Are you ready for Celebrity Blogs?
Something caught my eye. Perhaps it means something, perhaps not. A difference in site fundamentals between Rosie O’Donnell and Bruce Willis. Hmmm.
Bruce is a conservative. Rosie a liberal.
April 19, 2005
Tips
Liberal Larry, ever the education guru, has decided to post some Lessons for Liberal Bloggers
One of the most powerful weapons in a liberal blogger’s arsenal is the dreaded Hitler mustache.
I think we all know what he means.
Still, conservatives are as predictible as they are ignorant, and will typically claim that the photos are fakes – as if authenticity has anything to do with accuracy.
Got us again, didn’t he?
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American Soldier
American Soldier hits the 150,000 visitor mark!
Congratulations!
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Democrats long for ‘Fairness Doctrine’
Ever notice how politicians scurry around like cockroaches when the light shines on them? First we had BCRA which was supposed to take Big Money™ out of politics. The policians had already figured out how to bypass that before it was ever really considered, so it was a non-starter as far as reform is concerned. And when small-money ways of expressing support of or opposition to candidates made inroads, politicians and bureaucrats looked to quash that vehicle, too.
Now a politician wants to return to the Media Dark Ages and reinstitute a fairness doctrine for all electronic media. Rep. Louise Slaughter, a Democrat from New York, has lined up such luminaries as Charlie Rangel and Dennis Kucinich to co-sponsor her bill. And there is now a web site dedicated to its passage, with an online petition which has garnered 5850 signatures thus far.
We once had a Fairness Doctrine which required television stations and networks to provide equal time to all candidates. It was ruled unconstitutional by a U.S. Court of Appeals in 1986, primarily because it was a rule instituted by the FCC rather than a law (sound familiar?). Slaughter apparently feels a law would pass judicial muster. So do many others.
Bill Moyers and The Pioneer of Progressive Talk are all over this. So is Media Matters, who take issue even with liberal media:
But after reading the magazine’s nearly 6,000-word profile of Coulter, readers still don’t know the real Ann Coulter. They don’t know the real Ann Coulter because Time carefully hid her from view, glorifying her legal work, whitewashing her habitual lies, and downplaying her — at best — grossly inappropriate rhetoric.
I haven’t read the article, but I’m sure Time fawned all over Ann Coulter.
AlterNet thinks it’s “Time for a Digital Fairness Doctrine” because those nasty Swift Boat Vets wanted to air their concerns about the Democratic candidate for President:
The debate on Sinclair Broadcasting’s plans to air an anti-John Kerry documentary on its 62 stations underscores the need for new national safeguards for the electronic media in the U.S. Policies that ensure that digital media – including cable, satellite, and the broadband Internet – have an obligation to provide diverse viewpoints are more necessary than ever.
I keep writing about the latest FEC rulemaking proposals and the move in Congress to “exempt” the internet from such intrusions, but few others seem to be. Now we have Congress trying to resurrect a bad rule by making it law. Where do they come up with the sense that media “have an obligation to provide diverse viewpoints”?
All the sponsors are Democrats. Do you think there is a reason for this? Aren’t the Democrats always telling us how they support and defend the rights of all Americans?
Talk. Right now they’re upset because people actually criticize them and they have no rebuttal except to whine about people being mean to them. Perhaps they should try and develop some kind of reasoned policy.
Nah. Too hard.
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April 18, 2005
Metrosexual or Medieval?
An interesting list from Doug Giles:
You might be a metrosexual if …
- You use more than three words when ordering your Starbuck’s,
- You’re still into rollerblading,
- You put on cologne to go to the gym,
- You have an Armani Exchange or Banana Republic credit card,
- You Tivo Sex in the City and/or Will and Grace,
- You watch Friends with a note pad,
- You have panic attacks (look, either have a real heart attack or cut the crap. That feeling you’re feeling is not death; it’s called responsibility and most everybody feels it. So … suck it up, drink a Guinness and get a life),
- You shave any part of your body except your face or skull,
- You buy your shampoo at a salon instead of a grocery store,
- You take more than two, that’s two, minutes to fix your hair,
- You think Ben Affleck, Colin Farrell, and Orlando Bloom are really, really good actors,
- You think you have a feminine side to get in touch with, and/or
- You must have Evian and only Evian for hydration (Hey, thongmeister. What’s Evian spelled backwards? That’s what you are).
Who are Colin Farrell and Orlando Bloom?
Who needs more than five seconds to fix their hair? I can do it with a washcloth.
AA Baseball
Busy, busy, busy. A new granddaughter, visitors, three web sites, golf, work, and now baseball.
Last night was the first home game for our Astros AA affiliate Corpus Christi Hooks baseball team. I joined 8,254 others at Whataburger Field last night to see the home team lose to Midland. I’m an old baseball coach–for 30 years now–and it was difficult for me to sit and watch without feeling like I needed to do something.
I’m always perplexed that people talk about baseball being a boring game with little activity. I guess it is unless you really understand what’s happening. My three boys all played catcher, and ran the games they were in from behind the plate. When Slice went to college, he shared catching duties with another young man. All their contests were double-headers, and the two of them swapped places for games, one at third and one catching. He was always a bit bored at third base because it wasn’t the hub of all on-field activity like catcher.
It is the same with coaching. Your mind is always active running through scenarios. I found myself doing that last night. I must get that perspective out of my mind so I can really just enjoy the game. I have no decisions to make. I am just a fan.
We have an excellent manager, Dave Clark. In my mind, the toughest job in professional sports is that of a minor league manager. He has to balance player development with trying to win. Winning is secondary, but is a requirement to develop the right mental attitude in players trying to move up. And it is important to keep the fans coming through the gates.
Dave probably keeps a jar of Tums on his desk.
A manager must deal with a constantly-changing lineup. The players he starts the season with are not the ones who will finish the year. Some will go on to AAA or even the major league team. Others will move down where they can get more playing time. The closer the manager develops is no longer there three games later. That starting lefty gets pulled up. The outfielder who hits .476 in the first half of the season becomes the lead-off hitter at Round Rock and is replaced with the worst hitter from that team.
I have season tickets, so I’ll probably OD before the summer is over.
Dave, pass the Tums.
April 16, 2005
A Neo-Nazi in Corpus Christi
Last October, the Islamic Society of Southern Texas released a statement denouncing violence in the name of Islam. Jim Lago had several members on his show, brought together and to Jim through Dr. Greg Silverman. Apparently, one of these gentlemen got in touch with Jim to seek some radio time for Dr. William H. Baker who founded Christians and Muslims for Peace. Baker is in town to speak.
Tuesday night Jim called me to ask if I’d like to come in and be on the show Saturday (today). He knows full well I play golf Saturday mornings, so it had to be something special. “I’m going to have a Nobel Prize nominee in here to talk about his organization and peace in the Middle East.”
Of course, I asked his name, and any information Jim might have so I could be adequately prepared to speak intelligently.
On Wednesday I had to take a trip to Houston for the day, then Thursday my daughter-in-law went into the hospital to deliver my granddaughter. So, I didn’t get any time to research prior to Friday morning. I was in for quite a shock when I started preparing.
The first indication of problems was when I did a Google search and found an article in the Orange County Weekly about him.
Though he was listed as “Dr. William Baker” in the conference program, Baker has no doctorate of any kind; officials of Oxford University in England disputed Baker’s claim that he did graduate work there. Baker claimed to have attended another graduate program that turned out to have been a six-unit freshman field trip.
In 1984, Baker was national chairman of Costa Mesa-based Holocaust denier Willis Carto’s Populist Party, whose platform called for the repeal of U.S. civil rights laws. Baker now states that, although he planned his party’s national convention, he had no knowledge of its platform or ideology.
He is also scheduled to speak at a banquet in Boca Raton the end of this month, and is hailed in the program as “one of the most outstanding figures in the Christian society.” It also claims he is part of Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral–from whence he was banish several years ago.
Daniel Pipes keeps track of people like Baker through articles such as one in a Michigan newspaper:
Baker “began his 33-year career as a peacemaker after he was taken hostage by 11 men of the Hezbollah who blindfolded him and aimed their AK-47s at him. For three days, he and his captors talked about justice, oppression, innocence and guilt. He also pointed out to them that terrorism is not sanctioned by Quran or Islam.” All very interesting, but Hezbollah did not exist in 1971, nor for more than another decade. So either Baker is engaging in some Walter Mitty-like fantasies or the unnamed journalist at the Kalamazoo Gazette got it wrong. Either explanation is cause for concern but I suspect the former explanation is the right one.
More information about this shadowy man comes from Jonathan Calt Harris:
Baker also called himself “professor of ancient history and sacred literature” but all evidence suggested he only taught Christian subjects for three years after he graduated from Ozark Bible College in Joplin, Missouri.
There are many more such articles on the internet. What there isn’t is any substantiation of Baker’s claims to be what he says.
He claims to have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997. Unfortunately, this is a convenient claim which cannot be verified. The Nobel Committee does not allow the names of nominees to be released for fifty years. I don’t doubt that he might have been nominated because anyone can be, and it requires a letter to the committee written by someone who is in academia. There are plenty of people who like what he says in our universities. That’s how he earns his living: Giving speeches to students at colleges, paid for by university funds. Nobody else seems to be interested in his anti-Israel, anti-Jew rhetoric.
I understand why Jim cancelled Baker’s appearance on the show. Personally, I was looking forward to the confrontation. I could never “win” an argument with someone like that, but I could certainly provide a vehicle for him to expose himself for what he is.
He is here this weekend, probably speaking to young people in Corpus Christi. He is surely telling them that Christians and Muslims must work together to rid the world of those in opposition to Christianity and Islam so that there can be peace. Who is he talking about?
Israel and Jews. I hope the youngsters listening to him understand that.