Supernanny Cass Sunstein’s ‘Friendly Paternalism’: It’s For Your Own Good, America

April 12, 2013 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Bill of Rights, Budget, Capitalism, Communism, Congress, Constitution, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Ethics, Free Trade, Government, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Nanny State, President, Progressives, Socialism, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Cass Sunsetein, one of President Obama’s leading left-wing, university eggheads, has penned an interesting piece in New Republic explaining how the nanny state is really a very important and useful aspect of today’s modern Democrat scheme. It’s for your own good, don’t you know?

Launching his April 8 piece, “Why Paternalism Is Your Friend,” Sunstein evokes New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s (mostly failed, not that Sunstein says so) nanny state efforts to take away his constituents’ freedom on such things as trans fats, sodas, and guns. Sunstein points out that to his mind, all this “paternalism” isn’t so bad after all. Throughout his piece Sunstein eschews nannyism for “paternalism” because it sounds nicer, of course. Optics, you know?

As an example of useful paternalism, Sunstein praises Obama’s demand that the auto industry once again up its CAFE standards saying that the new requirements would “save money” for everyone and “who could be outraged by that”? Naturally Sunstein simply accepts Obama’s pie-in-the-sky claims and simply assumes the new standards will actually have the impact Obama claims it will.

Sunstein ignores the fact that in many cases the technology doesn’t even yet exist to satisfy Obama’s draconian fuel economy demands. He also ignores many other facts. Such as the fact that one of the easier ways to achieve the new standards is to make smaller, lighter, and more dangerous vehicles. Americans would end up with tiny cars that go slower and have less resistance to accidents making drivers and passengers less safe on the road. Should people be outraged about that, Mr. Sunstein? In his zeal to give Obama all credit, Sunstein apparently doesn’t think so.
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MSNBC Host Says ‘Get Over It,’ Kids Belong to Community, Not Parents

April 11, 2013 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Bill of Rights, Children, Communism, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Education, Ethics, Family, Government, Government, Corruption, Journalism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, MSNBC, President, Progressives, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Liberal cable TV network MSNBC recently aired a corker of a promo, this one showing on-air personality Melissa Harris-Perry saying that our kids aren’t ours, that they belong to the community and parents need to “get over” this crazy idea that their own kids belong to them.

Straight from the Comintern, Harris-Perry says that we could “plan our investments” better if we could just dispense with the idea that kids belong to parents and that parents should have the responsibility to raise them according to the parents’ ideals and principles. All hail the state who, in Harris-Perry’s views, isn’t just big brother, but is also big mother and big father.

Here is a transcript of what the MSNBC screedist said on the promo:
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VP Biden Still Lobbying for Gun Control

April 4, 2013 | Filed Under 2nd Amendment, Barack Obama, Bill of Rights, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Gun Control, Guns, House of Representatives, Joe Biden, Liberals, Liberty, Policy, President, Progressives, Regulation, Security/Safety, Senate, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Vice President Joe Biden is again plying the phones calling his former colleagues on Capitol Hill bending ears over the President’s gun control ideas. His calls are coming on a “near-daily basis” as Obama mounts another push for gun control.

Biden has held private meetings with Republican Senators such as John McCain (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and, Johnny Isakson (Ga.), and will be haunting the offices of Capitol Hill in the days ahead.

It appears that President Obama is relying on Biden to leverage the relationships he had built when he was a long-serving Senator from Delaware to cajole Congress into acquiescing to new gun control laws.

“President Obama is the strategist and Vice President Biden is the tactician,” Democratic consultant Chris Kofinis told The Hill. “I think the president is laying out the frame, the message, the vision about where we need to go and why. The vice president understands how to make that happen. You have two interlocking pieces that work very well together.”

Republicans, however, scoff at the idea that Biden is an effective negotiator.
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Faux Sequester: U.S. Dept. of Ed Offers New, Six-Figure Job

March 25, 2013 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Bill of Rights, Budget, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Education, Ethics, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Liberals, President, Progressives, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Even as the Department of Education prepares to make cuts to federally-funded schools on Native American reservations, DOE is also offering a new six-figure job to promote “Educational Excellence for African-Americans.” Worse, the job seems to be going to a an adviser to Democrat Representative Charlie Rangel.

Reports note that Native American schools in Minnesota are freezing salaries, leaving job openings unfilled, enlarging classroom sizes, and making other cost savings moves to satisfy demands being enforced by the Dept. of Education.

Among those cuts in Minnesota, the White Earth Reservation tribal school may cut the school year down to save money and Red Lake School District has cut security staff.

Minnesota’s Democrat Representative Betty McCollum is calling the cuts “indefensible.”
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CPAC–Rand Paul: Not a Penny to Countries That Burn U.S. Flag

March 15, 2013 | Filed Under Bill of Rights, Budget, Constitution, CPAC, Economy/Finances, Ethics, Foreign Countries, GOP, Government, Kentucky, Rand Paul, Republicans, Senate, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul didn’t disappoint on yesterday’s appearance at CPAC at one point in his speech saying of foreign aide, “I say not one penny more to countries that are burning our flag.”

When he kicked off his address he joked that he’d only been given 20 minutes to speak but had brought 13 hours of material. He went on to joke that because of his filibuster Obama might ant to “drone” him.

This set Paul up to discuss theObama’s drone program, the National Defense Authorization Act, and how it is borderline unlawful to use drones on American soil without the due process of law.
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Piers Morgan: We All ‘Need The Nanny State Occasionally’

March 13, 2013 | Filed Under Bill of Rights, Britain, CNN, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Government, Corruption, Journalism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Nanny State, New York City, Progressives, Regulation, Socialism, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

CNN’s Piers Morgan sees no reason why America shouldn’t turn into a nanny state. During his March 11 broadcast, Morgan insisted that, “people need the nanny state occasionally.”

With guest Christine Quinn, on his late evening CNN talk show Morgan lamented what he felt was a bad decision by a New York judge who shut down Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s soda ban. Morgan was all in for a politician deciding for all of us what we are and what we aren’t allowed to eat.

During the discussion, Quinn said she disagreed with banning foods saying that the focus should be on expanding choice for healthy foods not just having government “say no” to the supposed bad choices. Interestingly, Quinn is a Bloomberg ally, a Democrat, and the President of the New York City Council, yet was still arguing against this particular nanny state action.

Regardless, Morgan, a British citizen, disagreed with his guest.

“This is where I disagree with you. I think people need the nanny state occasionally. Particularly on issues like smoking, drinking, guzzling sodas that are too big for them, you know, eating sixteen Big Macs a day, whatever it may be, the reality is we all need a bit of nannying about that that’s why so many people are on diets. That’s a form of nanny state,” Morgan said.

The CNN talker also took to Twitter to ask why Mayor Bloomberg’s nannyism is such a bad thing.

“If a Mayor can’t do things to make his city’s populace healthier – what’s the point of his job? Bloomberg’s 100% right on supersized soda,” he Tweeted on March 11.

Just as the soda ban was to kick in, New York state Supreme Court Judge Milton Tingling put a halt to the rule saying Bloomberg’s new ban was illicit because he went around the City Council to implement it.

The ban, Judge Tingling said, would “not only violate the separation of powers doctrine, it would eviscerate it.”

This is why so many Americans look askance at immigrants like Morgan. They come here and bring their socialist ideas with them from their armpit countries instead of coming here to learn how to be an American. Go back to Britain, Piers. Your socialist, nanny-state nonsense is not wanted here.

____________
“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson

Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.

For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.

Obama Trying to Deport Homeschooling Family

March 12, 2013 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Bill of Rights, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, DOE, Education, Eric Holder, Ethics, Germany, Government, Corruption, Home Schooling, Liberals, President, Progressives, School Choice, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

In 2010 a federal immigration judge awarded political asylum to a family whose German government was persecuting for having the temerity to homeschool their children. Now, three years later, the Obama administration seems poised to reverse that decision and deport the family back to Germany.

Uwe Romeike, his wife, and children were told that they could stay as legal residents in Morrisstown, Tennessee, when the family moved there in 2008 after being threatened by German authorities because they homeschooled their children instead of sending them to government schools.

In 2010, Mr. Romeike told reporters that, “I think it’s important for parents to have the freedom to choose the way their children can be taught.”

German authorities felt differently, though. The Romeikes were threatened with jail in the homeland unless they ceased homeschooling and turned their children over to the state.
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Dear Government: You Can’t MAKE Me Buy A Gun, Either

March 10, 2013 | Filed Under 2nd Amendment, Anti-Americanism, Bill of Rights, Constitution, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Federalism, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, Guns, Liberals, Progressives, Republicans, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

I stand 100% against any government leach or placeman telling me I cannot have a gun. It is unconstitutional and violates my God-given civil rights. But, I am just as much against the same class of people telling me I must own a gun.

A town in Maine is the newest town to put in place a rule that mandates that residents buy and own a gun. This sort of rule has been known in small towns in Idaho, Georgia and Texas, as well. But this requirement is no more in keeping with the Constitution than laws in big cities that try to outlaw ownership of guns–itself also a total violation of the U.S. Constitution.

This week the city fathers in the small town of Byron, Maine, are making news for sponsoring a new ordinance making gun ownership mandatory.

Of course, the rule is meant less to force everyone to buy a gun than it is to make sure that laws saying they can’t would be nullified. But, if held to the letter of this law, this pro-gun mandate would violate freedom of choice just as much as outright bans on guns.
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CNN Mocks Rand Paul’s Filibuster, No Wonder CNN is Losing Credibility

March 7, 2013 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Bill of Rights, Civil Rights, CNN, Constitution, Courts, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Freedom, Government, Corruption, Journalism, Kentucky, Liberals, Liberty, Media, Media Bias, Progressives, Rand Paul, Regulation, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

During a long stretch of the day in the U.S. Senate, Kentucky’s junior Republican Senator, Rand Paul, led a filibuster to decry the Obama’s administration’s seeming disregard of due process, the rule of law, and American’s civil rights. This, apparently, is funny to CNN. Makes one wonder why CNN imagines itself a news station!

Obama’s administration has admitted that it sees nothing inherently wrong with using flying drones to kill Americans here in our own country. This is something that Senator Paul and millions of other Americans (on both sides of the aisle, by the way) think is wrong.

As Obama’s nomination for a new CIA chief came to the floor, Senator Paul launched an old fashioned, talking filibuster to block the nomination in order to get his point across that killing Americans without due process, without proper warrants and trials is simply wrong.

This was something that CNN’s Erin Burnett thought was worthy of mocking.

Here is what CNN’s viewers were treated to during Burnett’s show…
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The NRA’s Media Strategy, Is It Working?

January 29, 2013 | Filed Under 2nd Amendment, Bill of Rights, Conservatives, Constitution, Gun Control, Guns, Journalism, Media, Media Bias, NRA, Regulation, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

The newest efforts to ban guns being undertaken by Democrats and President Obama demands response and the National Rifle Association isn’t lying down on the job. But is the NRA’s media strategy working?

For about a week after the murders of 26 school children and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, the NRA was sensibly–and respectfully–silent over the incident. But after allowing a suitable time to go by to allow some grieving to take place, the NRA came out swinging with a few ideas on what to do about guns, one of which was to place armed guards in our nation’s schools.

Immediately the left skewered the NRA for the suggestion, even though the President himself later proposed something similar–and was criticized for it from his own side.
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Colion Noir Video: The Left’s Hypocrisy on Mass Shootings

January 27, 2013 | Filed Under 2nd Amendment, Bill of Rights, Constitution, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

Colion Noir, a self-professed gun nut, has made many great YouTube videos in support of our Second Amendment rights. Here is his latest beating up the left over its hypocrisy on mass shootings.

You can find Mr. Noir’s stuff at the following places:

Obama’s Perpetual Campaign Hits Road for Gun Ban Tour

January 26, 2013 | Filed Under 2nd Amendment, Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Bill of Rights, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Government, Corruption, Gun Control, Guns, Joe Biden, Liberals, NRA, President, Progressives, Regulation, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

In the next leg of President Obama’s perpetual campaign, he and Vice President Biden plan to hit the road and tour the country pushing their new gun ban ideas as the political season heats up.

Just ahead of inauguration day, VP Biden finished chairing his special Commission on Gun Violence and now he plans to appear in Richmond, Virginia before an organized anti-gun audience to campaign for his “gun violence” recommendations.

Biden joined Virginia’s Democrat Senator Tim Kane at the first campaign-style event on Friday, January 25. Both rallied to push Obama’s anti-gun message.

White House spokesman Jay Carney told the media on Wednesday that the President would soon begin touring the country pushing his policy recommendations, but no schedule of events was released.
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Media Ignores Union Violence: Flashback to Palin’s 2008 ‘Target’ Outrage

December 14, 2012 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Bill of Rights, Budget, Business, Constitution, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Journalism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Michigan, Newspapers, Public Employees Unions, Right To Work, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

As unions again run amuck, this time in Michigan, the Old Media establishment has steadfastly refused to report on the union’s violence, not to mention the “violent rhetoric” coming from their advocates. But this is in stark contrast to the Summer of 2011 when the Old Media was hot to condemn the supposed “violent rhetoric” of Republicans such as Sarah Palin, Andrew Breitbart, and talk radio hosts.

In Michigan this week unions have once again shown why the term “union thug” is no misnomer by beating up people and engaging in property destruction, intimidation, and violence all in order to turn back Michigan’s right-to-work legislation passing through the state’s duly elected legislature.

During the day on Monday union goons attacked a tent set up by members of Michigan’s chapter of Americans for Prosperity. The tent was staffed with women and men, Michiganders who came out to support the Republican’s effort to pass worker’s rights legislation that would make The Wolverine State the 24th right-to-work state.

Also in attendance was occasional Fox News guest and comedian Steven Crowder. The young Crowder was actually physically attacked, punched at least four times, by one union criminal. Crowder’s crime? He dared to ask unionistas the simple question: “what is it about right-to-work that you oppose so much?”

The union thugs then swarmed AFP’s tent and tore it down with the women, and a few children, still inside.
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Texas Democrat Hazy on Which One the 2nd Amendment Is

October 30, 2012 | Filed Under 2nd Amendment, Anti-Americanism, Bill of Rights, Congress, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, Liberals, Progressives, Texas, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Many Americans wonder if members of Congress, especially the Democrats, know anything at all about the U.S. Constitution. Well, Democrat Rep. Rubén Hinojosa of Texas didn’t help quell those fears very much when at a recent rally he couldn’t even remember which one the Second Amendment was.

Rep. Hinojosa was asked about the Second Amendment at a recent event but the 15th District Congressman was just a bit hazy on the whole thing.

“There are so many people in Washington who come and talk to us about the Constitution and the rights that they want kept sacred and that not do anything about them. That we not change them. That we not amend them. And I can tell you that — I’m drawing a blank on the Second Amendment, but I think it’s the weapons, isn’t it? The NRA?”

Hinojosa then went on to ramble about why we have to have “those machine guns.”

“Why in the hell do we have to have machine guns? And don’t touch that, because NRA will come and put you on the black list,” he rambled.

Of course, such weapons have already been outlawed and few Americans have a license to own “machine guns.” Further, the NRA does not fight to try and allow Americans access to such weapons.
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If You Work for Government, You Deserve to be Fired

October 1, 2012 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Bill of Rights, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Communism, Congress, Constitution, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Entitlements, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Liberals, Money, Progressives, Socialism, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Yes, that title, If You Work for Government, You Deserve to be Fired, is meant literally. I really don’t care what you do for government I think you deserve to be fired.* In fact, I think that you need to be fired to save this republic. Not only do I want you fired, I want your pension negated. You don’t deserve one.

I’ll let that sink in a bit.

Of course, conservatives have the reputation of wanting to oust everyone in office and for wanting to “vote the scoundrels out.” But, I am not just wallowing in a trope, here. In fact, I’d like to add one more level to the throw-them-out-of-government concept. Let’s fire every government worker from the smallest village receptionist or sewer worker to the staffers of the highest Senator and every menial clerk and recalcitrant paper shuffler in between.

I am, here, indulging a little bombast, of course, but only a little. A very little.

It’s not just pique at the famous laziness of government workers I’m talking about. I’m also not only deploying that stereotype contending that the only reason government workers get their jobs is because they are pals with a politician — or another government worker, for that matter. It’s not just that they are better paid than just about any real American in the private sector — whether they deserve it or not — and it’s not because they are impossible to fire, nor is it because they get a better pension and health care than anyone who really contributes to society… well, OK, it is because of that stuff. All that stuff and more.
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ACLU: Obama Has Quadrupled Warrantless Wiretaps

October 1, 2012 | Filed Under 1st Amendment, ACLU, Barack Obama, Bill of Rights, Censorship, Congress, Constitution, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Patriot Act, Policy, President, Progressives, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

The ACLU released a report this week that shows that under Obama and his Attorney General Eric Holder, warrantless wiretapping and monitoring of American’s electronic communications is “sharply on the rise.”

After months of litigation and Freedom of Information Act requests, the ACLU obtained documents from the federal government proving that real-time monitoring of electronic communications inside the U.S. has climbed 60 percent since 2009 and far surpasses that under President Bush.

The ACLU reports that the Dept. of Justice used “pen register” and “trap and trace” techniques 23,535 times in 2009 and 37,616 times in 2011.
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Muslim Activist Succeeds in Anti-First Amendment Crusade in New York

September 28, 2012 | Filed Under 1st Amendment, Anti-Americanism, Bill of Rights, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Islam, Islamofascism, Koran, Liberals, New York, New York City, Progressives, Religion, Sharia, Terrorism, War on Terror, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Another Islamo-Nazi has won a victory smashing the Second Amendment, this time in New York City, the very metropolis where murderous Muslims killed thousands in 2001.

Only a day after an Islamo-Nazi paraded through the New York subway system defacing advertisement posters erected by the New York subway authorities, the city has changed its policy about allowing “provocative” ads.

Bowing to the protests by this hatemongering Muslim, subway authorities have announced that it has changed its policy on ads that they think might “provoke violence.”

The posters that sparked the outrageous outrage of yet another outrageously outraged Islamo-nazi were taken out by The American Freedom Defense Initiative and read: “In any was between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel, Defeat Jihad.”

Islamo-Nazi Mona Eltahawy was incensed enough to begin to deface the ads at subway stations. She demanded that any speech she doesn’t like be censored and that anything even remotely considered negative against that mythical God Muslims call the “Prophet Muhammad” be eliminated. Now New York City agrees with the anti-First Amendment activist.
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Remy: Imagine (There’s No YouTube)

September 25, 2012 | Filed Under 1st Amendment, Barack Obama, Bill of Rights, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Government, Corruption, Islam, Islamofascism, Koran, Liberals, Music, PCism, President, Progressives, Sharia, Society/Culture, Terrorism, Video, Warner Todd Huston, YouTube | Comments Off

Obama can imagine that Youtube is controlled by his administration, but…

The Free Press Act: A Proposal to Reinvigorate Our Freedom of Speech

August 24, 2012 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Bill of Rights, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Free Speech, Freedom, Government, Corruption, Journalism, Law, Liberals, Liberty, Media, Media Bias, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

In this day of mounting threats to our freedoms it is time to reinvigorate our Bill of Rights and so Senator John Kyl (R, AZ) has introduced S. 3493, The Free Press Act. This bill aims to prevent nuisance lawsuits meant only to quash freedom of speech, to stop the intimidation of journalists, bloggers, and those testifying before government.

One would have hoped that such a bill would be unnecessary, but in our day of increasing attacks on freedom of speech perhaps the time has come to reaffirm and remind us all of the legacy our founders left to us.

The biggest development overseas in the campaign to eliminate free speech and freedom of the press has been the constant use of defamation lawsuits to silence the sort of speech certain parties are not fond of. These barrage attacks are often called “lawfare” and, sadly, they have come to our shores, as well.

In our system these attacks on free speech are called “SLAPP lawsuits.” These lawsuits come in two varieties, one against people who testify before government committees or in hearings and, two, increasingly against people who write opinion editorials or news reports. This could also apply easily to bloggers.
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