Oh, the Difference Two Decades Makes...

Teen Nick has started a new campaign and television block called, "The 90s Are All That", and in its initial days of presenting reruns of (this dates me) classic Nick programming such as Doug and Clarissa Explains It All, it has broken the bank in terms of ratings!

No one has really seen Doug (an animated show about a boy played by Billy West aka 'Fry' on Futurama), Kenan and Kel (starring SNL star Kenan Thompson) and Clarissa Explains It All (the first series for "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" and "Melissa & Joey" star Melissa Joan Hart) in years and already in just days the viewership has returned with a vengeance.

The network increased viewership in a time slot by 850%, a staggering number anyway you look at it.  The article continues:

According to Nielsen, the midnight-to-1 a.m. combo of All That and Kenan and Kel drew roughly 600,000 viewers (of all ages) Monday, compared to the 374,000 viewers who caught Lopez Tonight on TBS in the same hour. It also bettered the 559,000 viewers who caught an Awkward rerun on MTV at midnight, as well as the roughly 500,000 people who checked out reruns of The New Adventures of Old Christine and HIMYM on Lifetime. Considering Teen Nick doesn't have anywhere near the profile of those other networks, its after-midnight performance can only be called extraordinary.

This is also great news for those who want more family-friendly, or just more quality on their boob tubes.

For instance, I just saw a "Clarissa" episode through new eyes and was pleasantly surprised at the family-oriented, pre-"it takes a village" approach to parenting and children.  Ah, the good old days!

The episode entitled, "Misguidance Counselor" originally aired June 14th, 1992.

In it, Clarissa struggles with what it means to be normal, when she and her family is in fact quite unique.  A rather beligerent guidance counselor forces her to try all sorts of activities in order to fit in and change herself so she doesn't end up marginalized later.  The climax finds the counselor visiting the family at home to express her concerns about Clarissa, only to have her parents stand up her individuality and the freedom to pursue her own interests her own way.  The parents seemed truly surprised by the fact the school counselor thought she knew what was best for their daughter.  The counselor sees her at school but Clarissa "lives here" at home with them.

The scene also reminded me of King of the Hill and all the government touchy-feely buttinskyism in their lives.  It also showed the mother reminding the children to be respectful toward their guest (and they listen to her)--something you never see in modern television shows.  Bratty kids are like the new POGS or slap-bracelets or Furbies, except they never go away!

While extreme leftists such as Alan Colmes always suggests, we all always say things used to be better than they are today, yet society keeps going, I actually can point to examples of how liberalism has crept into how we raise children, look at the role of family or faith in our lives.  If these shows provide a snap-shot of what families or children were supposed to be like on average in our society, or should strive to be like, I'd hate to discover what future generations will think of our values and if we helped or hurt the role of family.

China's War on Time Travel (and Space Travel, and Transporters) or How 'What if?' becomes 'Uh-oh."

China's latest shtick seems to be putting sci fi writers and scientists out of business, or at least making them look like fools for continuing down a futile (and dangerous?) path.

Hong Kong University scientists claim that photons can not travel faster than light, so therefore time travel as well as FTL (faster than light) or super-luminous travel is impossible.

"Einstein claimed that the speed of light was the traffic law of the universe or in simple language, nothing can travel faster than light," the university said on its website...

"Professor Du's study demonstrates that a single photon, the fundamental quanta of light, also obeys the traffic law of the universe just like classical EM (electromagnetic) waves."

The Battlestar Galactica engages their FTL drive at the last moment

Their findings seem pretty closed-minded and absolute, especially considering the human will to overcome the seemingly insurmountable.  If their theory were to be a fact, it would mean the end of humans traveling through space, exploring the galaxy before it has even begun...not to mention it stands to reason no one will get to say, "Beam me up, Scotty."

A paranoid person might think that they've released these "findings" in order to dissuade others from pursuing this technology that they either already have in some capacity or are endeavouring to acquire.
Instead, I feel they just hate the ramifications of what time travel could pose to the dreamers in China.

In April, it was revealed that China wants to "discourage" (ban) all time travel stories.



I guess River Song has more than "spoilers" to worry about.

 Those "freedom-loving" People's Republic enforcers decided that:


"The time-travel drama is becoming a hot theme for TV and films," it says. "But its content and the exaggerated performance style are questionable......and they, "lack positive thoughts and meaning."

When someone mentions positive thoughts, the first people I think of are always the Chinese government.

The article also describes how TV there has recently shown an increase in time-travel stories that illustrate better times in China for her people.  This is the heart of the issue.  If you see characters from ancient China, or even from not that long ago living in freedom without government regulations and re-education camps strangling your individuality and potential out of you-- a completely unqualified, red-tape-free existence--you will not look at your daily drudgery or servitude to the state in the same way.  You'll think about not only the past--but the future--and what could be for you, your family, and the future of your nation.  In short, the government loses your hearts (and with that, the minds are soon to follow).

With this theory, science fiction, the genre that asks "what if?" becomes an enemy of the Chinese government with all its dreaming and postulating, musings on humanity and historical references to give perspective.  You can't legislate, persecute, re-educate, or scare away the dreamers from any society.  As long as human hearts beat, there will be dreamers and thinkers who remind us there's more to life than the mere moment we are in.

We better find out the Chinese translation for 'uh-oh', or that simple WWII repsponse, 'Nuts'.

Family... The Next Disney Movie Villain

This isn't exactly news, but liberals are trying to tear down the family AGAIN.  Simon Ross of the Optimum Population Trust has said the Beckham's are, "very bad role models" with their "large family" and that they are being "selfish". 

David Beckham and baby, Twitter/AP

 As Laura Ingraham discussed in her book, Power to the People, through family we pass on our beliefs and history to the next generation.  The far-left feminists who have sworn off biology will not have any children to teach their values to, which is sad-- in principle. 

Married couples who have larger families are generally more family-focused.  Why get a golf membership if you hate golf?  They also are more likely to be people of faith--any faith, so progressives attacking larger families is a way to target that last bastion of freedom: how we raise our families and the number of children you are allowed. 

Ross says "one or two" are fine, but more is selfish.  Taking a page from Cass Sunstein, his American counterpart from across the pond, he suggests that "child benefits and tax credits" only be provided for the first two children. You're still allowed to have as many children as you want.  That's how these cockroaches get their policies enacted on a national and global scale.  They just modify your behavior by nudging you in their direction.  Do as we say, or you'll pay.

I guess the Brady Bunch is out.  My three sons...buh-bye.  Those Culkin children have to go!  Thank goodness Mary-Kate and Ashley weren't triplets!  I would love to hear the gushing excuses and stammering, trying to defend their populationist point of view when confronted with Obama, Sr. and his hordes of bastard children.

Ross also says,

"There's no point in people trying to reduce their carbon emissions and then increasing them 100% by having another child."

That's fine by me!

Not that I purposefully intended to link this post with my last ones about the space program...but watch me.  While Obama and the progressives tear down the space program, defund the Hubble telescope's successor and otherwise hand the reigns over to Russia and China, we see further evidence that progress to these Republican and Democrat progressives has nothing to do with empowering America or the human race decades or centuries from now.  I'm not a rocket scientist, though one day soon no one will be, but we have one of two options.

Option 1:  Let big government regulations box us in, tax us to death (and then use the death tax to tax us some more); let them decide the size of our families, what our children learn, eat, dream.  In short, the government will control every God-given choice we were born with-- even the decision if we are allowed to be born.

Option 2:  Return to our founding principles, which have not evolved as the President would suggest.  Recapture that American spirit that drove us for over a century and a half before we started getting off track: the ingenuity, the determination, the sheer guts.  Then look to the stars. 

If we rebuild NASA and find faster propulsions and radiation protection we could travel to other planets, moons and celestial bodies that could give rise to new human colonies in space.  Seems like a win-win.  Houston we have a Go.  Plus overpopulation problem solved.

http://images.wikia.com/covenantofroyalblood/images/e/ed/MarsCity2.jpg

 And those clowns in Washington make this look difficult.

Footprints on the Moon

Today is the anniversary of the first moon landing!  I'm always speechless when I try to comprehend that it took thousands of years for man to learn to fly, and then only 66 years to walk on the moon!

To Boldly Go...

If we could accomplish these incredible feats, then even if certain powers that be want to hold us back and pack it up, with enough patience, embracing of history and our time-tested determination: We Will Go Back to Space, and Beyond.

I'm sure there were some 84 year olds watching the 1969 moon landing on their children's new-fangled TV sets, who remembered when they were recent high school grads in 1903 and heard about the Kitty Hawk flight on the radio.  In 1903, aircraft seemed a bit out of reach, especially since commercial flights were still a long way off--but it got the ball rolling.  And, despite the current setbacks, NASA exploration will continue in the near future.  Onward and upward!

What is and Should Never Be

The lies, the superior attitude, tone deafness, the endless personal narrative (which is also laced with lies to advance his agenda), horrible SCOTUS picks, Janet Napolitano, FLOTUS, wrecking relationships with foreign allies (while celebrating a self-congratulatory boost in how the world perceives us), OBAMACARE, taxes, gas prices "necessarily skyrocketing", spreading the wealth, golfing while the nation burns, dropping the ban on funding of foreign abortions, repeatedly banning oil drilling in the United States while GIVING billions to Brazil so they can do what he won't allow us to do, breaking the law, using water as leverage in the Valley that hope forget in California to get votes for Health Care, continually pushing the Dream Act and policies to circumvent the process, the internet Kill Switch he gave himself, and so much more...

In spite of this laundry list of despicable acts the action that cuts the deepest and upsets me at my core is his dismantling of the space program and erradication of any stake we once had in space.

I've been holding back on writing about the death, no strike that: MURDER of NASA and marginalization of the smartest and biggest dreamers on planet Earth, perhaps in all of history because I feel so strongly about reaching out into space to find answers about the universe, to see what's out there, and ultimately to spread the human race out among the stars.

We now live in a post-space-age era with no plan, no direction or promise to put us up there and out there like Kennedy did.  The drive isn't gone---but buried beneath progressive bureaucrats' red tape.

It's hard to choose one sin of Obama's that is his worst mistake because in the short term, he's made horrific ones.  The space program is about the future and progress for all of mankind--and NASA gave Americans pride and also assurances that we would be stewards of space (holding true to our founding principles).  The same can not be said of Russia or China or Iran and all the other dangerous nations who are staking a claim to our skies.

I'm a conservative guy and I'm concerned with progress and where we are going--and not just the next election cycle--but 50, 100, 500 years from now.  If only our "progressive" liberal president actually cared about real progress...

The picture that inspired this post is truly captivating and it's a fun family keepsake that unfortunately exists, despite the fact it never should have been possible.

A father and son have photographs of themselves attending the first and last space shuttle launches--I pray, at least until the next president starts a Gen 2 Shuttle Program.

Another Christian to be Murdered by Tolerant Muslims

Ann Coulter's words have never resonated more clearly.  As she said after September 11th, 2001:

Invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.



With this latest report that a Christian Pastor is facing execution in Iran if he doesn't renounce his faith, we're reminded how vicious and archaic Middle Eastern Muslim governments are, as well as some here too.

We're not just at risk from terrorists who crash planes into buildings or insert explosives into their cavities.  They are waging a holy war against us.  From "honor" killings on American soil to random people in foreign streets burning the American and Israeli flag side-by-side, to slaying after slaying after slaying of innocent non-Muslims, we are being targeted for our beliefs (and our freedom afforded to us by the hard work and sacrifices of our founding fathers and military).

I do believe that we should not be the world's police force.  We can't even keep track of the crime on our streets, and refuse to enforce the immigration laws on our books.  That said, we need to protect our own.  The progressives are actively trying to make us forget the proud Judeo-Christian tradition in this country---not just in our beliefs, but also the founding documents that gave first live to our nation which contained philosophy and beliefs stemming from (gasp) religion.

If we can't unite with other Christians around the world to put an end to oppressive and evil regimes that would have an innocent man executed like it's still the middle ages, then we don't deserve to be called Christians.  I doubt even Jesus would die for that sin of passive non-involvement.

All the church bake sales in the world won't wash the blood off our hands if we let the persecution of Christians here and abroad to go unchecked.  It certainly doesn't help when Obama goes to Muslim countries waving his little olive branch and apologizing for our nation's mistakes--it gives them cover.

We should pray for the life of  pastor Yousef Nadarkhani and all the Christians living in hiding in dangerous parts of the world.  But our involvement shouldn't stop there.  God expects us to help our brothers in need, otherwise we will be letting all of their prayers go unanswered.

Dining Sans Whining

Nothing ruins a dinner out more than a crying baby.  Some babies are quiet by nature, and some kids are quiet and respectful because they were taught that by their parents.  Unfortunately, the growing trend is for parents to sit idly by as their children carry on like banshees.

Just  this week I was enjoying dinner out with family and friends when another family with various children and two children under two years old took over.  The (for lack of better term) mother had her back turned from the one child, whose only response was to cry incessantly.  What was worse was that none of the other ten people at their table looked concerned for the baby's well-being, tried to console the baby, or even looked ashamed at the spectacle they had become by disrupting everyone else!

It was a pizza buffet restaurant and on a fairly related note, I watched as a young guy behind the line helped separate a piece of pizza for a five or six year old from another party.  He was being helpful and kind and what did that entitled brat do to thank the man?  Nothing.  He just walked away to fill his face.

What's becoming of our culture?  Kids think everyone lives to serve them and parents think it's okay to disrupt the lives of everyone in a restaurant.

"Well, I have to put up with that screeching every day at home.  Why shouldn't you too?" 

It's sad but I really can picture that woman saying that to me had I said something to her.

But!  There's hope!

A restaurant in Pennsylvania (you know, those folks who cling to God and guns and antipathy toward people who don't look or sound like them) has issued a ban on children under six from entering the establishment.

If Vegas can do it, why not the rest of the country?  In an email to customers they said:

"We feel that McDain's is not a place for young children. Their volume can't be controlled and many, many times, they have disturbed other customers."
The owner of the "upscale, casual and quiet" restaurant explains to WTAE Local News, he's got nothing against kids in general, but their endless screams at public dinner tables are "the height of being impolite and selfish."

I find it appalling that we've come to the point where banning kids from restaurants is necessary to ensure a positive experience for the rest of the customers.  There's really no alternative to help in the short-term, though.  If in the long-term, parents start parenting again: punishing, providing time outs, teaching respect through their own example and other important lessons perhaps bans such as these will be temporary.  But when the parents need an education in the proper decorum, it certainly does not bode well for their offspring (or the rest the country that they are subjecting their families to).

One thing's for sure...now I know why Germans prefer to take their dogs out to dinner and leave their kids at home.