NEWS

Pat Robertson RIP

I was saddened by news of the death of Pat Robertson at the age of 93. 

https://www.foxnews.com/media/christian-broadcasting-network-founder-pat-robertson-dies-93

Pat was a pioneer in Christian television and was a true visionary and had an uncanny business savvy that most people never fully appreciated.  I first got to know Pat personally in 1992 when I was involved in my first political race.  Pat had launched the Christian Coalition and had built an extensive 50-state initiative to get Christian believers registered to vote and involved in civic affairs. 

He had created the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) in the late 60’s and early 70’s, and with his extraordinary entrepreneurial skills, he grew it into an international force in the media.  His “700 Club” program was the flagship for the network that ultimately created family and faith-friendly content throughout the broadcast day.  Though his Presidential run in 1988 was unsuccessful in getting him elected, it was the catalyst that built the Christian Coalition, which had a profound impact on elections and the involvement of Christian believers in voting and influencing policy. 

Pat also created Regent University in his hometown of Virginia Beach, VA, which is a prestigious university including a highly respected law school and a stunningly beautiful campus. 

A clear mark of Pat’s projects was that he always did things with standards of professionalism that were second to none.  CBN utilized cutting-edge TV technology that produced a quality that rivaled and often surpassed the major networks.  With Regent University, he also created a campus that was elegant and classy, but never opulent. 

Personally, Pat was a genuinely gracious and kind human being whose love for God and commitment to the Bible were genuine to the bone.  I enjoyed being around him.  His mind was filled with visions of impacting the world and those who criticized or caricatured him failed to understand him. 

I’ll forever be grateful for his impact on the Kingdom of God, the world, and the USA.   He was a cherished friend and a noble gentleman. “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

Whistle Blown

Former University of Pennsylvania swimmer Paula Scanlan is blowing the whistle on the shocking abuse of her and her female teammates by the school, to force them to go along with having biological male “trans” swimmer “Lia” Thomas on their team and in their locker room.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/lia-thomas-upenn-teammate-breaks-silence-concerns-locker-room-labeled-transphobic

Scanlan had complained anonymously before, but she said the way this outrage has expanded to other women’s sports over the past year convinced her to make a public stand and expose how the university bullied its female swimmers into silence and even mouthing support for “Lia.” It sounds like the tactics used by ruthless POW camp officers to force prisoners to "confess" on camera. She said if the women even voiced concerns about having a naked male in the locker room with them, they were called “transphobic,” or if they suggested it wasn’t fair to have a towering, bulked-up male swimmer taking all their trophies and records, they were branded as “hateful.”

She said, “The university wanted us to be quiet, and they did it in a very effective way.” The athletic department called them into a meeting, told them Thomas’ spot on the team was "non-negotiable” and “our opinions were wrong and that if we had an issue with it, we were the problem.” And they warned that if the women talked to the media, they would regret it. She said she went home so “petrified,” she asked her brother, “Can I even talk about this with you? Is there something wrong with me for thinking that this is wrong?’…And it’s frightening, and your future job is on the line."

Scanlon said, "Frankly, before any of this happened, I would never actually have considered myself a feminist. I just thought that I understood basic biological realities and I believe in the truth, and I never thought any of that would be considered transphobic or feminism or non-feminism."

Which brings up a great point: where are all the feminist groups standing up for these female athletes? They’ve been bullied, terrified, threatened, silenced; had their trophies, records and scholarship opportunities stolen; and been forced into sharing what once were safe, intimate spaces with naked males exposing themselves. Where are the feminist attorneys like Gloria Allred, volunteering to represent them in a massive and well-deserved sexual harassment lawsuit against UPenn? Or has the feminist movement also abandoned women’s rights the way the Democratic Party has?

Related: Watch Education Secretary Miguel Cardona squirm like a worm on a fishhook as he tries to evade answering questions from Congress about why, in a world where people lose their entire careers over unproven allegations of “micro-aggressions,” his attempt to change Title IX to force girls to share their bathrooms and showers with naked biological males who “identity” as women is not sexual harassment.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/bidens-title-ix-debacle-horrible-administration-admitting

We Live In An Upside-Down World

While the White House is doing everything in its power to end any investigations of Chinese communist infiltration and influence in the US, a Congress member facing possible expulsion for his alleged lack of honesty has introduced a bill to end the weaponization of the US justice system due to CCP infiltration and influence.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/catherinesalgado/2023/06/07/santos-introduces-guo-act-to-fight-ccp-infiltration-of-u-s-government-n1701416

Related: Greg Gutfeld made a great point about the hypocrisy of all the liberal celebrities attacking the PGA for agreeing to merge with the Saudi-backed LIV golf tour. Not only have they not condemned the many other major corporations that do business with Saudi Arabia, they also haven’t condemned Joe Biden for claiming he would crack down on the Saudi Prince then fist-bumping him like a fanboy. They don’t refuse to use gasoline, even though Saudi Arabia is one of our top five sources of oil. And they are perfectly okay with Hollywood and the NBA kowtowing to China, despite it being a repressive, genocidal, communist slave state. They even attacked people who dared to criticize the NBA or Nike for doing business with China.

As I often say, if it weren’t for situational ethics, the left would have no ethics at all.

Laugh of the Day

Isn’t this cute? Gavin Newsom thinks he’s doing such a great job running California (no, I didn't mean to type “ruining”) that we should let him rewrite the Constitution now.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/newsom-proposes-constitutional-amendment-restrict-gun-rights

Clarification Corner

Yesterday, I quoted a story that said San Francisco “lost 6.3 percent of its population between 2019 and 2021, a rate of decline larger than any two year-period in Detroit’s history and unprecedented among any major US city.” A reader objected that years after the Detroit riots, that city lost over 8 percent of its population. I don’t think that negates the point of the story about what a bang-up job leftists are doing of driving people out of San Francisco, but if you want to argue over the numbers, take it up with the Hoover Institution.  

https://www.hoover.org/research/san-francisco-falls-abyss

I also wanted to bring this up again because I heard a great line that applies very well to this story. In talking about the decline of “Star Wars,” YouTube film critic the Critical Drinker described LucasFilm as “a company founded by geniuses and inherited by morons.” I can’t think of a better description of San Francisco, or possibly, California in general.

Democrats are coming for this next

Remember how Democrats were coming after your gas stoves; then they claimed that was a crazy, false, rightwing conspiracy theory; and then they came after your gas stoves? Well, get ready, because now Biden is coming after your gas furnaces, too. This will give new meaning to the term “Northern blue states” as those Democrat voters who put Biden in office turn blue during the coming winters.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/the-biden-administration-is-coming-after-americans-gas-furnaces

Question: What will those people use for heat if not gas? Wood (isn’t there enough smoke up north already?) Electricity? (Good luck having enough of that when we’re already straining to keep the power flowing and Biden wants to dismantle power plants while adding tens of millions of electric cars to the grid.) Oh, I know: to “save the planet,” we’ll go back to burning coal!

Fun Read

The brutally hilarious (or is it “hilariously brutal?”) Kurt Schlichter assesses the Democrat’s wafer-thin bench of potential replacements for Joe Biden if he doesn’t make it to 2024.

https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2023/06/08/who-do-the-dems-replace-biden-with-n2624186

All Too Common Story

Democrat officials bend laws like pretzels to try to put Trump and anyone who supports him into prison, while piously declaring that “Nobody is above the law!” Well, nobody except Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, millions of illegal immigrants that they’ve let stream into the country, including many on the terrorist watch list…

https://nypost.com/2023/05/16/5-migrants-nabbed-in-arizona-were-on-fbi-terror-list-report/

...And of course, thousands of criminals who are repeatedly arrested in blue cities, only to be immediately released back onto the streets to prey on law-abiding citizens again. Here’s the latest example of how that “compassionate” policy is working out (and please pray for his victim.)

https://www.independentsentinel.com/repeat-offender-slashed-a-womans-face-hes-out-without-bail/

RIP, GEORGE WINSTON & GEORGE MAHARIS

By “Huckabee” pop culture guru Pat Reeder (http://www.hollywoodhifi.com)

It’s been a sad week for music and movie/TV fans, and there’s more bad news to report. First, Grammy-winning pianist George Winston has died at 73, following a 10-year battle with cancer.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/grammy-winning-pianist-george-winston-dead-73

Winston’s distinctive soft, contemplative style first came to national attention when the local California label Windom Hill signed him and his second album, “Autumn,” became one of their first releases to be distributed nationally. Windom Hill became so popular, it helped create the “New Age” music genre.

Winston was its leading figure, selling millions of albums in what he called his “Rural Folk Piano” style, including “Winter Into Spring,” and his biggest seller, the Christmas-themed “December.” He even cut tribute albums to the Doors and Vince Guaraldi. He also gave many live concerts to raise money for the charity “Feeding America” and local food banks, even during the years when he was fighting cancer.

I must also report that actor George Maharis has died at home in Beverly Hills at 94.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/route-66-star-george-maharis-dead-94

Maharis had a long career in movies and TV, including the 1970 crime series “The Most Deadly Game,” but his biggest success came in the early ‘60s when he spent three seasons sharing a Corvette convertible with Martin Milner on the hit show, “Route 66,” one of the few shows of that era that was filmed on location as the two got involved with various people along the famous US highway.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/route-66-star-george-maharis-dead-94

Maharis was one of seven children of Greek immigrant parents in New York who wanted him to join them in the restaurant business, but he had a drive to get out of Hell’s Kitchen. He hoped to become a singer, but after damaging his vocal cords, he switched to acting. His throat must have healed, though, because he later parlayed his success as a handsome TV heartthrob into a series of albums for Epic and CBS throughout the ‘60s. You can hear a selection of them on YouTube at this link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzutueSnLuU&list=OLAK5uy_koMHTwFtbKP57eoz540HkH6-zNXCbfKQQ

He’s actually better than many professional singers of that era, and, well…most of them today. Especially on the ballads, like “Teach Me Tonight” or “Moon River.” But he’s a bit undermined by the ballpark nacho-level of cheese on some of the up-tempo tunes. Ironically, one of the worst arrangements is of “Route 66,” a song that actually had nothing to do with the TV series