2013 Oscars: What Else Is On?

Hollywood’s elite will be congregating at the Dolby Theatre (formerly the Kodak) on Sunday, Feb. 24 to collectively pat themselves on the back once again. The last awards show of the season is scheduled to commence at 8:30 P.M. EST on ABC, with over four hours of red carpet coverage prior to the big event. So tune in early if celebrity fashion critiques are of interest to you.

Hosting this year for the first (and probably last) time is Seth McFarlane, best known for developing and lending his voice(s) to three crass animated comedies on FOX. Family Guy is the longest running among them, officially premiering in 1999 and returning in 2004 after a two-year hiatus. Going on to become one of the highest paid people in the television industry afforded him the opportunity to release a sophomoric movie into theaters last summer called Ted, which earned him a nomination in the ‘Best Original Song’ category.

Billy Crystal, who returned to host for the ninth time last year as a safe bet has reportedly been giving the novice some advice on how to start and sustain the show. McFarlane has said however that he doesn’t want to let his fan base down.

Among the many other storylines, one has to wonder what film stands the best chance of winning, among the nine that have been nominated for best motion picture. A category that was expanded in 2009 in a brazen attempt to attract more viewers and increase broad-based appeal, which begs the question – how culturally relevant are the Oscars really?

Back in 2005, comedian Chris Rock ruffled a few feathers as the host by joking about his own and America’s willful ignorance in general. At one point in the telecast, Rock was rolled a clip featuring several off-the-cuff interviews with movie-goers outside of Los Angeles.

Simply asking which nominated movie they had enjoyed the most, not even one responded that they had seen one of them yet. One couple excitedly proclaimed that White Chicks, a slapstick comedy starring the Wayans brothers was their favorite movie of the year. Rock will be a presenter on Sunday, the first time he has been invited back since.

This humorous anecdote is a representation of just how pretentious and out of touch Hollywood can be. They’ve prided themselves on their ‘trend-setting’ progressive agenda, delusions of grandeur, and hostility towards conservatives for decades. This is especially evident in the documentary category, where 2016 Obama’s America (one of the most successful of all time) has been shut out from contention.

Then there was the palpable hypocrisy of their gun control crusade more recently. The Business and Media Institute conducted a study last month that found 65 violent scenes and 185 victims in the top-5 movies at the time. 

Considering all of this and more, will you still watch the 4 hour-long flattery fest? If only the Razzies were televised, a ‘celebration’ of the worst movies Hollywood churned out last year. That might be more fun to watch. 

In Obama's America, It Pays To Be On Welfare

According to a recent Heritage Foundation study titled The Unfinished Work of Welfare Reform, there are at least 11 states that now have more people on welfare than they do gainfully employed. Over 100 million total, which is just over a third of the entire population. 

Their research revealed that the average household below the poverty line has received $168 per day of financial assistance from the government, which is a combination of unemployment, food stamps, Medicaid and other benefits. This is based on the Senate Budget Committee's own published statistics from the 2011 fiscal year.

Adding insult to injury, the median household income is just over $50,000, averaging out to just over $137 per day. That means welfare recipients are being paid the equivalent of $30 per hour over the course of a 40-hour 'work' week, and the average job only pays $25 an hour.

More than 100 million Americans received aid from at least one of the nearly 80 federal welfare programs in 2011, at a total cost of $717 billion. When state programs were taken into account, the figure soared above $1 trillion, making it the largest item in the federal budget. 

That's only the tip of the iceberg however, as Robert Rector and Jennifer Marshall pointed out in their report:

Since the beginning of the War on Poverty in the mid-1960s, government has spent $19.8 trillion (in inflation-adjusted 2011 dollars) on means-tested welfare. By comparison, the combined cost of all the wars in American history — from the Revolutionary War through the current war in Afghanistan — has been $6.98 trillion (in 2011 dollars). The War on Poverty has thus cost three times as much as all of our real wars combined.

Meaningful reform was passed back in 1996, increasing self sufficiency levels, but it has since been gutted by the Obama administration. With sensitive issues like sequestration and amnesty for illegals being debated on the congressional floor, one has to wonder if the subject of welfare reform has been seriously considered for its overwhelming relevance to both.