The Hollywood Liberal

Carter: Why Chinese Mothers Aren’t Superior
Amy Chua’s new book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, argues that Chinese mothers are superior because they demand absolute perfection and won’t refrain from berating, threatening, and even starving kids to achieve it. “Chua’s argument goes against years of scientific research into what makes kids truly happy — and successful — in life,” writes sociologist Christine Carter. “Chua defines success narrowly, focusing on achievement and perfection at all costs: Success is getting straight As and being a violin or piano prodigy. Three decades of research clearly suggests that such a narrow focus on achievement can produce wildly unhappy people.”

Late Late Night FDL: Pigs In Space
Pigs In Space from episode 502 of The Muppet Show with Loretta Swit substituting for the fired Miss Piggy, featuring the musical number Side By Side By Side/What Would We Do Without You. Grab your popcorn, put your feet up on the coffee table, and try to keep the spitballs off the screen please. This is Late Late Night FireDogLake, where off topic is the topic … so dive in. What’s on your mind?

Pigs In Space from episode 502 of The Muppet Show with Loretta Swit substituting for the fired Miss Piggy, featuring the musical number Side By Side By Side/What Would We Do Without You.

Grab your popcorn, put your feet up on the coffee table, and try to keep the spitballs off the screen please. This is Late Late Night FireDogLake, where off topic is the topic … so dive in. What’s on your mind?

?

Great Floods Hit Sri Lanka
Massive flooding battering the island nation of Sri Lanka has been described as the worst natural disaster there since the 2004 tsunami, killing at least 27 people and inundating thousands of acres of vital rice fields. —JCL CNN: Aid workers scrambled to help more than a million people in Sri Lanka suffering from massive flooding described by the government as the worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami. At least 27 people have died and 12 more are listed as missing, Lankapuvath, Sri Lanka’s national news agency, reported Friday The Sri Lankan government and United Nations agencies were beefing up efforts to address increasingly dire humanitarian needs. Read more

Massive flooding battering the island nation of Sri Lanka has been described as the worst natural disaster there since the 2004 tsunami, killing at least 27 people and inundating thousands of acres of vital rice fields. —JCL

CNN:

Aid workers scrambled to help more than a million people in Sri Lanka suffering from massive flooding described by the government as the worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami.

At least 27 people have died and 12 more are listed as missing, Lankapuvath, Sri Lanka’s national news agency, reported Friday

The Sri Lankan government and United Nations agencies were beefing up efforts to address increasingly dire humanitarian needs.

Read more

Related Entries

• January 2, 2011 Blizzard a Case of God-Blocking, Robertson Says
• December 22, 2010 Mary Quite Contrary

Virginia Tech Families Call On Congress To Fix Gun Background Checks
WASHINGTON — In the wake of Saturday’s Tucson shooting, in which a gunman killed six people and injured 13 others, family members of victims in…

Republicans Elect New Leader
OXON HILL, Md. — The national Republican Party, coming off huge election victories but facing a $22 million debt and an internal war over identity,…

High-Tech Border Fence Axed
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Friday ended a high-tech border fence project that cost taxpayers nearly $1 billion but did little to improve security….

Christina Taylor Green’s Organs Help Save Child
Christina-Taylor Green, the 9-year-old girl killed in Saturday’s shootings in Tucson, donated her organs….

Nancy Duff Campbell: Now It’s Time to Lift the Restrictions on Women’s Military Service
As a matter of national security and civil rights, it’s time for Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to eliminate all restrictions on women’s military service.

Big Gov Distorts GM’s Green Initiative As Taxpayer-Funded Government Mandate

A recent Big Government post falsely claimed that General Motors’ recently launched green initiative is a result of “leftists tak[ing] over” the company and is being funded by the taxpayers. In fact, Chevrolet’s greening effort was launched voluntarily, and is not funded by taxpayer money.

BigGov: Chevy’s Green Efforts Due To “Leftists Tak[ing] Over” And Are Funded By Taxpayers

BigGov Claims Chevy’s Green Efforts “The Kind of Business Model That You Get When Leftists Take Over.” A January 13 post on Andrew Breitbart’s blog Big Government mocked Chevrolet’s Carbon Reduction initiative, which focuses on “investing in greenhouse gas-reducing projects…like wind farms, solar and energy efficiency,” according to the initiative’s website. [Chevycarbonreduction.com, accessed 1/14/11]

Including a video clip of a recent ad for the Chevy Volt, the Big Government post claimed:

There was a time when Chevy built cars and trucks. The Corvette and Camaro were legendary sports cars, and the Impala offered full size comfort [sic] a middle class price. But that was before Change came to town.  The brand that used to compare itself to Baseball, Hot-Dogs, and Apple Pie is no longer content to just make reliable vehicles, it is now as green as a wheatgrass and algae smoothie.

For instance, in the following commercial: Chevy isn’t just building cars anymore, it’s “investing” in windmills, and planting trees.

This is the kind of business model that you get when Leftists take over. Before 2008, GM just tried to make cars that people would buy, for a little more money than they cost to build. Now, they have to plant a forest. [Big Government, 1/13/11]

BigGov Claims GM Using Taxpayer Money On Green Effort. The Big Government post also suggested that GM is using taxpayer money to “plant windmills and trees.” From the post:

It’s for reasons like this that General Motors is never expected to fully pay back the bailout money. According to the Congressional Oversight Panel, Taxpayers will lose about 19 billion dollars on the General Motors bailout.

That’s a lot of green. You can’t really blame General Motors. When you have an extra 19 billion to play with, why not plant windmills and trees? It seems like the corporate suites, are working on a bigger Buzz than the one they hired to do the voice-over. A more rational voice might ask about the forest that had to be cut down to print all that money. [Big Government, 1/13/11]

In Fact, Chevy’s Initiatives Are Not Government Mandated, Do Not Use Taxpayer Money

Chevy Carbon Reduction Site: “The Government Had Absolutely No Role In This” Project. On the Questions and Answers section of Chevrolet’s site about the green initiative, Chevrolet states that the government “had absolutely no role” in the project and that the company “is making this commitment voluntarily.” From the site:

[ChevyCarbonReduction.com, accessed 1/14/11]

Chevy Site: “Funding For This Initiative Comes From Existing Advertising Budgets.” In response to the question, “Is Chevy spending taxpayers’ money on this initiative?” the website lists the answer:

[ChevyCarbonReduction.com, accessed 1/14/11]

Chevy Site: Project To Cost An Estimated $40 Million. The site also states that the projected cost of the project is $40 million:

[ChevyCarbonReduction.com, accessed 1/14/11]

Pima Community College Releases Jared Lee Loughner’s ‘Genocide/Scam’ YouTube Video
The school Jared Lee Loughner used to attend released a copy of the YouTube video titled “Pima Community College School – Genocide/Scam – Free Education – Broken United States Constitution” which got the alleged gunman suspended in September.

Tea Party Express Got $7,500 In Donations From A Dead Woman
The Tea Party Express took in $7,500 in donations over the past two years under the name of a woman who died in 2007, the Center for Responsive Politics reports today.

‘DeLayed Reaction’: The Hammer is Finally Nailed to Three Years in Jail

Progressive Profiles: With New TV Show, Radio Talker Thom Hartmann Brings Substance to Style
With an entrepreneurial spirit, knowledge of history and boundless energy, Hartmann brings the singular mix he honed on national radio to the cable news airwaves.

Twitter Is Hero as Feds Attempt to Trample WikiLeaks’ Free Speech
Twitter was willing to challenge a grand jury subpoena, but it is unlikely the same can be said about Google and Facebook.

For the New Yorker, Women Are Invisible: Ms Magazine Pushes Protest
The December and January issues of the New Yorker had almost no content by women. Why do publications so often fail to include female voices?

College Sex Scribes Are Campus Stars
With sex on college campuses still often a taboo topic, Sex and the University shows how these authors generated important discussions amongst their peers.

How the Republican Assault on Health Care Could Backfire On Them
When it comes to health care, Republicans should be careful what they wish for. Their upcoming vote to repeal the health-care law will be largely symbolic — they don’t have the votes to override President Obama’s certain veto. The real…

Presented By:

?Compassionate Conservative? Kansas Gov. Brownback Proposes Ending Funding For State Mental Hospital

Conservative opinion makers have often pointed to Sam Brownback — who, after a long career as a U.S. senator, was just recently elected the Republican governor of the state of Kansas — as a model of “compassionate conservativism.” Indeed, with his more moderate stances on issues like immigration and his past work on human rights issues, this title does have some merit.

However, the governor’s newly released budget plan is anything but compassionate. Rather than choosing to responsibly raise revenue to protect services for the most vulnerable Kansans, Brownback’s budget guts many of the state’s most important programs. Included among these cuts is lowering state education aid per student to its lowest level since 2000 and eliminating funding for the Kansas Arts Commission.

Yet perhaps the most brutal cut in Brownback’s budget comes to the Kansas Neurological Institute (KNI). The governor proposes completely eliminating funding to the institution by 2014, which would force it to close down. KNI serves nearly 160 people with severe mental disabilities; two-thirds of its patients cannot walk and four-fifths are unable to speak.

Brownback’s decision has spurred dissent from state legislators, both Democrats and Republicans. “How Christian is this?” asked Rep. Annie Kuether (D-Topeka), who represents the district that KNI is in:

Rep. Annie Kuether, a Topeka Democrat serving a district that includes the KNI campus, said Brownback’s attitude on KNI belied his vow to protect vulnerable Kansans. “How Christian is this?” she said. “It’s passing the buck. It puts all the costs back on the community.”

Rep. Lana Gordon and Joe Patton, both Topeka Republicans, said they objected to closing KNI. “I appreciate the wonderful care the staff provides and what an important service it is for our community,” Patton said.

The Brownback administration claims that community health services will be able to take up the patients after the closure of KNI. This would likely pass on the cost of caring for the patients to cash-strapped municipalities. It’s also unclear if there is even room for the patients among community services. In 2009, a government commission voted to close KNI, but the recommendations were never followed through, partly because there was a waiting list of “approximately 4,000 people with disabilities who are already waiting for home- and community-based services.”

The country’s attention is particularly focused on the needs of the mentally ill following the Tucson shooting. Now would seem to be the worst time to make the most vulnerable among us pay for a recession caused by Wall Street’s excesses.