Okay, so we have this large group of Republican candidates for President; too large, really.  And I never understood why we were being subjected to so many “debates” so early in the process.  The RNC set these things up, giving the various media outlets complete control over the formats and conduct of the questioning.  On Wednesday, the Republican candidates, collectively, with the possible exceptions of John Kasich and Jeb Bush, rose up and publicly told the media, in this case CNBC, that which most of us already understood, namely, that the media is biased toward Democrats and against Republicans, and that it uses the “debates” as a vehicle to extol Democrats and to destroy Republicans.  This inconvenient truth came as a shock to the media hacks who were responsible for this latest travesty.  This is not surprising.  The fact is that these media people, like all left-wing ideologues, really believe that they are moderates.  They do.  Every wild-eyed liberal, progressive, maniac, whatever you want to call them, truly believes he or she is in the mainstream.  This delusion stems from their certitude that, if they believe something, it’s automatically right, and most of the country agrees with them.  In fact, James Carville actually wrote a book entitled We’re Right They’re Wrong.  As a result, when Ted Cruz and some of the others called out the “debate” moderators, the media reaction had to be, “there’s something wrong with Cruz and all Republicans.”  Wrong again.  It was about time.

Just yesterday, I heard an interview of Chris Cuomo, who apparently has a show on CNN.  Cuomo actually said, “CNN doesn’t have a political point of view.”  I’m sure he believed it.  Then, Marco Rubio was interviewed by Charlie Rose.  Rose was shocked, shocked at Rubio’s statement that Hillary Clinton is a liar.  Rose:  “Why would you call her a liar?”  Rubio:  “Because she is a liar.  She lied at the Benghazi hearings.”  Rose:  “That’s a serious accusation.”  Rubio then explained what Hillary lied about.  It didn’t help.  Now, unless Charlie Rose was under a rock somewhere, he must have seen or heard about the hearings.  When Hillary’s own emails, those emails she unsuccessfully tried to erase, completely contradict her public statements, the only rational conclusion is that she lied.  Rose simply takes whatever she says as the truth.  Birds of a feather.  But I’m sure if you asked him, Charlie Rose would tell you he’s an impartial journalist.  The facts would seem to contradict this contention.

So what’s the solution to this mess?  Don’t have the media moderating the debates.  The RNC should set up a schedule, tell the media when and where and engage people to ask the questions; how about people from the Heritage Foundation?  Start the questioning off on a subject and let the candidates go at it.  The media can either cover it, or choose not to cover it.  This is not a risk.  Since they’re all whores, one network won’t let another network gain an advantage, so they will all be there.  So, will the Republican revolt have any effect on future debates?  Not likely.  You see, the media people are already being as fair as they can be.  Ain’t that the truth?

Only in Hollywood.  This week, Sony Pictures released a movie entitled Truth.  Is it a philosophical study of Man’s neverending search for the truth?   Remember, I said it’s from Hollywood.  No.  Truth, strangely enough, is a movie about the 2004 scandal which saw Dan Rather and Mary Mapes fired from CBS.  By 2004, Mary Mapes had spent five years trying to prove that President George W. Bush hadn’t put in the required service time when he was in the Air National Guard 32 years before he was elected President.  You get that?  Five years the woman worked on this story.  You have to give her credit.  Today’s “journalists” have not and will not put in five minutes’ work on the long list of Hilary Clinton’s lies, crimes and deceptions.  But I digress.  In 2004, Mapes and Rather had the goods on Bush.  Only problem was, the documents “proving” their expose turned out to be forgeries.  Rather and Mapes were aware of this, and they had no independent proof for their accusations, but they were convinced that they were right.  They put this forged load of crap on the air, the whole thing fell apart, and they got fired by CBS.  And this my children, is what Hollywood has chosen to call Truth.  It’s so bad that CBS has refused to sell commercial time on the network to advertise Truth.  In fact, a CBS spokesman has said, “It’s astounding how little truth there is in Truth.

Now, in defense of the Hollywood leftists, they come by their perspective honestly.  After all, the official newspaper of the Communist Party is called Pravda, which is the Russian word for “truth.”  And even truth itself isn’t what it used to be.  When Bill Clinton was President, he recognized a “movable truth,” that is, what was “true” depended on what was good for him on that particular day.  This was not a point of view invented by Bill Clinton either.  The concept of truth has changed over time.  Buddha told us that “Three things cannot be long hidden; the sun, the moon and the truth.”  Old Buddha never met the Clinton’s however.  President James Garfield later observed that “The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.”  In my experience that’s very true.  But what’s in a truth anyhow?  Still later, George Orwell told us, “In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”  Sounds like Orwell had met the Clintons, and realized that they were not revolutionaries.  Rather, Mapes and the Clintons may have subscribed to Walt Whitman’s take on truth, “Whatever satisfies the soul is truth.”  It’s the classic liberal viewpoint.  When you feel rather than think, then the truth is whatever comforts you.  I prefer Benjamin Franklin’s wisdom, “Half a truth is often a great lie.”  Getting back to the movie Truth, it’s not even half a truth.  It’s just the usual liberal pablum.  It’s doing very badly at the box office, it’s just another attempt at lying liberal revisionism, and it will soon be forgotten.  And that’s the truth.

No, this is not one of those stupid jokes about New Jersey.  This is not a joking matter.  We’re Number One!  In what?  Well, New Jersey is Number One in the nation for the number of people fleeing to other States.  And no, it’s not that NJ Turnpike smell that’s causing their flight; it’s high taxes.  You see, here in New Jersey we enjoy multiple blessings.  In addition to some of the worst traffic in the country, the highest car insurance costs, among the highest home prices and cost of living, we also enjoy the highest property taxes in the country, we’re in the top 5 in state income tax, and 2nd highest sales tax.  Not bad enough?  When Chris Christie ran for Governor in 2009, he complained that New Jersey was 49th in the nation in business climate.  In other words, it was easier to do business in 48 other States.  Christie probably took care of that, right?  Sure.  New Jersey now is number 50, dead last in business climate.  It’s not surprising.  Our 9% corporate tax is the highest in the nation.  What about excise taxes?  New Jersey has the 6th highest cigarette tax.  The liquor tax is about in the middle of the pack.  That’s why our leading newspaper the (Red) Star Ledger, says it’s time to raise it.    We have a pretty low gasoline tax.  They want to raise that tax too.  The rationale?  Well, it’s not the highest in the nation.  We want to be Number One.  And we’re inventive, we even tax the other taxes.  When you buy a liter of vodka in St. Thomas, you pay about $8.  In New Jersey it’s $25.  The additional $17 is federal and state tax.  In New Jersey, you also pay an additional 7% sales tax on the $25, so we tax the federal and state alcohol tax.  Neat, huh?  If it’s hard to live in New Jersey, it’s even harder to die there.  We not only have an estate tax on all assets over $675,000, we also have an inheritance tax of up to 16%.  New Jersey is a very bad place to die.  Oh, we’re number One in another category.  Tax Freedom day.  That’s the day you finally make enough to pay all the taxes, and actually start working for yourself.  In New Jersey, it’s May 13.  You’d think all this tax revenue would mean New Jersey is solvent, but it’s not.  We’re still broke, and every time another hard-working taxpayer says, “I’ve had enough,” and leaves, we get a little broker.  Escape from New Jersey?  It’s not a bad idea.

Lots of action this week in the House of Representatives.  No, not action as in, the House took action on some legislation.  Instead, the action was the resignation of John Boehner as Speaker.  Boehner was tired of the fight.  Not the fight with Il Duce Obama, because he never fought him.  Boehner’s interactions with Obama were limited to playing golf with him and otherwise making sure he was comfortable.  So Boehner resigned, and the do nothing, stand for nothing, apologize for everything, Republican establishment duly offered up the next light-weight in line, Kevin McCarthy, as the new Speaker.  But, whoops, that didn’t work.  McCarthy needed 218 of the 247 Republican votes, and he could get only 175; so he stepped aside.  The election was put off – indefinitely.  That set the media into a frenzy.  “Republicans in chaos.” “Republicans in turmoil.”  Oh woe is us!  Do you realize what this means?  A real Speaker of the House, who truly represents the positions of his caucus might actually oppose the reign of the dictator in the White House.  Il Duce might not get everything he demands.

The truth is, Republicans are not in chaos.  The Republican Establishment, which is perfectly comfortable with the continued ballooning of the national debt; perfectly comfortable with the elimination of our borders; and perfectly comfortable with a President who ignores the Constitution, is in chaos.  They don’t represent the majority of the Republican Party, much less a majority of the Republican caucus in the House.  But since when does the majority rule in America?  The majority almost never rules in Congress.  In the Senate, 41 Senators rule.  In the House, Conservatives are ignored.  And the Congress is irrelevant anyhow.  Even if it agreed on something, Il Duce in the White House rules with an iron hand.  His latest offense?  Well, people in the military are not well paid, especially considering what they are called upon to do.  But Il Duce Obama now says he will veto any bill funding the military that prevents him from closing the base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.  You get that?  Military personnel won’t get paid, they will be held hostage by Obama, unless he gets to close Guantanamo.  But he’s the Commander in Chief, can’t he do that if he wants to do it?  No!  There is a Congressional procedure for base closings.  Will that stop Obama?  No!  That’s why we need a new Speaker of the House who is willing to oppose Il Duce when the need arises, or at least once.  If you fight the Dictator you won’t win them all, but if you never fight, you will lose them all.  The “lose them all” Republican Party either will change, or it will die.  There’s a good chance it will die.  Some Establishment Republicans are talking about working with Nancy Pelosi to choose the new Speaker.  If that happens, the Party is over.  It’s time to elect a winner instead of another good loser.  Who’s my choice?  Here’s a name no one has mentioned – Texas Representative Ted Poe.  He’s a former judge and a true conservative.  Let’s do it right this time.

No, I’m not going to make that argument today.  It is the title of this article only because it’s a question which has been asked by so many well-meaning, but totally misguided, commentators.  This question comes back into play in the wake of the tragic death of a high school football player in New Jersey.  Faced with such a shock, the tendency of some is to advocate that drastic action be taken.  They are wrong.  The “all or nothing” approach is understandable because emotions are running high.  But as in all things, FRANK ON FRIDAY puts aside the emotion and deals with the facts.  According to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury, between 1931 and 2014 there were 1,041 deaths directly attributable to playing football at all levels.  There were 691 deaths among high school players.   Because there are more than one million high school football players, that equates to 0.14 deaths per 100,000 players.  The death rate for teenagers is 49.5 per 100,000.  That means a teenager is more than 350 times more likely to die from something other than playing football.  Football’s just too violent?  Your kid is about 83 times more likely to be killed driving to his knitting class than playing football.  The fact is, in recent years there has been a significant reduction in football fatalities.  From 1966 to 1976, there was only one year when less than ten players died, the high was 26 in 1968.  Changes in football rules, coaching techniques and improvement in equipment has resulted in a reduction to about 3 deaths a year.  Still too dangerous?  Other sports also present a risk of injury.   Maybe we should just ban these violent sports?  Well, the activity that accounts for 65% of all the catastrophic injuries in youth sports is cheerleading.  That’s right.  Of course, once we ban all the sports, there will be nothing to cheer for, so that problem will be solved.  But wait a minute, I thought we were concerned about child obesity.  Any exercise requires physical exertion, and thus, a risk of injury.  As much as we might like to, we can’t keep the kids in a bubble to protect them till they’re 21.  Football, and all sports and organized physical activities, do far more good for kids than bad.   We should keep things in perspective.