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I was on vacation for the last two weeks of December, and off the grid for most of that time. Upon my return, I found IÂ’d missed a bunch of dumb stories, along with some real news that will ultimately prove fairly unimportant in the grand scheme of things. The final Obamacare delays of 2013, along with the December enrollment figures, are at home in the latter category. The revelation that my friend Matt Yglesias invented a fake baby to get AmazonÂ’s Mom discount was more typical of the former. ThereÂ’s actually wide agreement among my peers who cover national...

Phil Robertson is a chilling example of how certain figures are celebrated for their offensive comments.When Sarah Palin tastelessly invoked slavery into a critique of the federal debt, MSNBC commentator Martin Bashir suggested that the failed vice presidential candidate would do well to experience some of the more barbaric aspects of pre-Civil War servitude, referencing an especially revolting practice. The remarks created a stir and Bashir, a British journalist of Pakistani background, apologized for them. But before long, the veteran journalist was suspended by the network and he resigned. Just days later, another controversy brewed, this time involving Phil Robertson,...

Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson may have emerged victorious from his recent spat with A&E, but the millionaire patriarch is already plotting revenge on the TV network behind his hit show and reportedly has a plan in the works to move his family - plus millions of dollars of advertising and merchandise revenue - to another broadcaster. Humiliated by A&E’s recent attempt to silence his conservative religious message, Robertson - whose Duck Commander business is worth an estimated $15 million - is secretly plotting to form his own TV production company so he can jump ship to a Christian channel more...

Even though CNN's phony controversy hasn't even been able to pick up traction at MSNBC, that hasn't stopped the left-wing cable news network from attempting to manufacture more trouble for Phil Robertson and "Duck Dynasty." But why would we expect anything less from the same network that fabricated evidence to frame a working-class Hispanic man? The CNN report below, covering Robertson's humorous relaying of marriage advice, is taken ultra-seriously by the CNN correspondent, and asks, "What is the tipping point to getting kicked off the air?" (VIDEO-AT-LINK)Does CNN not hear the crowd laughing? It is obvious that Robertson is going...

NORTH HAVEN, Conn. (CBS Connecticut/AP) — “Duck Dynasty” is getting into the gun business. The Robertson family-owned Duck Commander has teamed up with firearms manufacturer Mossberg to release their own line of guns. Mossberg is releasing 12 types of Duck Commander guns, including 9 shotguns, 2 semiautomatic weapons and a pistol....

When cable network A&E suspended then reversed-suspended Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson, popping off a pop culture tirade that muted national concern for the millions that lost unemployment benefits over the weekend, conservatives got the perfect holiday gift: a bonus Culture War narrative for 2014. In Duck Dynasty, Republican strategists find gold. With the GOP anxiously battling skeptical grassroots conservatives, worry mounts that the usually active base voters who don’t forget about Congressional midterms won’t turn out. As the trials and tribulations of the Affordable Care Act put Democrats’ Senate majority within striking distance of Republican electoral guns, party messaging...

The family-owned business at the center of the hit TV-show "Duck Dynasty" has launched its own line of guns. The gunmaker Mossberg has teamed with Duck Commander, the company owned by "Duck Dynasty's" Robertson clan, to release nine different shotguns, as well as two semiautomatic rifles and a semiautomatic pistol. Mossberg has begun shipping some of the shotguns to distributors, according to spokeswoman Linda Powell. She declined to name specific retailers that will carry them. Duck Commander was founded 40 years ago by Phil Robertson, the family patriarch who was recently suspended -- and then reinstated -- by A&E after...

The family-owned business at the center of the hit TV-show "Duck Dynasty" has launched its own line of guns. The gunmaker Mossberg has teamed with Duck Commander, the company owned by "Duck Dynasty's" Robertson clan, to release nine different shotguns, as well as two semiautomatic rifles and a semiautomatic pistol. Mossberg has begun shipping some of the shotguns to distributors, according to spokeswoman Linda Powell. She declined to name specific retailers that will carry them.

Problems regarding the A&E network’s reality television show, Duck Dynasty, have been making news a little too often lately. They say that no publicity is bad publicity is bad publicity, but this doesn’t seem to be really true in this case. Below is a review of Duck Dynasty and the reasons it’s time to end it. The show revolves around the Robertson family, who went from rags to riches by way of their family-operated business dedicated to selling products in demand for duck hunters: the Duck Commander. The show is set in Louisiana, and the cast consists of matriarch and...

Now that I’ve actually seen a few episodes, “Duck Dynasty” is relatively harmless entertainment. Whatever “reality TV” means, it’s definitely not that. It’s a semi-scripted sitcom, basically cornball self-parody. Think “Hee Haw” without the music. I find it utterly inane, but then I don’t watch TV with children. The “tell” is the show’s women, cute Southern sorority girls turned mommies. In real life, no way would those women tolerate their “menfolk” running around looking like a truckload of ZZ-Top impersonators. They’re also not going on TV with hay in their hair like some Hollywood director’s idea of a country girl....

We already knew he was racist and homophobic. Now it emerges that he thinks girls should marry at 15 or 16. Know what? If you had told me, a month ago, that the Christian Right would have a strong reaction to a bearded religious zealot in a headscarf urging men to take child brides, I'd have believed that. And I would have believed that the man's family would go on Fox News to defend him, but I would have assumed they were doing it from a bunker somewhere, with voice filters and behind a screen … not in the studio...

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. -- James 4:10A humble man doesn't gloat when he knows he's won. And so it was with Duck Dynasty's Willie Robertson and his wife Korie in their New Year's Eve interview last night. As the first members of their clan facing the public since A&E suspended their patriarch Phil Robertson for speaking his religious values in a GQ interview, Will and Korie Robertson definitely took the high road. Rather than taking swipes at A&E for their actions, the Robertson's let their fans do the talking -- which they did in a...

Unpleasant video footage of reinstated Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson has emerged in which he appears to advise young men to marry underage girls because they are easier to control. In the 2009 Sportsmen's Ministry talk, Robertson, 67, who began dating his wife when she was 14-years-old, advises his audience, 'You got to marry these girls when they are 15 or 16. They'll pick your ducks' - which is a literal reference to removing dead bird's feathers. Warming to his stereotypical redneck theme, Robertson, who was suspended from the A&E hit for nine days earlier this month for homophobic comments,...

Unable to comment on the "Duck Dynasty" controversy last week due to my hectic Kwanzaa schedule, I am able to sweep in at the end and comment on the commentary. Anyone who utters the mind-numbingly obvious point that A&E's suspension of "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson doesn't involve the First Amendment because a TV network is not the government, should be prohibited from ever talking in public again. You can bore your few remaining friends with laborious statements of the obvious, but stop wasting everyone else's time. We know A&E is not the government. It may shock your tiny little...

"Duck Dynasty" star Willie Robertson will ring in 2014 LIVE with Fox News. Robertson and his wife, Korie, will be guests during Tuesday night’s “All-American New Year,” and the two will give their first interview about the controversy that has surrounded their family’s patriarch, Phil Robertson.“Appearing live from Steamboat Springs, Colo., for their first television appearance following A&E's reinstatement of Phil Robertson on ‘Duck Dynasty,’ Willie and Korie will discuss the situation with FNC’s Bill Hemmer and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. The couple will also reflect on 2013 and discuss the year ahead,” Fox News announced. Phil Robertson was suspended by A&E...

My parents got hitched right after they both turned 23, after my dad graduated from college and started his teaching career (my mom was already a bank teller). I (their lone child) was born 11 months later. ff

Well, that only took decades. Who knew that the Leftist Playbook would finally get seriously winged by a duck caller? [SNIP] As the year ends, the un-suspension of Phil Robertson is exactly the moment to understand that what Mr. Robertson and his family — who rallied to their patriarch — have accomplished is no small thing. This “controversy” in fact had nothing to do with gays or African Americans. In fact, the Robertson-A&E dust-up was merely the latest in a long — very long — line of leftist attempts to impose supposedly sophisticated moral pretensions on the rest of the...

I've gotten a number of messages in the last few days — from both supporters and opponents of gay rights — expressing sympathy over the rude and hateful messages I've been getting (and publishing) ever since I started writing about Phil Robertson. This is sweet, but misplaced. The worst of my problems from being openly gay is that I get some nasty email. That means I have it really easy. In a country where gay teenagers are being bullied at school and thrown out of their homes by their parents and told by their clergy that they're going to Hell,...

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and some members of the Duck Dynasty family will be on Fox News for its New Year's Eve programming Tuesday night. After A&E suspended patriarch Phil Robertson for comments to GQ magazine that were deemed to be "anti-gay," the network, which is owned by Disney, reinstated Robertson last Friday. Palin is the politician that many, including a prominent columnist for The Hill, said most resonates with Duck Dynasty nation... Palin was the first politician of note to vigorously defend Robertson immediately after he got suspended, saying that "free speech is an endangered species" and "those...

From Phil Robertson to Megyn Kelly, peddling white grievance became a bigger, crazier, more lucrative racket. Maybe it was the very fact of enjoying a wonderful Christmas with my family and friends, against the manufactured backlash to a nonexistent “War on Christmas,” that let me appreciate the perilous mental state of a small but noisy and paranoid swath of white America. Somehow over the holiday it became clear: 2013 was the year white grievance mongering became an uglier and even more lucrative racket. Fox News has been peddling the phony “War on Christmas” for years, of course, but it...