Crazily partisan
That GQ, a left-leaning magazine, would have 17 Republicans on its year-end list of America's 20 craziest politicians speaks only to its partisanship and its lack of credibility, especially in a year where Democrats suffered a thumping at the ballot box.
But the author, Stephen Sherrill, even tried to pretend he wasn't biased.
"Look! A Democrat! Yes, this list is Republican-heavy," he wrote, "and while that may seem like standard liberal-media bias, the reality is that Democrats just aren't keeping pace right now in the crazy department."
The Democrats on the list -- Vice President Joe Biden, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson -- though, could be lifers on such a list. Biden is forever gaffe-prone; Lee publicly thought men had landed on Mars and Johnson is the congressman who thought a Caribbean island might tip over if too many people stood on one end of it.
The list, according to Brietbart.com, easily could have included, among other Democrats, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who didn't believe the midterms were an indication the American people had rejected Democrats; U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, who wanted to raise the minimum wage to $26 so poor people could move to rich neighborhoods, and U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, who thought that sequestration would cause the loss of "over 170 million jobs," more jobs than in the whole country.
Walk right in
Remember the tens of thousands of illegal immigrants from Central America who crossed the Southern border earlier this year, only to be released and dispersed throughout the country? Well, all of them were supposed to report for immigration hearings.
Of the more than 4,100 families released on recognizance and ordered deported, 96 percent did not show up for their hearings, the Executive Office of Immigration Review told Houston's KPRC. They're now classified as "in absentia." Of the more than 1,600 unaccompanied children set to be deported, 92 percent did not show up. Surprised?
The "in absentia" rate is usually 11 to 15 percent, the agency reported, but President Barack Obama's policies now have given border crossers virtual freedom to make their own way into the country and become enmeshed in it. And with his order late last year that recent crossers would be given amnesty in their stays, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is getting ready for 2015's spring surge.
Baked with hypocrisy
Within the last few years, several Christian bakers have been accused of intolerance, threatened with the loss of their livelihood and even received death threats when they said that to honor their religion they could not prepare a cake for the wedding celebration of a same-sex couple.
When the shoe was on the other foot, though, a Christian man was shown only intolerance and insults when he asked 13 bakers who publicly support same-sex marriage to bake a cake displaying the message "Gay Marriage Is Wrong."
Shoebat.com, according to an article on OneNewsNow.com, was turned down by each one, one even using "deviant insults and obscenities against us," said Theodore Shoebat.
The point, he said, is that a Christian making a cake supporting gay marriage goes against his faith, and a homosexual putting "gay marriage is wrong" on a cake goes against that person's beliefs.
"Now of course we honor their right to say no; this is not the issue, but what about honoring the Christian's right to also say no?" Shoebat said. "The big lie of the homosexual agenda is this: They claim that they are only fighting for equality and tolerance."
In this case, though, that shoe doesn't fit.
Caught in the Webb
The family of former Virginia U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, who recently set up an exploratory committee for the possibility of him running for the 2016 Democratic nomination for president, has found the political action committee business to be profitable.
It was reported in Business Insider last week that Webb's wife and daughter continued to be on the payroll of his "Born Fighting PAC," which also took in $100,000 from his Senate account, well after the committee he chaired had ceased political activity.
This year alone, Webb's daughter was paid at least $24,000 for "administrative consulting services," and his wife, Hong Le Webb, was paid almost $15,000, mostly for "website services." Since finance reports from the PAC don't have to be released until later this year, the totals could go higher.
Webb, who served one term, chose not to run for re-election in 2012.