Muslim father deeply offended by Easter egg hunt flyer depicting bunnies

(Allen B. West) – And here’s yet another reminder of how stupid that “coexist” bumper sticker truly is. Hat tip to Gateway Pundit for reporting that a Muslim father is upset because his children were traumatized by a… well, a flier for an Easter egg hunt. Oh, the horror of getting an invitation to join other American children in a time-honored tradition of hunting for colored Easter eggs. Really scary huh? As reported in the Detroit Free Press, some Muslim parents are concerned about public schools in Dearborn handing out flyers to all students advertising an Easter egg hunt, saying it violates the principle of church and state separation.

A flyer with the highly inflammatory “Eggstravaganza!” was given to students this week at three elementary schools in the Dearborn Public Schools district, which has a substantial number of Muslim students. The flyer described an April 12 event at Cherry Hill Presbyterian Church in Dearborn featuring an egg hunt, relay race, and egg toss, and included images of eggs and a bunny.

“It really bothered my two kids,” said parent Majed Moughni, who is Muslim and has two children, ages 7 and 9, in Dearborn elementary schools. “My son was like, ‘Dad, I really don’t feel comfortable getting these flyers, telling me to go to church. I thought churches are not supposed to mix with schools.’ ” Moughni said he’s concerned about “using school teachers paid by public funds … to pass out these flyers that are being distributed by a church. I think that’s a serious violation of separation of church and state.”

First of all, the flyer was approved by the school district. Second, it was an invitation to an event that was not religious or church-related, only took place at churchs ground. Thirdly, I believe Mr. Moughni fails to realize that his religion, Islam, is a totalitarian ideology which has no separation between mosque and state. Islamic Sharia law dictates every aspect of a Muslim’s life and decrees the most heinous of punishments, such as stoning for women — and not with chocolate or marshmallow peep stones, but real ones.

It seems this burgeoning Muslim community in “Dearbornistan” actually believes it can coerce the remaining non-Muslims there to live in fear and cower to their intolerance. Sorry, sir. Ain’t happenin’.

Maybe Mr. Moughni can explain why the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) — an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorist funding case and subsidiary organization of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood — is suppressing the first amendment right of free speech and free expression in the showing of the documentary “Honor Diaries” which we have featured here.

This is how it happens America. There are those who enact the Islamic principle of the hijra — “migration” — in order not to assimilate but infiltrate and eventually dominate the host country culture. We see it happening across the Atlantic Ocean in Europe. It becomes a spreading cancer that uses the host country’s freedoms and principles to turn it upon itself — as Mr. Moughni attempts to use “separation of church and state” as an argument.

However, if I may, let me teach this cheeky fellow a lesson in American history. You sir, will not find the concept of separation of church and state in any founding document, not the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, or the Federalist Papers. This concept was articulated in a letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury (CT) Baptist Convention addressing the desire to have neither a State established religion in America nor a Head of State who was also a Head of Church, as was the case in England.

So Mr. Moughni, take your manufactured aggrieved status and feel free to return to a country more accommodating of your beliefs, if you wish. Just know that we will not be intimidated. And if you’d like, I’d be more than happy to provide one-on-one instruction to your two little fellas about what it means to live in a Constitutional Republic, as opposed to an Islamic Republic.

[H/T AllenBWest]

Armed Feds Prepare For Showdown With Nevada Cattle Rancher

(InfoWars) – A Ruby Ridge-style standoff is brewing in Nevada, where dozens of armed federal agents are closing in on cattle rancher Cliven Bundy over claims that Bundy has allowed his cows to graze illegally on government land, endangering a protected species of tortoise.

Vowing to take a stand for, “your liberty and freedom,” Bundy says he is prepared to be killed as authorities surround a 600,000 acre section of public land as a result of Bundy violating a 1993 Bureau of Land Management ruling which changed grazing rights in order to protect the endangered desert tortoise.

“With all these rangers and all this force that is out here, they are only after one man right now. They are after Cliven Bundy. Whether they want to incarcerate me or whether they want to shoot me in the back, they are after me. But that is not all that is at stake here. Your liberty and freedom is at stake,” Bundy said.

Bundy’s refusal to recognize federal authority over the land under dispute and his failure to pay tens of thousands of dollars in grazing fees stems from his assertion that his family’s history trumps bureaucracy.

“My forefathers have been up and down the Virgin Valley ever since 1877. All these rights I claim have been created through pre-emptive rights and beneficial use of the forage and water. I have been here longer. My rights are before the BLM even existed,” Bundy said.

Accusing feds of seizing Nevada’s sovereignty, Bundy says he has fought the battle legally, through the media, and is now gearing up to fight it physically.

“Armed agents are forming a a military-like staging area to prevent anyone from approaching the area,” writes Mike Paczesny.

Bundy asserts that his case is emblematic of how America has been transformed into a “police state,” labeling the government’s actions “pathetic”.

Hundreds of federal officials, aided by helicopters, low flying aircraft and hired cowboys, began rounding up Bundy’s cattle on Saturday as Bundy accused them of “trespassing,” adding that the impact will only serve to raise beef prices for residents of Las Vegas 80 miles away.

Feds postponed a similar raid in 2012 over fears the action would spur violence. Bundy has drawn a lot of support from the local community and protesters are heading to the area to demand authorities back off. Officials have created a taped off “First Amendment Area” where demonstrators can voice their concerns. A sign placed inside the area reads “Welcome to Amerika – Wake Up” alongside a hammer and sickle logo.

“The rights were created for us,” Bundy told the Las Vegas Review Journal. “I have the right to use the forage. I have water rights. I have access rights. I have range improvement rights, and I claim all the other rights that the citizens of Nevada have, whether it’s to camp, to fish or to go off road.”

Addressing the justification of seizing the cattle to protect a species of tortoise, Bundy stated, “I’ll never get it. If it weren’t for our cattle, there’d be more brush fires out here. The tortoises eat the cow manure, too. It’s filled with protein.”

The standoff has echoes of the 1992 Ruby Ridge incident, during which Randy Weaver, accused of selling an ATF agent two illegal sawed-off shotguns, became embroiled in a tragic confrontation with the the United States Marshals Service (USMS) and the FBI, resulting in the death of Weaver’s son Sammy, his wife Vicki, and Deputy U.S. Marshal William Francis Degan.

The story also brings back memories of New Hampshire couple Ed and Elaine Brown, who were involved in a nine month standoff with armed law enforcement and feds as a result of their refusal to pay income tax. The Browns were later convicted of “plotting to kill federal agents” because of their refusal to surrender and were both given de facto life sentences.

In a series of YouTube videos, Cliven Bundy and his wife outline the background behind their decision to take a stand against the feds, arguing that their fight is a constitutionally-driven line in the sand to push back against the usurpation of big government.

[H/T InfoWars: Paul Joseph Watson]

Rev. Al Sharpton’s Past ‘Secret Life’ Revealed: Report

(The Blaze) – Al Sharpton was once a paid FBI informant who regularly met with members of organized crime families in New York City and secretly recorded their conversations, according to an explosive report from The Smoking Gun.

Rev. Al Sharpton, founder and president of the National Action Network, speaks at the Let Freedom Ring ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2013. Credit: AP

The report, which was published Monday, claims Sharpton sat down with members of “four of New York City’s five organized crime families.” He even “secretly taped some of those wiseguys using a briefcase that FBI technicians outfitted with a recording device.”

Sharpton reportedly began working with the FBI in the mid-1980s and was known by the federal agency as “CI-7” — short for confidential informant No. 7.

The website claims its report is based on “hundreds of pages of confidential FBI affidavits, documents released by the bureau in response to Freedom of Information Act requests, court records and extensive interviews with six members of the Genovese squad, as well as other law enforcement officials to whom the activist provided assistance.”

Further, The Smoking Gun reports that Sharpton in his “secret life” assisted the FBI in securing court authorization to surveil two Genovese “family social clubs.” Agents also used Sharpton’s information to get a wiretap on the telephone of Federico “Fritzy” Giovanelli, a “Genovese soldier.”

“Giovanelli was sentenced to 20 years in prison for racketeering following a trial during which those recordings were played for jurors. In a recent interview, the 82-year-old Giovanelli–now three years removed from his latest stint in federal custody–said that he was unaware that Sharpton contributed in any fashion to his phone’s bugging,” the report adds.

Read the entire fascinating report here.

[H/T TheBlaze: Jason Howerton]

GOP Front Runner Endorses Common Core And Praises Illegal Immigrants

(Before It’s News) – During a speech this passed Friday Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush praised illegal immigrants as “risk takers” who embody the entrepreneurial spirit of America and doubled down on his defense of Common Core.

According to a report in The Miami Herald Bush said immigrants capture the entrepreneurial spirit of America. “People who come here legally and illegally are the risk takers,” Bush said.

“If you’re living in a rural area of Guatemala and you come, you’re a bigger risk taker than those who stay.” Aside from immigration, Bush’s advocacy for Common Core State Standards has earned him enmity on the right. Bush has repeatedly explained the standards, implemented and controlled by the states, are designed to make the United States more competitive with the rest of the world.

He said those who oppose the standards support the “status quo,” oppose testing and are worried too much about children’s self-esteem. “Let me tell you something. In Asia today, they don’t care about children’s self esteem. They care about math, whether they can read – in English – whether they understand why science is important, whether they have the grit and determination to be successful,” Bush said. “You tell me which society is going to be the winner in this 21st Century: The one that worries about how they feel, or the one that worries about making sure the next generation has the capacity to eat everybody’s lunch?”

According to Charlotte Iserbyt who worked for the White House Department of Education under the Reagan Administration, Common Core (CC) is being used as a very effective DIVERSION from the serious problem of tax-supported school choice which will lock up ALL children worldwide in the computerized Communist / OBE workforce training system necessary for a planned global economy.

This is the communist education system referred to by Professor Eugene Boyce, University of Georgia, where “they do not educate for jobs that don’t exist”—a.k.a., “quota system.” This is the plan referred to by education researcher Cynthia Weatherly as “limited learning for lifelong labor.” No upward mobility for our children.

Ms Iserbyt says that there are two major players who support tax funded school choice;

1) Ex-IBM CEO Louis B. Gerstner has called on President Obama to dismantle 16,000 school districts, which simply means to strip them of their elected boards. See Wall Street Journal, 12/1/2008, “Lessons from 40 years of Education Reform: Let’s abolish local school districts and finally adopt national standards”

2) Long-time education change agent, Chester E. Finn, Jr., who supports tax-funded school choice/charters, and in an article entitled “Why Private Schools Are Dying Out” (The Wall Street Journal, 5/16/13) virtually called for the collapse of private education.

Thirty-one years ago Finn, in an article entitled “Public Service, Public Support, Public Accountability” published in the March 1982 issue of the National Association of Secondary School Principals’ Bulletin, said, Short of scattering money in the streets or handing it out to everyone who wants some, the funding agency must define eligible recipients…this means, in a word, “regulation,” the inevitable concomitant of public financial support.

Charlotte has been noted as saying, there is something very evil afoot here and it breaks my heart to see so many good Americans, mainly Moms, cooperating in the demise of our pre-1965, highly successful education system and the very capitalist economic system that has drawn millions of foreigners to our shores in order to experience upward mobility through political and economic freedom.

As for Bush’s remarks about illegal immigrants most people agree with Senator Jeff Sessions (R Alabama) when he says, “Current US immigration laws are ignored by politicians for political gain.”

The real intended cost of illegal immigration includes the subversion of the rule of law. Government officials subvert the law when they intentionally ignore legal immigration laws to reward Illegal Immigrants for the politician’s own political expediency. We will “try to stop illegal immigrants at the border”, but if they can make it past the border, they now have a free pass. Just across the border is freedom and opportunity; free education, free food, free medical care and a free entitlement check at the expense of legal immigrant citizens. The reward for illegal immigration is greater than the risk or effort. (So, if first you don’t succeed, you try and try again.) We provide all the incentives for illegal immigration to help them make the tough decisions to leave their homeland and family; sometimes at great expense; and at great risk to their lives; to come to this foreign land.We then reward illegal immigration with government entitlements. We penalize legal immigration by excessive costs and long approval delays. We make it far too complex and cost-prohibitive for people to come here legally. We make it overwhelming easy to come here illegally in comparison.

[H/T BeforeItsNews: Susannah Cole]

NJ Student Suspended, Given Psych Eval for ‘Twirling Pencil’ Like a Gun

(Breitbart) – Thirteen-year-old Ethan Chaplin, who attends school in Vernon, New Jersey, was suspended for two days and will undergo a psychological evaluation after another student complained that he was “twirling a pencil” like a gun.

According to News 12 New Jersey, Chaplin said he was “just twisting around a pencil with a pen cap on it when a student behind him yelled, ‘He’s making gun motions, send him to juvie.'”

Chaplin told officials he had repeatedly been bullied by the student who complained and that the complaint about the pencil was just an extension of that. But the school suspended him anyway, “pending the outcome of a psychological evaluation.”

Vernon Schools Superintendent Charles Maranzano indicated that “school policy and the law requires [sic] him to investigate when anyone in school feels uncomfortable or threatened by another student.” He said, “We never know what’s percolating in the minds of children. And when they demonstrate behaviors that raise red flags, we must do our duty.”

[H/T Breitbart: AWR Hawkins]

IRS agents’ testimony: NO progressive groups were targeted by IRS

(The Daily Caller) – IRS agents testified before Congress that the agency’s political targeting did not apply to progressive groups as Democrats and the media have claimed, according to a bombshell new staff report prepared by the House Oversight Committee chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa.

IRS agents testified before Oversight that ACORN groups were scrutinized because the agency thought they were old organizations applying as new ones. Emerge America was scrutinized for potential “improper private benefit.” No evidence exists that the IRS requested additional information from any Occupy Wall Street group.

“Only seven applications in the IRS backlog contained the word ‘progressive,’ all of which were then approved by the IRS, while Tea Party groups received unprecedented review and experienced years-long delays. While some liberal-oriented groups were singled out for scrutiny, evidence shows it was due to non-political reasons,” according to the Oversight staff report, which was obtained by The Daily Caller.

“[T]he Administration and congressional Democrats have seized upon the notion that the IRS’s targeting was not just limited to conservative applicants,” the report states. “These Democratic claims are flat-out wrong and have no basis in any thorough examination of the facts.  Yet, the Administration’s chief defenders continue to make these assertions in a concerted effort to deflect and distract from the truth about the IRS’s targeting of tax-exempt applicants.”

“[T]here is simply no evidence that any liberal or progressive group received enhanced scrutiny because its application reflected the organization’s political views,” the report stated.

[H/T DailyCaller: Patrick Howley]

Supreme Court declines to hear appeal from photographers who wouldn’t work same-sex ceremony

(Fox News) – The Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal from Christian photographers who were fined and admonished by the New Mexico Supreme Court for declining to work a same-sex ceremony, in what could be a blow to religious business owners.

The high court decision not to take up the appeal means the New Mexico ruling against them stands. That ruling is only binding in New Mexico, but could set a precedent that can be cited in subsequent cases.

In this case, Elane Photography, owned by Jon and Elaine Huguenin of New Mexico, was brought to court for refusing to photograph a same-sex couple’s commitment ceremony in 2006.

An attorney for the couple argued that the business openly advertises its wedding photography services, and as a public business is required to follow the same anti-discrimination laws as any other company.

The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled in August that the business’s refusal to photograph the ceremony involving two women did violate the state’s Human Rights Act.

Lawyers for the business, though, argued the ruling violates the business owners’ free speech rights by compelling them to “express messages that conflict with their religious beliefs.”

Elaine Huguenin said she also has a right of artistic expression under the First Amendment that allows her to choose what pictures to take, or refrain from taking.

[H/T FoxNews]

Mickey Rooney, Legendary Actor, Dies at 93

(Variety) – Mickey Rooney, the pint-sized actor who was one of MGM’s giant box office attractions in the late ’30s and early ’40s, died on Sunday. He was 93.

As adept at comedy as drama and an excellent singer and dancer, Rooney was regarded as the consummate entertainer. During a prolific career on stage and screen that spanned eight decades (“I’ve been working all my life, but it seems longer,” he once said), he was nominated for four Academy Awards and received two special Oscars, the Juvenile Award in 1939 (shared with Deanna Durbin) and one in 1983 for his body of work.

He also appeared on series and TV and in made for television movies, one of which, “Bill,” the touching story of a mentally challenged man, won him an Emmy. He was Emmy nominated three other times. And for “Sugar Babies,” a musical revue in which he starred with Ann Miller, he was nominated for a Tony in 1980.

“I loved working with Mickey on ‘Sugar Babies.’  He was very professional, his stories were priceless and I love them all … each and every one.  We laughed all the time,” said Carol Channing in a statement.

Both in his professional and personal life Rooney withstood many peaks and valleys. He was married eight times — first and most famously to his MGM c-star Ava Gardner — and filed for bankruptcy in 1962, having gone through the $12 million he had earned. And until middle age, he was never able to quite cast off his popularity as a juvenile. Nonetheless, Rooney’s highs more than compensated for his lows. Via his “Andy Hardy” series of films, the five-foot-three Rooney came to embody the virtues of small-town American boyhood. Those films and a series of musicals in which he co-starred with Judy Garland made him the nation’s biggest box office attraction for three years running.

Margaret O’Brien said she was recently working on a film with him, despite reports that he had been in ill health for some time.  “Mickey was the only one at the studio that was ever allowed to call me Maggie.  He was undoubtedly the most talented actor that ever lived.  There was nothing he couldnt do.  Singing, dancing, performing … all with great expertise.  Mickey made it look so easy.  He seemed fine through the filming and was as great as ever,” said O’Brien in a statement.

Born Joseph Yule Jr. in Brooklyn, Rooney made his stage debut at age 15 months in his family’s vaudeville act, Yule and Carter, as a midget in a tuxedo. His first film role in the silent “Not to Be Trusted” also found him playing a midget. Even as a child he demonstrated the ability to be a consummate clown and to move audiences with his sentimental renditions of songs like “Pal of My Cradle Days.” After his parent’s divorce, his mother Nell answered an ad placed by cartoonist Fontaine Fox, who was looking for a child actor to play the comicstrip character Mickey McGuire in a series of silent comedy shorts. Rooney appeared in almost 80 episodes of the popular serial, which continued to be churned out by Standard Film Corp. until 1932. His mother wanted to legally change his name to McGuire, but when Fox objected, she chose Rooney instead.

As a teenager, Rooney appeared in many popular films including Tom Mix Western “My Pal the King” and, memorably, as Puck in Max Reinhardt’s 1935 adaptation of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” In 1934, MGM signed him to a week-to-week contract; his first success was playing Clark Gable as a boy in “Manhattan Melodrama.” He slowly climbed up the star ladder, appearing in an adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s “Ah Wilderness” and in “Little Lord Fauntleroy,” “Captains Courageous” and “Boy’s Town,” the latter two alongside Spencer Tracy.

But it was “A Family Affair,” a B-movie adaptation of the minor Broadway play “Skidding,” that first brought the world the Hardy family and its irrepressible son Andy, “the perfect composite of everybody’s kid brother,” according to critic Frank S. Nugent. With the surprise success of “A Family Affair,” the Hardy family, which included Lewis Stone (replacing Lionel Barrymore) as Judge Hardy and Spring Byington as his wife, embarked on a 15-film series of adventures in Americana. As star of one of the most successful series in film history, Rooney was earning $150,000 a year before his 20th birthday. In 1939, he was voted a special Oscar by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences.

The following year he was nominated for best actor in the film musical version of “Babes in Arms” with Judy Garland. “Mickey Rooney can act the legs off a centipede,” wrote the critic for the Sunday Times in London. It was the first of several memorable pairings with Garland including “Strike Up the Band,” “Babes on Broadway” and “Girl Crazy.”

His performance in the 1943 version of William Saroyan’s “The Human Comedy” brought a second nomination, and he played his first adult role opposite Elizabeth Taylor in “National Velvet.”

From 1944-46, Rooney served in the U.S. Army in the Jeep Theater, traveling 150,000 miles entertaining the troops and acting as a radio personality on the American Forces Network.

But after the war, Rooney’s attempt to make the transition from over-aged teenager to full-fledged adult was rocky at best. MGM tried to give him a new image, casting him as a boxer in “Killer McCoy”; the musical version of “Ah Wilderness,” called “Summer Holiday,” also failed to please. The very qualities that had made him an appealing child star now began to grate. His energetic cockiness seemed forced and egotistical in an adult. The vaudeville-style humor and sentimentality were deemed annoying and precious by post-war audiences.

After settling his contract with MGM in a dispute over not being cast in the all-star war drama “Battleground,” Rooney made nightclub appearances as he rebuilt his career. His freelance movie assignments, such as “Quicksand,” sank without a trace. Only “The Bold and the Brave,” a WWII drama that brought him a third Oscar nomination, met with any success. The final Andy Hardy drama, 1958’s “Andy Hardy Comes Home,” found him as a successful lawyer and new head of the family. It was the final and least successful film in the series.

Rooney also tried directing, helming 1951’s “My True Story,” with Helen Walker as a jewel thief, and 1960’s “The Private Lives of Adam and Eve,” a complex comedy in which he also starred.

He experienced somewhat more success in television: He was nominated for Emmys for dramatic work on “Playhouse 90” effort “The Comedian,” considered a classic of golden-era television, and “Eddie” on “Alcoa Theatre.” He also appeared, less felicitously, in the mid-’50s series “The Mickey Rooney Show: Hey, Mulligan” on NBC and “Mickey,” which ran for a few months on ABC in 1964-65.

But in 1962, after filing for bankruptcy (the money had dwindled through his many divorces and because of his fondness for betting on “the ponies”), he embarked on a career as a character actor in films including “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” “Requiem for a Heavyweight” and “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.” His controversial “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” role as Mr. Yunioshi, a buck-toothed broadly comic caricature of a Japanese man, did not draw much ire when the film was first released but has since been condemned as racist.

Off the bigscreen, he toured the country on a double bill with singer Bobby Van and in summer stock.

In 1963, he appeared as the very first guest on “The Judy Garland Show” upon Garland’s insistence. And he appeared occasionally during the ’60s on comedy/variety shows such as “The Dean Martin Comedy Hour,” “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” and “The Carol Burnett Show.” He guested on “Hollywood Squares” in 13 episodes between 1969 and 1976, and made 15 appearances on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” from 1970-73.

Norman Lear considered him for role of Archie Bunker, but Rooney rejected the project just as Jackie Gleason had. Perhaps he felt the role of Santa Claus fit him better: Rooney did the voices for four Christmas TV animated/stop action specials over the years. He played Santa in “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” (1970), “The Year Without a Santa Claus” (1974), “Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July” (1979) and “A Miser Brothers’ Christmas” (2008) and also played St. Nick in a 1982 episode of “The Love Boat.”

In later years, Rooney continued to work hard and sometimes found notable success. He received an Oscar nomination for supporting actor in 1980 for “The Black Stallion.” He won an Emmy for “Bill” in 1982 and drew an Emmy nom for reprising the role in another CBS telepic two years later.

In addition to his success in the musical “Sugar Babies,” he made popular stage appearances in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” and on Broadway in “The Will Rogers Follies.”

In 1982 he starred in a short-lived sitcom, “One of the Boys,” with Dana Carvey and Nathan Lane. He guested on “The Golden Girls” in 1988, on “Murder, She Wrote” in 1993 and on “ER” in 1998; he starred in “The New Adventures of the Black Stallion,” based on the film, for 57 episodes from 1990-93.

As he approached and then surpassed his 90th birthday, he labored on, appearing in 2006 in “Night at the Museum” and in 2011 in “The Muppets” feature, among several other films.

In 1993 he published autobiography “Life Is Too Short”; the next year he came out with a novel, Hollywood murder mystery “The Search for Sonny Skies.”

Rooney had battled the major studios and the Screen Actors Guild seeking TV residuals for his screen appearances before 1960 without success. In 2011 he revealed he had suffered another form of victimization. He was granted a temporary restraining order against his stepson, who was accused of withholding food and medicine and interfering in Rooney’s personal finances, which was subsequently replaced by a confidential agreement.

In March 2011 he testified before a special Senate committee considering legislation to curb abuses of senior citizens.

Rooney voyaged, as a special guest, as part of the TCM Classic Cruise in January 2013.

He is survived by wife Jan Chamberlin, a singer he married in 1978; son Mickey Rooney Jr. from his marriage to singer Betty Jane Rase; son Theodore Michael Rooney from his marriage to actress Martha Vickers; daughters Kelly Ann Rooney, Kerry Rooney and Kimmy Sue Rooney and son Michael Joseph Rooney from his marriage to Barbara Ann Thomason; and daughter Jonelle Rooney and adopted son Jimmy Rooney from his marriage to Carolyn Hockett. A son, Tim Rooney, died in 2006.

[H/T Variety: Carmel Dagan]