Research? No way!

Two recent news items illustrate (to me anyway) that the mainstream media are biased and have no journalistic integrity.  By this I mean that they decide how they want to report a story without doing any research on their own.  This leaves us common folk outside the media to spend the time trying to figure out what is true and what is hype.  Sadly, we don't have the time nor do we care enough to do this as much as we should.

Story number one - Y'all may think this is a silly example, but I think it illustrates my point very well.  It has to do with the reality show Survivor.  A few weeks before the current season started, news was released that there would be four teams this season and that they would be separated by their race.  The media had a field day with this.  Finding anyone and everyone that would possibly have a problem with this and quoting them on every TV show or news article they could.  Because separating by race obviously wrong and must be stopped!  What's the problem you ask?  Well, for one I would be willing to bet that the people who had problems with this had never watched survivor.  Because if they had, they would know that any time there has been four teams, those teams were merged within a couple of competitions.  The media could have done some research and found this out too.  But did they?  Nooooo.  Well, sure enough, last night the teams were merged from four teams to two, with the races all intermingled.  How did this get reported today?  Was there an apology from the press for making a big deal out of nothing?  Of course not.  From this Associated Press story today

All the hubbub about the "Survivor" ethnic experiment turned out to be pretty worthless.

Why? Because after only two episodes, producers merged the black, white, Asian and Latino tribes into two mixed-race gangs. No explanation was given for the quick abandonment of segregation; it seemed to pass by so quickly as to mean nothing.

All the hubbub?  What?  How about, "All the hubbub that WE CREATED"!!!!

 

Story number two - The other day Senator James InHofe gave this speech on the Senate floor about how global warming is way over-hyped by whackos and the mainstream media.  It is quite a long speech, but it is very good.  Especially this point:

Since 1895, the media has alternated between global cooling and warming scares during four separate and sometimes overlapping time periods. From 1895 until the 1930’s the media peddled a coming ice age.

From the late 1920’s until the 1960’s they warned of global warming. From the 1950’s until the 1970’s they warned us again of a coming ice age. This makes modern global warming the fourth estate’s fourth attempt to promote opposing climate change fears during the last 100 years.

He goes into much more detail, providing examples of stories in various publications over their years.  Amazing!  Do you hear any of this from the media today?  Of course not!  They love to put Al Gore or any other environmentalist on that will proclaim doom and gloom, but they rarely (if ever!) put on anyone with an opposing viewpoint.  Even worse, Senator InHofe's direct attack on the media was largely ignored!  They won't even defend themselves because they know that they risk people actually researching this on their own!  Amazing!

 

It is so sad that we cannot trust our own news sources for truly fair coverage of the important issues that face us today.  Even more sad, we have become so lazy that we don't challenge them enough and force them to do the right thing.

The tax cuts didn't work!

Somebody tell President Bush!

From this news story:

The U.S. government recorded record-high overall and corporate tax receipts on Sept. 15, which was a quarterly deadline for tax payments, the Treasury said Monday.
Total tax receipts were $85.8 billion on Friday, compared with the previous one-day record of $71 billion on Sept. 15 of last year, the Treasury said.
Within the overall figure, corporate tax receipts Friday were $71.8 billion, up from $63 billion in September of last year.
Treasury Undersecretary for Domestic Finance Randal Quarles said Friday's numbers provided a "continuing demonstration of the strength of the U.S. economy."
"In fact, Friday's gross receipts were the largest in a single day in the nation's history - 20% higher than receipts on the same quarterly tax payment date last year," Quarles said in a statement.

 

Wait, that can't be right, can it?  Tax receipts increased 20%?  The tax cuts were supposed to be "for the rich" according to the Democrats.  And corporate (which is rich people, right?) tax receipts went up?

So, this means two things, each with the same result:

1.  The Democrats were wrong.  The tax cuts were not for the rich.  They are paying more taxes!  They need to march over to the White House and inform the president that he failed at cutting taxes for the rich.  So he must need to cut more!

2.  President Bush was right when he said that cutting taxes would end up netting the government more tax revenue.  So he must need to cut more!

Stirring the Friday pot with Gary Z

So my friend Gary posted a blog entry today mainly picking on lawyers but also had to rant a little bit about Ole Miss' admission standards.   Apparently an "academically challenged" student is trying to sue his way into freshmen eligibility for football.  From Gary's entry...

Jerrell Powe, young fellow so uhlitterate that he could not get a HS diploma; only a certificate (I guess to indicate "completion", kinda like an "attendance certificate"). He needed a certain amount of credits to go to college so he does great in online correspondance courses. However, the teacher that helped him basically says he's dumber than a rock.

But what good ole Jerrelll lacks in reading and writing he makes up for in playing da foozball like the dickens. So he enrolls at Ole Miss and wants to play this American football. However, the NCAA denies him freshman eligibility.

Why do they deny him such eligibility? According to his lawyer, it's because of racism and that the NCAA is also in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Hold up. Did we read that correctly? The race card I'm used to. If someone gets their food at Wendy's before a black person it becomes a race issue in Memphis.

But to bring the ADA into the mix is downright unforgivable. This is a mockery of the Act and people with REAL disabilities should be very upset about its use in this case. Being dumb is not a disability, sorry

 

First let me make one thing clear.  I completely agree with Gary that the lawyers arguments are stupid and he should be held accountable.  But we know he won't be.

Second, a little history.  Gary went to college at Auburn and he's a pretty darn smart fella. I didn't go to Auburn, but I admit you do have to be pretty smart to go there.  At least from the perspective that you have to figure out whether Auburn's mascot is a Tiger or a "War Eagle".

So apparently Gary believes that Auburn would never admit this guy into their school, as he goes on to flame Ole Miss for trying to admit a guy who only scored a 12 on his ACT exam. 

WHATEVA!  We all know that there are athletes throughout the NCAA that score 12 or less on the ACT and are as dumb as Powe.  There are articles all the time about students with low academic scores going through junior college in order to pass admission requirements.  And the junior college education these kids receive is a joke since the school is likely getting some incentives for ensuring they pass.  If Ole Miss were admitting this guy after JuCo, there would be no story here.

This is an NCAA problem, not an individual school problem.  They would pretty much admit this guy anywhere after he gets through his junior college requirements.  Including Auburn.  And if he can "play football like the dickens", any school would accept him.  Including Auburn.

 

Thanks for stirring the pot today, Gary.  I wanted something to blog about.

Sports talk

Very exciting sports weekend is coming up for me this weekend...

Tomorrow night is the last NASCAR race before the points are reset for the ten race chase to the championship.  While I can understand the argument that some people make saying the Chase is stupid or unfair, I cannot argue that it does not make the sport more exciting.  Without the chase, pretty much everyone but Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth would have little-to-no chance of winning the championship.  With the Chase, there are 11 people who have a realistic chance.  Obviously that is much more exciting.  Tomorrow's race is even more exciting for me because one of my favorite drivers (and my wife's favorite driver) Kasey Kahne is only 30 points out of contention for the 10th spot.  Last week he was 90 points out and won the race to get where he is now.  Kasey has five wins this year, which is more than any other driver.  Many argue that the Chase should be changed to automatically give the driver with the most wins a berth into the Chase.  That would be ok I suppose, but if they did that then tomorrow's race would not be very exciting, so I would understand them not making any changes.

Sunday night is a moment that I imagine some people have been waiting for since they found out Archie Manning had two sons that wanted to be quarterbacks.  At the very least, they have been waiting for it since Eli began his NFL career.  That's right - Colts vs Giants, brother vs brother, Peyton vs Eli.  Scheduling this game as the first Sunday night game of the season was pure genius by the NFL.  I imagine advertisers have been lining up for this game at close to the same level as they line up for the Super Bowl.  This is much like NASCAR, where they have a huge race at the beginning of the season and the title race at the end.  Very exciting.  I'm so torn on who I want to win this game.  I've been a fan of both Peyton and Eli for a long time now.  But I think I want the Giants to win strictly because Eli went to Ole Miss.  However, I think the Colts will likely win because...well...they are a pretty darn good football team, and let's face it, Peyton has more talent than Eli right now on many levels, especially his decision making.  Eli will hopefully reach at or above Peyton's level, but he's simply not there yet.

Ok, so I've tried to figure out how to end this darned blog post for like ten minutes now and can't come up with anything intelligent or funny.  So...

The End.

Sports talk

Very exciting sports weekend is coming up for me this weekend...

Tomorrow night is the last NASCAR race before the points are reset for the ten race chase to the championship.  While I can understand the argument that some people make saying the Chase is stupid or unfair, I cannot argue that it does not make the sport more exciting.  Without the chase, pretty much everyone but Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth would have little-to-no chance of winning the championship.  With the Chase, there are 11 people who have a realistic chance.  Obviously that is much more exciting.  Tomorrow's race is even more exciting for me because one of my favorite drivers (and my wife's favorite driver) Kasey Kahne is only 30 points out of contention for the 10th spot.  Last week he was 90 points out and won the race to get where he is now.  Kasey has five wins this year, which is more than any other driver.  Many argue that the Chase should be changed to automatically give the driver with the most wins a berth into the Chase.  That would be ok I suppose, but if they did that then tomorrow's race would not be very exciting, so I would understand them not making any changes.

Sunday night is a moment that I imagine some people have been waiting for since they found out Archie Manning had two sons that wanted to be quarterbacks.  At the very least, they have been waiting for it since Eli began his NFL career.  That's right - Colts vs Giants, brother vs brother, Peyton vs Eli.  Scheduling this game as the first Sunday night game of the season was pure genius by the NFL.  I imagine advertisers have been lining up for this game at close to the same level as they line up for the Super Bowl.  This is much like NASCAR, where they have a huge race at the beginning of the season and the title race at the end.  Very exciting.  I'm so torn on who I want to win this game.  I've been a fan of both Peyton and Eli for a long time now.  But I think I want the Giants to win strictly because Eli went to Ole Miss.  However, I think the Colts will likely win because...well...they are a pretty darn good football team, and let's face it, Peyton has more talent than Eli right now on many levels, especially his decision making.  Eli will hopefully reach at or above Peyton's level, but he's simply not there yet.

Ok, so I've tried to figure out how to end this darned blog post for like ten minutes now and can't come up with anything intelligent or funny.  So...

The End.

How brave are we?

So today Al Jazeera released a video that shows Osama bin Laden in some pre-9/11 meetings with some of the terrorists who took part of the attacks.

(Side Note:  Why are we not going into Al Jazeera and interrogating the folks there?  Seriously!  Torture them if we have to!  They obviously have connections to bin Laden and Al Qaeda that we could really use).

What interests me the most about the article is not that video, although it does make me quite angry.  The most interesting thing is this quote by Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq:

"Oh followers of (Taliban leader) Mullah Mohammed Omar, oh sons of (Al-Qaeda leader) Osama bin Laden, oh disciples of (slain Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader) Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi ... I urge each of you to kill at least one American within a period not exceeding 15 days"

Now, I'm going to make a hopeful assumption that what he tells his followers to do does not happen.

So if my assumption holds true, what is al-Muhajer going to do? A friend of mine said his call to action is like a CEO passing a quota along to his employees.  What happens when employees don't meet quotas?  Interesting perspective.

Better yet, what are we going to do if ?  I'll tell you what we should do.  Specifically, what President Bush should do.  He should get his mug on live television and call Mr. al-Muhajer out!  Tell him that he is a coward who has now been proven to have no power whatsoever.  That if he and bin Laden were real leaders, they would not hide in a hole or cave and they would fight to their death just like they are calling their "pupils" to do.  Make a big production out of it.  President Bush should say stuff like, "When I tell my military to do something, they do it!"

I know, I know.  That will never happen.  But if we were truly brave and truly wanted to fight these guys, we would do things like that.

It's all about the spin

I usually don't get worked up about things this late in the day.  But it's happened today.  From this article:

 

Congressman Ed Markey (MA) has released a new report entitled Tipping the Scales to coincide with a bill titled H.R. 5579, the No Special Subsidies for Gas Guzzlers Act. The report focuses on the tax loophole that exempts people purchasing an SUV from paying a gas-guzzler tax, which is normally applied to the purchase of any vehicle returning less than 22.5 mpg. The report points out that, for instance, someone buying a 20.5 mpg Audi gets dinged by a $1,300 gas-guzzler tax, while someone purchasing a 15.8 mpg Jeep pays no extra tax. Congressman Markey's bill would also close a "loophole" that allows business owners to write off most of the cost of an SUV, but not other types of vehicles.

...

Markey's report estimates that the loophole will cost taxpayers $2.6 billion next year and $15.7 billion over the next decade.

That second paragraph has me fuming!  How is not paying a tax on something costing us anything?

Repeat after me people - MY MONEY IS MY MONEY.  MY MONEY DOES NOT BELONG TO CONGRESS!!!

It absolutely amazes me that someone can get away with saying me not paying taxes is costing me money.  The article I linked to even agreed!!  Amazing!!

Even worse about this is the fact that they don't even mention that the gas guzzler tax is already in full existence anyway.  People pay a tax every time they pay for gas.  So if they buy a vehicle that gets horrible gas mileage, they are paying more taxes!  The only reason Congress wants to do this is because they know people already pay more than they should for large SUVs and want to get a piece of the pie.

Don't believe the spin, people.  We don't "owe" the government anything!

It's all about the spin

I usually don't get worked up about things this late in the day.  But it's happened today.  From this article:

 

Congressman Ed Markey (MA) has released a new report entitled Tipping the Scales to coincide with a bill titled H.R. 5579, the No Special Subsidies for Gas Guzzlers Act. The report focuses on the tax loophole that exempts people purchasing an SUV from paying a gas-guzzler tax, which is normally applied to the purchase of any vehicle returning less than 22.5 mpg. The report points out that, for instance, someone buying a 20.5 mpg Audi gets dinged by a $1,300 gas-guzzler tax, while someone purchasing a 15.8 mpg Jeep pays no extra tax. Congressman Markey's bill would also close a "loophole" that allows business owners to write off most of the cost of an SUV, but not other types of vehicles.

...

Markey's report estimates that the loophole will cost taxpayers $2.6 billion next year and $15.7 billion over the next decade.

That second paragraph has me fuming!  How is not paying a tax on something costing us anything?

Repeat after me people - MY MONEY IS MY MONEY.  MY MONEY DOES NOT BELONG TO CONGRESS!!!

It absolutely amazes me that someone can get away with saying me not paying taxes is costing me money.  The article I linked to even agreed!!  Amazing!!

Even worse about this is the fact that they don't even mention that the gas guzzler tax is already in full existence anyway.  People pay a tax every time they pay gas.  So if they buy a vehicle that gets horrible gas mileage, they are paying more taxes!  The only reason Congress wants to do this is because they know people already pay more than they should for large SUVs and want to get a piece of the pie.

Don't believe the spin, people.  We don't "owe" the government anything!

Priceless

Parking......$5

Tickets for two adults and one child for Sesame Street Live....$40

Stale popcorn and a 20oz Coke.....$4

Kids size 2/4 t-shirt......$15

Program\Activity Book......$7

 

Comforting my two year daughter by telling her the characters really will stay far away from her....watching her as she figures out that what she is seeing is the same thing she sees on TV every week...figuring out a way to clap my hands, stomp my feet, and jump with her in my lap while sitting in a seat barely big enough for an adult...watching her point to characters and say their names...watching her blow them a bye bye kiss when they walk off the stage...explaining to her that they had to go home while she says "Again!" as we walk out of the building.................PRICELESS!!!!