Yeah Right

Gravity
Many mass killers gravitate to violent video games, as do many young men in general, though this could be more a symptom of their isolation than a cause of their violence. (New York Times, 10/4/2015)

Mental illness, video games and guns equal mass killings.


Duel
Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, in Dueling Speeches, Focus on Transgender Rights (New York Times headline, 10/4/2015)

Republicans had better get busy or they are going to lose the transgender vote in the next election!


Vows
(Hillary Clinton) vowed to do more to curb violence against transgender people, particularly African-American women, and urged the military to reverse its policy and allow transgender Americans to serve in the armed forces. “Having the world’s strongest military, she said, “doesn’t just mean having the best-trained forces or the biggest arsenal.” “It means,” she added, “being a leader on issues like this.” (New York Times, 10/4/2015)

Because there is NOTHING that is going to cause America's enemies to pause more before challenging us than knowing that our military is "transgender-friendly." 

Patton weeps.


Vastly
Mr. Biden, in talking about how the vast majority of Americans support same-sex marriage, appeared to deliver an off-the-cuff line. “There are homophobes still left, most of them are running for president, I think,” he said. (New York Times, 10/4/2015)

Wow, a "vast majority" of Americans support gay marriage. We wondered what constitutes a "vast majority." So we did a Google search. It took .00002 seconds and yielded the following:

....support for same-sex marriage has steadily grown. Based on polling in 2015, a majority of Americans (55%) support same-sex marriage, compared with 39% who oppose it. (pewforum.org, 7/29/2015)

Oh, according to the New York Times, a "vast majority" is 55%. In the good old days, that would have been described as "slightly more than one-half." Now, when you have a political agenda, the definition changes. 

Beast at Bay

Run Away
If Sen. Bernie Sanders runs for president he could have support from former Gov. Howard Dean.

Dean says right now he is backing Hillary Clinton if she decides to run in 2016. But he said if Sanders got in the race, he'd have to consider supporting the home state candidate.

Sanders says he is 99 percent sure he would not run, but has left the door open, saying there needs to be more focus on the disappearing middle class. (WCAX.com, 11/12/2013)

Oh come on now, Bernie, run! Do not deny the American people the circus that would be a Sanders presidential bid. 

Of course, Dean's motivation is suspect. No doubt he wants to lose the label he now has of "that moonbat candidate from Vermont."


Miami Heat
President Obama appears to have remained overnight in Miami – incurring extra costs for taxpayers – just to play golf in the Florida sunshine.
...
There are no official events on his schedule today, golf seemingly his primary duty. He’ll depart Miami for Washington at 3:25 pm.

This marks the 150th time Obama has played golf as president, and the 39th time this year. (Whitehousedossier.com, 11/9/2013)

Not to worry, Obama has ordered a "tech surge" to fix Healthcare.gov. Thereby freeing himself up to hit the links!

(Great website, by the way.)


Due and Unpaid
All told, about 210,000 people have signed up, about 155,000 for Medicaid and 55,000 others for private insurance plans. Those numbers include people who have picked a plan but have not necessarily paid their first premium, which is not due for another month.

In addition, Oregon has signed up more than 70,000 people for the Medicaid expansion through a “fast-track” program that does not rely on the exchange. And Maryland will automatically enroll more than 80,000 newly eligible people in Medicaid in January. (NYT, 11/13/2013)

It's really Obamacaid, not Obamacare, isn't it?


Side Split
The split between lawmakers and the White House reflects the dilemma the president finds himself in as he seeks to follow through on last week’s acknowledgment about his incorrect promise on health care coverage. (NYT, 11/13/2013)

New York Times Style Book: Republicans flip-flop, Democrats evolve; Republicans lie, Democrats make incorrect promises.


Personal Beliefs
“I personally believe even if it takes a change in the law, the president should honor the commitment the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they got,” Mr. Clinton said in the interview, published by Ozy, a web magazine. (NYT, 11/13/2013)

RedStateVT told you - just a week or so ago - that Bill Clinton would get his payback for Obama's slights. We had no idea, however, that it would happen so quickly!


Derivations
Many of the rigged rules derive directly from the Wall Street wing of the (Democrat) party, personified by Robert Rubin, former head of Goldman Sachs who served as Clinton’s economic guru and Treasury secretary. Rubin peddled the bankers’ creed: financial deregulation, fiscal austerity, capital gain tax cuts, corporate globalization, flexible (read anti-union) labor markets, combined with public solicitude for the poor, trumped always by limited budgets. Celebrated during the Clinton years, the combination proved a toxic brew that led directly to the financial wilding that blew up the economy. (Katrina vanden Heuvel, Washington Post, 11/12/2013)

Liberals have been telling us for years - years! - that it was George Bush (and maybe Mitt Romney) who were responsible for blowing up the U.S. economy. Now one of their own 'fesses up: it was Bill Clinton. This is earth-shattering news. 


Dog Days
Call of Duty: Ghosts, developed for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U and PC, is rated M (Mature, for players 17 and older) for throat knifings, profanity and a dog that feasts on human necks. (NYT, 11/6/2013)

Just keeping readers up-to-date on the latest in video games. 

Repeat after us: video games do not lead to violence, video games do not lead to violence....


Possibilities
Lady Gaga said she was addicted to marijuana in an interview with Elvis Duran on the Z100 Morning Show on Friday, Nov. 8, 2013, and that she decided to speak about it so young people are aware that addiction to the drug is possible. (WSJ, 11/13/2013)

Uh, Governor Shumlin? Governor Peter Shumlin? Governor Peter Shumlin of Vermont? Governor Peter Shumlin of Vermont whose signature legislative accomplishment is the decriminalization of dope?

Aim in Mind

Analyzing the Washington Navy Yard Shooting
Aaron Alexis, the 34-year-old suspect killed in the U.S.Navy Yard shooting spree, had at least two earlier brushes with the law involving guns that led to the end of his four-year Navy career in 2011. (WSJ, 9/16/2013)

Undoubtedly, the Legitimate Media will focus on the weapons used by Alexis to kill a dozen people. If only he did not have an assault rifle they will lament. If only Congress would limit the size of the gun magazine. As RedStateVT has reported repeatedly when these horrible events happen, this thinking is Liberal nonsense. The real culprit, yet again, is the culture of violence and, yet again, a contributing factor is violent video games:

There, he played computer games “at the nighttime and all day,” Ms. Wilton said, on one of three computers he kept in his room, driving up the house’s electricity bills. (NYT, 9/16/2013)

When will the country wake up?

Think that we are crazy? Well permit RedStateVT to share with you excerpts from the New York Times review (9/16/2013) of the new video game called Grand Theft Auto V:

Grand Theft Auto V is still an action game about hoodlums and thieves; we start with an extended bout of cop killing and proceed to a series of increasingly ambitious heists...Trevor, an oddly lovable psychopathic meth dealer and gun runner...Another of the political provocations is a gruesome and unpleasant torture sequence — conducted by the player — that casts waterboarding and other violent methods as games played for the entertainment of the interrogator.

Where to begin? Cop killing...psychopathic meth dealer...torture. How uplifting. Thankfully we get the following disclaimer:

Sure, the new installment, to be released on Tuesday, contains plenty that might offend those who enjoy taking offense, and it is still disturbing to see parents giving these games to preteenage children. (NYT, 9/16/2013)

Disturbing indeed.

Sadly, Alexis is but the latest in the recent lineage of mass murderers who have been linked to video violence. 

Break In The Weather

Two Views
In the course of the recent presidential campaign, the media and even the candidates themselves told us that we had a choice between two competing views of government. President Obama presented the view of a benevolent government that plays an active role in righting social wrongs, closely watching over potential malfeasance in the business community, and dialing down the country’s aggressive foreign policy. Candidate Romney stood for a less activist government that promoted individual responsibility, unshackling business from onerous regulation and an unapologetically strong role for America on the world stage. Incessant hammering by the Obama campaign, abetted by a supportive press, was successful in painting Romney as another rich Republican white guy, thereby casting doubts on his message and derailing his bid. 

What if there could have been another spokesman for the views that Romney espoused who would allow for a more objective comparison? 

Fortunately, the country has been given the gift of just such a comparison. With Dr. Ben Carson's address at the National Prayer Breakfast earlier this month and President Obama's recent State of the Union address we have the clearest picture imaginable of the two predominant visions for America. That the spokesmen are two African Americans, each at the top of their respective professions, should be enough to dispel the notion once and for all that America is a racist country.  (It should be, but sadly won't for those whose life's work is beating this drum.) Barack Hussein Obama and Benjamin Solomon Carson (even their middle names give us pause), both raised by single mothers, espousing viewpoints that cannot co-exist. You either believe that more government (or more effective government as Obama clarified) and a collective approach is the answer to America's problems or that the solution is less government and more individual responsibility. The comparison could not have been clearer. 

It is impossible to know what Obama was thinking as he listened to Carson speak. It is dangerous to try and read someone's body language, but others have spoken of his clenched jaw and tense appearance. It could not have been an enjoyable twenty-seven minutes. And what next for Carson? Like Clarence Thomas, J.C. Watts, Herman Cain, Allen West and other black conservatives before him, he exposes himself to a potential onslaught by the Liberal media. Fortunately he has a really good day job. 


Fruitful
During a search of the Lanza home after the deadly school shootings, police found thousands of dollars worth of graphically violent video games.
...
If they had found a book by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Ann Coulter, or Glenn Beck, I bet we would have heard about it weeks ago with it making headline news across the fruited plain. (Noel Sheppard, Newsbusters.org, 2/18/2013)

The revelation above ("thousands of dollars worth of violent video games") would - in a just and logical world - immediately end all discussion of guns, assault weapons and magazine capacities. Such discussion which would then immediately shift to the role of video games in nurturing violence in society. It won't happen. Liberals just want to rid the country of guns. Newtown is their excuse.

To repeat: We have a mentally ill teenager, a product of a broken home. Who owns and watches thousands of dollars of violent video games. Whose mother inexplicably uses target practice at a local firing range as a way to bond with her troubled child. She does not secure the guns from his reach. And the answer is outlawing some guns and gun clips?


Throwdown
Friday, Feb. 22, 8:00 a.m. Governor Shumlin and RGA Chair Governor Bobby Jindal discuss and debate challenges facing states as part of Politico’s State Solution Conference, 901 K St. NW – 12th floor, Washington D.C. (VTdigger.org, 2/17/2013)

Vermont Governor Shumlin goes toe-to-toe with Louisiana Governor Jindal. We'd pay to see that one! (And put our money on Jindal.)