FATS LIMBAUGH SCORES AGAIN

He maintains his perfect rating on Pundit Fact:

ABOUT BURNING PEOPLE

ISIS perpetrated another barbarity when it filmed the burning death of the Jordan pilot and that brings to mind a few American barbarities:

1) Napalm in Vietnam

2) Lynching:

THE GOOD OLD DAYS

This is one of my all-time favorite Christianity stories:

John Wycliffe and the Dawn of the Reformation
by Dr. Donald L. Roberts

JOHN WYCLIFFE WAS BORN around 1330 of a family which held property near Richmond and the village of Wycliffe-upon-Tees in the North Riding of Yorkshire in England. On Holy Innocents’ Day 1384, while present at the Mass, he suffered a second and severe stroke, which caused his death on December 31 of that year.

As a postscript to his life, it must be noted that Wycliffe died officially orthodox. In 1415 the Council of Constance burned John Hus at the stake, and also condemned John Wycliffe on 260 different counts. The Council ordered that his writings be burned and directed that his bones be exhumed and cast out of consecrated ground. Finally, in 1428, at papal command, the remains of Wycliffe were dug up, burned, and scattered into the little river Swift.

WILL RUSH LIMBAUGH MENTION THIS WSJ ARTICLE?

It certainly pisses in his corn flakes, so I suspect not. BTW, there are a few inaccuracies in this report and they mostly involve overestimating the audience for the conservative gasbags.

Talk Radio’s Advertising Problem
Audiences Still Tune In, but Social Media Scared Off Many Advertisers
By Hannah Karp
Feb. 3, 2015 7:56 p.m. ET
WALL STREET JOURNAL

There are plenty of people listening to talk radio. But over the past three years, it has become increasingly difficult to make money off it. ...But many national advertisers have fled from such stations in recent years, seeking to avoid associating their brands with potentially controversial programming. As a result, advertising on talk stations now costs about half what it does on music stations, given comparable audience metrics, according to industry executives.

Talk and news stations combined generated $1.5 billion in revenue in 2013, down from $1.6 billion in 2011, according to the latest numbers from media research firm BIA/Kelsey. Pure talk-station revenue fell to $205 million, from $217 million. The number of talk stations shrank to 510 from 546 over that time period, while the number of news stations increased by 150 to total 1,524.

Radio executives said the erosion of ad dollars from talk stations was driven in part by a series of organized social-media campaigns by liberal activists in early 2012 that scared away advertisers.

The social-media campaigns followed remarks by conservative talk-radio personality Rush Limbaugh , who called a Georgetown University law student a “slut” on the air after she had testified to lawmakers that her school should provide birth-control coverage to students despite its Catholic affiliation.

Talk radio took off in the late 1980s, largely thanks to Mr. Limbaugh. In 1984 the former music-radio DJ pioneered a new style of radio talk show that was more about showcasing his personality than about answering callers’ questions.

ANOTHER SIDE OF THE OIL BOOM

This is probably something that the "drill, baby, drill" crowd won't talk about very much because they aren't the ones who will be doing the drilling.

CNNMoney

Shared publicly  -  10:09 AM
A few years ago, the #oil  boom brought jobs, workers and money to #Williston ,  N.D. But the influx of young men also brought a rise in crimes like prostitution, drug trafficking, theft, and even murder. The town's two strip clubs -- Whispers and Heartbreakers -- stand closed after police were called 189 times in under two years, resulting in temporary suspension of their liquor licenses. #oilboom   #boomtown   http://cnnmon.ie/1zPSuws

GOOD FOR MARTHA RADDATZ!!!

I often hear right wing radio gasbags accuse Pres. Obama of being soft on Muslim extremists so it's nice to learn of an MSM reporter getting to the bottom of this:

Scott Walker's Naive Foreign-Policy Beliefs
His prescription for success: tough rhetoric and never ruling out "boots on the ground."
Conor Friedersdorf Feb 3 2015, 6:00 AM ET

RADDATZ: You don't think 2,000 air strikes is taking it to ISIS in Syria and Iraq?

WALKER: I think we need to have an aggressive strategy anywhere around the world. I think it's a mistake to -

RADDATZ: But what does that mean? I don't know what aggressive strategy means. If we're bombing and we've done 2,000 air strikes, what does an aggressive strategy mean in foreign policy?

THE DECLINE OF TRUST

The vaccination fuss is a good time to look over America's recent past as I and millions of others have experienced it.  Here are some events the come readily to mind: The  Vietnam War turned out to be based on lies & deception (cf., The Best and the Brightest and The Pentagon Papers); a sitting President was forced to resign because he tried to cover up illegal acts; a sitting President was forced to apologize for illegally helping the Contras; the CEOs of the major tobacco companies repeatedly lied to Congress without any adverse consequences; the Dot.com Bubble was based on securities dealers knowingly lying to their clients; Enron, Worldcom and other corporate criminals revealed the dark side of American capitalism; the Iraq War was based on lies and deception; the Great Recession was caused by unethical banksters and their abettors in allied industries.

Given this background, it's not too surprising that some Americans are willing to believe that vaccinations are harmful.

PROGRESS...I THINK

For some reason I can't fathom, prominent Reublicans are admitting that income inequality in America is a problem:

Speaker of the House Boehner:

“We do have an issue of income inequality in America,” the House speaker told Texas Tribune editor-in-chief Evan Smith in a one-on-one interview.

Mitt Romney:

Mr. Romney signaled that a potential third campaign for the White House would focus in part on lifting Americans from poverty. He said that while the economy in the short term was “looking up,” income inequality had worsened.

Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Rand Paul:

On Fox News after the State of the Union speech, Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) denigrated the administration’s economic track record by doing his best Bernie Sanders impression.

“We’re facing right now a divided America when it comes to the economy. It is true that the top 1 percent are doing great under Barack Obama. Today, the top 1 percent earn a higher share of our national income than any year since 1928,” he said, quoting an oft-cited (by liberals) statistic from the work of economists Piketty and Emmanuel Saez.

Jeb Bush, too, has newfound interest in the lower income groups and deep inequity flourishing in our nation. His State of the Union reaction: “While the last eight years have been pretty good ones for top earners, they’ve been a lost decade for the rest of America.” Sen. Rand Paul, as well: “Income inequality has worsened under this administration. And tonight, President Obama offers more of the same policies — policies that have allowed the poor to get poorer and the rich to get richer.”

Senate Majority Leader McConnell:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on 60 Minutes on Sunday that “the so-called 1 percent that the president's always talking about have done quite well. But middle- and lower-income Americans are about $3,000 a year worse off than they were when he came to office.” In the same interview, House Speaker John Boehner said Obama's “policies have made income inequality worse.”

CHAIT'S CLICK BAIT

Jonathon Chait's piece about the return of the dreaded political correctness only helps the radio gasbags who have been harping about it for years.