1. On Fox TV, it is assumed that the Nicaraguan meteorologist knows all about tacos.

It’s fairly obvious by now that Fox News is a place where being offensive and ignorant is not just permitted, but encouraged. For example: How much fun is it to make fun of someone’s ethnic heritage inaccurately? So much fun. In an exchange that is indistinguishable from schoolyard bullying and outright nincompoop-ism, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade on Friday said he assumed that the network’s Latina meteorologist “grew up on tacos,” because she is from a Spanish-speaking country, and of course, they are all the same.

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Being the multi-ethnic bastion that it is, Fox & Friends featured a segment on making tacos to celebrate National Taco Day. Kilmeade turned to Fox News Weather team member Maria Molina, who was born in Nicaragua and grew up in South Florida and asked, “So what are the tips we need to know? You grew up on tacos, correct?”

“No, I did not grow up on tacos!” Molina snapped. “I’m Nicaraguan. It’s not a native food.”

Does she really think that these people are educable?

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2. Poor Ted Cruz: first a Republican “lynch mob” is after him, and then Democrats hurt his feelings.

Some Republicans are very mad at Ted Cruz, whose antics against Obamacare spiraled into the impasse that became the government shutdown, which is beginning to play very badly for the GOP. So on Wednesday, a group of Senate Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, railed against Cruz at a private luncheon, according to theNew York Times. Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin were there as well, and some of these senators became very angry with Cruz’s intransigence, and lit into him. An unnamed senator described the scene thusly to the Times: "It just started a lynch mob."

Lynch mob is a term that is being tossed around rather cavalierly these days, if you ask us. But then a lot of racially loaded terms are flying during the Obama administration, and anyone who thinks that is an accident is a fool. (See next item.)

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Poor Ted Cruz was feeling really picked on all week, and not just by his own party. Democrats, he said at week’s end, are portraying him as the “root of all evil in the world.” How could they, when really everyone knows that Obamacare, or affordable healthcare, is the root of all evil in the world?

3. Rep. William O’Brien, R-N.H.: “Obamacare is as bad as Fugitive Slave Act.”

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Obamacare, in the conservative echo-sphere, is the worst thing ever to befall mankind, and that is why it must at any cost be prevented, no matter how futile, ridiculous or damaging these actions may be. Rep. William O’Brien joined the anti-Obamacare hysteria this week with his racially tinged analogy comparing Obamacare to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which made it against the law not to return runaway slaves to their owners. Hmmm, wonder why something slavery-related popped into his head to describe the signature legislation of the first black president.

Here’s how he justified his offensive comparison to the Manchester Union Leader: “Just as the Fugitive Slave Act was an overreach by the federal government, so too we understand that Obamacare is an assault on the rights of individuals.”

Oh, so nothing racial about it at all.

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4. Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Ind.: Obamacare is the worst law known to man, pretty lady.

Crazed Republicans are really enjoying the attention they are getting what with the shutdown, and how they are saving the world from the abomination of Obamacare. Rep. Todd Nokita took full advantage of his moments in the sun this week, first when he said: "We just want to help the American people to get through one of the most insidious laws created by man, that is Obamacare."

Please save us, Republican heroes.

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Still enjoying the spotlight, Rokita mixed it up with CNN’s Carol Costello later in the week, again defending the shutdown as a small price to pay for saving America from the horror of affordable healthcare. Finally, he gave up on trying to explain this all to Costello, saying, “Carol, you’re beautiful, but you have to be honest as well.”

Mmmm, sexism. That’s hot.

5. Not to be outdone: Bill O’Reilly finally weighs in on Obamacare

It did not seem possible, but Fox News host Bill O’Reilly took fear-mongering to a new level on Thursday when he told viewers to think of President Obama’s healthcare law as a “vicious motorcycle gang” coming for their daughters.

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Yeah, that’s right.

“It’s like this,” O’Reilly said. “Your teenager comes to you, saying she wants to attend a dance. You have some misgivings, but you say okay because she’s so passionate about the issue. Then you learn a vicious motorcycle gang may well show up at the dance, so you change your mind based upon best available evidence. And you protect your daughter from possible danger. Obamacare is like that.”

See?

6. Rafael Cruz (yep, Ted’s Dad): Obama’s on the side of the Muslims.

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Ted Cruz is not the only member of his family with political aspirations and a talent for crazy talk. Speaking at a GOP rally in Adams County, Colo., Ted’s dad, right-wing pastor Rafael Cruz said: “So Barack Obama said: 'If the winds shift, I will side with the Muslims.' McCain couldn’t say that, because it's not politically correct. It is time to stop being politically correct!”

What he really meant is it’s time to stop being correct at all, or to have your words reflect any sort of reality. That’s what time it is, America.

Then he made some more stuff up: “55 million babies have been murdered by abortion since 1973. At the other end, Obamacare, with denying care to the elderly, with care being rationed, with care being postponed for 12 to 18 months, with care being controlled by a group of bureaucrats, that on the basis of cost/benefit, will decide whether you get a medical procedure or not, they’re destroying our end of life. As a matter of fact, one of the things in Obamacare is that the elderly, every five years you must have end-of-life counseling. Translation: suicide counseling!”

Translation: Run, run ye Christians away from this terrible Muslim-imposed healthcare law.

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7. Rick Joyner, Christian TV host: Time for God to impose martial law to save us from Obama’s tyranny.

There is only one way out of this pickle, the one imposed by the tyrannical Muslim-in-chief Obama. On his Monday Internet broadcast, Morning Star TV’s Rick Joyner predicted that democracy was “doomed,” doomed I tell you, unless the Lord imposed martial law.

Poor guy worked himself into quite a lather. “We’re headed for serious tyranny, a terrible tyranny right now. But guess what? The kingdom is coming, the Kingdom of God is coming.” And some more stuff, blah blah blah. Then: “That’s why I appeal to the Lord: Don’t let us be totally destroyed, please raise up those who will save us. And as I’ve been telling friends for a long time, no election is going to get the right person in there because the system is so broken.”

Therefore, God must stage a coup. That’s what needs to happen right now.

8. Pat Robertson to elderly woman viewer: It’s your fault your husband’s health his suffering.

Always willing to comfort his flock, Pat Robertson used his “700 Club” pulpit recently to set a woman straight about priorities. Retired and living on a small pension and Social Security pension, the woman was faced with the difficult decision of whether to give money to her church or pay her husband’s medical expenses.

This whole situation is all her fault, Robertson told her. Her husband is sick precisely because her contribution to the church has been inadequate, despite a lifetime of tithing.

“Your husband has all these medical problems because the ‘devour’ has not been rebuked,” Robertson explained. “You need to rebuke him. You give your tithes faithfully and God said, ‘I will rebuke the devour,’ the person that is eating up your money and eating up your health. So you want to be healthy? That’s a promise in the word.”

Comforting words.

9. Pennsylvania officials continue their rich history of offensive same-sex marriage analogies: This week, it’s pets and incest.

Back in August, lawyers for the state of Pennsylvania arguing against a clerk who was issuing same-sex marriage licenses suggested same-sex couples were like 12-year-old children. Governor Tom Corbett, on whose behalf the lawyers were arguing, tried to distance himself from those remarks in the ensuing kerfuffle. This week, on Wednesday, a like-minded county commissioner by the name of Tom Creighton who’s fighting tooth and nail against giving benefits to same-sex couples said: “I don’t feel the county should be looking for new ways to give away taxpayer money. Next it could be giving money out to people’s pets or whatever.”

On Friday, during an interview, Gov. Corbett opened his mouth and stuck his foot deep inside it, saying that while his lawyers’ (for whom taxpayers are paying $400 an hour) comparison of same-sex couples as children was inept, “I think a much better analogy would have been brother and sister, don’t you?” he said.

His interviewer declined to offer her assent, saying she’d leave the comments to “his team.”

By afternoon, Corbett was backpedaling and offering his version of an apology. It turns out he didn’t want to offend anyone, and if he did, he was sorry. He just wanted to give examples of categories of people who are ineligible for marriage.

Oh, okay. That makes it much better.

10. Hatefulness prize-winner of the week: Fox News’ Stuart Varney.

Fox News has been having a rollicking good time with the government shutdown. They think it’s the most wonderful thing. But it’s also the Democrats' fault. Go figure. The first day of the shutdown, Hannity and friends marveled at how they were not feeling the effects of the shutdown at all. What was the big deal, anyway? Fox Business’ Todd Starnes chortled: “If you believe the Democrats, it’s time to go out and buy the potted meat and Tang and get in your survival bunker.”

Ha ha ha ha. Aren’t people who barely have enough money to eat so funny? And so fun to make fun of?

Later in the week, Varney was not in so good a mood. He was very, very angry, and not chortling anymore. He was angry at the more than 800,000 furloughed federal employees for having the audacity to want their back pay, so angry that he wants to “punish those people.”

“No, I don’t think they should get their back pay, frankly,” he said. “I really don’t. I’m sick and tired of a massive, bloated federal bureaucracy living on our backs, and taking money out of us, a lot more money than most of us earn in the private sector, then getting a furlough, and then getting their money back at the end of it. Sorry, I’m not for that. I want to punish these people. Sorry to say that, but that’s what I want to do.”

Do you think he’s really sorry to say that?