Category Archives: Celebrity
Ezekiel Elliott’s Leap of Faith
You may throw your loose change into a Salvation Army Kettle this time of year. But Ezekiel Elliott scored a touchdown and threw himself in. The ref penalized him for excessive celebration but the NFL elected not to fine him. Presumably with Commissioner Roger Goodell’s approval.
Anyway, who says the NFL is no fun? Here’s a clever clip of Zeek’s stunt spliced onto video of earlier red kettle choreography by Terrell Owns. (It’s the second video on the page.)
Elliott’s Leap of Faith
The Salvation Army says contributions jumped 61% after Elliott’s leap of faith.
Trump Tweets
Republicans in Congress were frustrating President Obama’s agenda . So, in 2014, he decided to go it alone. He said, “I have a phone and a pen.”
Outlining the strategy, Obama said he plans to use his pen to sign executive actions and his phone to convene outside groups in support of his agenda if Congress proves unable or unwilling to act on his priorities.
Trump Tweets
Speaking of phones, President-elect Trump has been taking phone calls without China’s approval. And if you don’t like it you’ll get Trump tweets about it.
Flag Burning
Trump tweet of the week: “Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag — if they do, there must be consequences, perhaps loss of citizenship or a year in jail!”
The Huffington Post reported that most people think President-elect The Donald goes too far. They think flag burners should keep their citizenship. However, they’re cool with the jail part.
Flag Burning
Justice Scalia, for his part, wasn’t cool with either jail or loss of citizenship for burning a flag. Here are a few lines from a Pittsburgh Post Gazette editorial on Scalia’s opinion of flag burning:
“If I were king,” the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia once said in an interview, “I would not allow people to go about burning the American flag. However, we have a First Amendment, which says that the right of free speech shall not be abridged. … Burning the flag is a form of expression. Speech doesn’t just mean written words or oral words. … Burning a flag is a symbol that expresses an idea.”
The Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that flag burning is a protected form of free speech. And Salon said Trump was cool with that when he appeared on The David Letterman Show in 2015.
Of course, the court also ruled that campaign issue advocacy spending by corporations and unions is a protected form of free speech. We know Hillary’s not cool with that. The Citizens United case involved a movie critical of her. Here’s the trailer.
My favorite example of the exercise of free speech by flag burning occurred at the RNC convention in Cleveland last summer. The burner became the burnee. He caught himself on fire.
Dead Voters
Walking Dead
Some critics say The Walking Dead went too far in its season opener. The episode featured violence with a baseball bat rigged with barbed wire.
Critics also say Donald Trump has gone too far as his reality show campaign season closes. The final episodes feature claims the election is rigged.
Dead Voters
Liberals say voter fraud is a myth. Trump cites a 2012 Pew research report that says there are 1.8 million dead voters on the rolls.
Rudi Giuliani says, “Dead people generally vote for Democrats rather than Republicans.”
Not to worry. The Russians have offered to monitor the election.
Al Smith Dinner
Cardinal Dolan had a “box seat” between Hillary and Trump at the annual Al Smith Dinner in New York. He said he was “moved by their interaction together”.
I had to wonder if he didn’t just want to move.
Al Smith V said the room got “a little uncomfortable” when The Donald said Hillary pretended “not to hate Catholics.”
Here are video highlights of their speeches.
Try not to notice Maria Bartiromo or the sweaty guy next to the podium.
