternative that allowed people who agreed with the sentiment to express it without the obscene language.
But apparently, even that sanitized criticism of Joe Biden has the objective journalists at the Washington Post getting the vapors and collapsing on their fainting couches.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/washington-post-mocked-reporting-vulgar-threats-president-joe-biden
WaPo ran an article Saturday characterizing these chants and signs as “vulgar threats” (what’s threatening about them?), claiming that no previous President has ever endured such vile attacks, and blaming it on Trump and his followers with their “norm-breaking” harshness and vulgarity.
As you can see at the link, that inspired a number of conservative pundits to dig into the archives and haul up some of the filthy, vicious, nasty assaults on Trump that the left launched, usually without any concerns about coming up with clever substitutes for the “F-word.” As Sean Davis of The Federalist observed, this “whining is coming from a political movement that spent years parading around in pink hats resembling genitalia to protest Trump. They don’t care about ‘vulgarity’ at all."
I beg to differ. They care very much about vulgarity. But only when it’s aimed at their side.
How bad is Biden? This bad...
By Mike Huckabee
How bad is President Biden at his job? So bad that at long, long last, “Saturday Night Live” actually did some jokes at his expense.
https://www.westernjournal.com/snl-finally-takes-shot-biden-old-vs-new-joe/
They weren’t very sharp jokes (for those, see the Babylon Bee), but as the old saying goes, when a dog walks on its hind legs, you don’t criticize its posture; the miracle is that it happened at all.
Tragedy and comedy
By Mike Huckabee
I’m confused. I need someone from the Democratic Party to explain to me whether questioning the results of an election is treasonous or heroic. Because they can’t seem to make up their minds.
We’ve all heard the caterwauling over anyone who even wants to take a look at the ballots from 2020. They’re crazy conspiracy theorists peddling a “Big Lie!” There’s no such thing as election fraud! Questioning election results is an assault on democracy and an attempt to overthrow the government by insurrection!
Yet in just the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen Hillary Clinton claim that Stacey Abrams really won the 2018 Governor’s race in Georgia (spoiler alert: she did not.) Hillary, of course, also declared Trump an illegitimate President, and was so convinced that Russia helped him steal the 2016 election that her campaign spent a lot of money manufacturing fake evidence to prove it. Seen any Democrats denouncing Hillary for her multiple endorsements of insurrection? Or calling out Abrams for assaulting Democracy? Far from it: she’s considered a big star in leftist circles.
Meanwhile, in Virginia, Democrat gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe campaigned with Abrams and repeated her “Big Lie” that she “would be the Governor of Georgia today had the governor of Georgia not disenfranchised 1.4 million Georgia voters before the election…They took the votes away.”
This is horse apples. The voter rolls were purged of inactive voters, but all anyone had to do was show up at the polls and produce an ID and they could get a ballot. Abrams lost by about 55,000 votes. Even the liberal Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigated and found "no evidence…of systematic malfeasance – or of enough tainted votes to force a runoff election."
Listen to enough of this highly selective outrage and it becomes clear that to Democrats, “democracy” means “We win,” and questioning the honesty of an election is “insurrection” only if it’s an election Democrats won. It reminds me of Mel Brooks’ definitions of tragedy and comedy: “’Tragedy’ is if I get a paper cut on my finger. ‘Comedy’ is if you fall into a manhole and die.”
In a related story, here’s Glenn Greenwald on how the House’s January 6th committee is exploiting fears of “insurrection” and outrageous comparisons to 9/11 to abuse federal power and crush civil liberties.
Too many obituaries
By Pat Reeder
I’m sad to have to report the deaths of four popular show business figures over the past week. We extend our condolences to all their families.
Actor James Michael Tyler, best known as Central Perk coffee shop owner Gunther on “Friends,” died Sunday in Los Angeles at 59 of prostate cancer that spread to his bones.
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/friends-actor-james-michael-tyler-dies-at-59
He was working as an actual barista when he was hired as an extra on “Friends” because he knew how to work an espresso machine. It took two years and 33 episodes before he got a name and his first line. The show’s creators liked him so much, they gave him his own story line about his unrequited love for Rachel and remembered him as “a genuinely kind, sweet man.”
He appeared on the “Friends” reunion in May, but only by Zoom because he didn’t want to “bring a downer” on the show. He devoted his last days to promoting prostate cancer exams. He said his goals were to reach his 59th birthday, which he did, and to at least save one life.
Comic actor Peter Scolari has died at 66 after a two-year battle with leukemia.
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/peter-scolari-bosom-buddies-newhart-actor-dead
Scolari first came to fame on the short-lived ABC sitcom “Bosom Buddies,” where he and Tom Hanks played two guys who had to dress as women to keep their apartment, back when we were still allowed to laugh at that. It was originally conceived as a male “Laverne & Shirley,” but not literally. The creators made the mistake of comparing it to a Billy Wilder comedy during the pitch to ABC. Asked to name one of those, they said “Some Like It Hot.” So ABC bought it only on condition that it be retooled to include men in drag. In the second season, they moved away from that and got back to the original premise.
The sitcom allowed for lots of ad-libbing by Scolari and Hanks, who had great comic chemistry. But while Hanks went on to become a superstar, Scolari remained a working actor, constantly appearing in various TV and stage shows. He was nominated for an Emmy three times for “Newhart” and won for a guest role on “Girls.” He and Hanks remained lifelong friends. They reunited on Broadway in 2013 in the play “Lucky Guy,” and Scolari appeared in the Hanks-directed movie, “That Thing You Do.”
Composer/lyricist/playwright Leslie Bricusse died last week at 90. He wrote or co-wrote a number of hit songs that have become standards, many with his partner, singer/actor Anthony Newley, back in the days when Broadway scores birthed pop hits.
Some of his songs include “Gonna Build a Mountain,” “Once in a Lifetime” and “What Kind of Fool Am I?” (the 1963 Grammy-winning Song of the Year) from the Broadway show, “Stop the World, I Want To Get Off;” “Who Can I Turn To,” “On a Wonderful Day Like Today” and “Feeling Good” (recently made ubiquitous by the “American Idol” crowd) from “Roar of the Greasepaint, Smell of the Crowd;” “My Kind of Girl;” “Can You Read My Mind” from “Superman;” “Pure Imagination” and “The Candy Man” from “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory;” “When I Look In Your Eyes” and Best Song Oscar winner “Talk to the Animals” from “Dr. Doolittle;” “If I Ruled the World” from the musical “Pickwick;” and “Le Jazz Hot” from “Victor/Victoria.” And in the era when people actually looked forward to the next James Bond movie, he co-wrote with John Barry the themes from “You Only Live Twice” and “Goldfinger.”
If you’d like to learn more, Mark Steyn’s latest “Song of the Week” podcast is about “Goldfinger.”
https://www.steynonline.com/11807/goldfinger
And finally (I hope, for a long time), Jay Black, lead singer of Jay & The Americans, has died at 82 of complications from pneumonia. The group opened for the Beatles on their first US tour and scored 21 chart hits in the '60s, including “Come A Little Bit Closer,” “Only In America,” “Cara Mia” and hit covers of the Drifters’ “This Magic Moment” and the Ronettes’ “Walkin’ In The Rain.” Trivia: Black’s real name was David Blatt, but he changed it to Jay Black when he took over from the band’s original lead singer, Jay Traynor.
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