Rosie’s Vulgar Act at Awards for Teen Girls– Is She FINALLY off The View?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Barbara Walters used to have a reputation as a serious journalist. That was before the bull-in-the-china-shop that is Rosie O’Donnell came bellowing into her life. Could Walters finnaly have reached her last straw with O’Donnell, though? If rumors of Rosie leaving the daytime TV talker “The View” after a blue and vulgar performance at an award ceremony for teen girls in New York is any indication, we might soon be seeing the end of the wild-eyed, late morning rants of this uninformed wind-bag, O’Donnell.

The New York Post reported on the 24th that Barbara “lowered her head on the dais and covered her face with her hand” as Rosie spoke. During her now boring schtick, Rosie unleashed the “F” word and a slew of vulgar sexual references as she spoke before the collected elite of the female movers and shakers of the news biz as well as a bevy of teen-aged girls who were on hand to receive awards for their own efforts to enter the field of communications.

Rosie spoke before the annual luncheon of N.Y. Women in Communications. In attendance were such luminaries as “Judith Giuliani, her predecessor Donna Hanover, Judge Judy Sheindlin, Helen Gurley Brown, Sue Simmons, Geri Laybourne of Oxygen Media, Jane Friedman of HarperCollins, and Hearst president Cathie Black.”

Naturally, Rosie didn’t care much about propriety and used the occasion to wallow in her normal low-brow behavior.
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The Uncivil Left, Why are they so Socially Ignorant?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Political policy is important and the debate over the direction the country should be going in is a serious debate that should be had. But, if we break down even social gatherings into mere screaming matches, we lose a large aspect of man, his social interactions destroyed.

Civility and common courtesy is, of course, an important aspect of a civil society. But civility is not something that the dictatorial left understands. To them their opinions are so important that everyone should bow to them in supplication. And they see no instance when they should not be rudely bellowing their opinions, forcing everyone to their will. There is never a time just to smile and be nice to those around them. Their hatred of free will and the needs and opinion of others is so complete that they cannot even attend a party without using that occasion as a chance to belittle people and go on the attack.
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The New Lynching: Why I Must Defend Don Imus

By Selwyn Duke

So Don Imus has been fired from his radio show, and all is well in the world. We all know about the maelstrom that developed around the aging shock jock, who has found out how loose lips sink ships, in this case his own. But even though his is a vessel I never would have christened, I find a certain conclusion inescapable here. I must defend Don Imus.

Lest I be misunderstood, I have no use for the man nor any for the rest of his ilk. I know him to be a poster boy for our cultural decay, a man who, along with innumerable fellow babblers, disgorges cultural effluent on a daily basis. He has been a willing participant in the defining of deviancy downwards and I normally would not lament his departure.

I also would criticize his comments. It’s most uncharitable to make sport of relatively anonymous college kids and mock their appearance. So, one may wonder, given my thorough condemnation of the man, in what way do I defend him?
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Comedy Central: New Cartoon Show Attacking Entire Bush Family

Proving once again how badly the left suffers from BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome), Comedy Central is launching a new animated show lampooning George W. Bush and all surrounding him that was originally broadcast through cell phone networks.

Included in the cartoon attacks will be Vice President Cheney, Sec. of State Condoleeza Rice and a brother JEB who is “dumb as paint”.

Lil’Bush Makes the Big Time on Small Screen

In what may be a TV first, Comedy Central’s new series Lil’ Bush (which premieres in June) comes to TV by way of mobile devices such as web-enabled cell phones. The property began as mobisodes seen on 2” mobile screens.

While the technology is interesting and it is also historic that a show migrated to TV after originally being debuted over a cell phone network, they just can’t resist it to be an attack on the man they love to hate.
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The Stupidity of American Celebrities, How Low Can You Go?

-By Warner Todd Huston

There was a day in the United States when the citizens of this great nation celebrated intelligence in those whom they raised to the level of “celebrity”. It was a day when cogent thoughts were related in high style, where literacy and learning were prized, a day when to be “smart” meant to actually have some sort of culture and ability to write. To achieve fame one had to exhibit some level of education even if it was one realized by one’s own efforts alone, an amalgamation of knowledge not the result of a program from an institute of higher learning. The general public in America once looked up to people who embodied the highest education, even that had from the veritable slate in a log cabin.

Lincoln, for instance, was celebrated for being a self-taught man. He read classics such as Plato, Aristotle, Hume and Locke. He was able to quote extensively from the Bible and completely from memory at that. He was the true self-made American. But, even as he didn’t have that ivory league pedigree, something that caused many to look down upon him even still, a reading of nearly any document he ever wrote will reveal a highly educated man with a eloquence gained from a wide range of reading and study.

And Lincoln was typical of the common American who once upon a time strove to better themselves. The highest selling books in America were the Bible and the Pilgrim’s Progress. The “readers” created to teach the young to read were chock full of excerpts of classic literature from throughout the ages. And literacy rates have always been quite high in the USA.

Rarely was an American celebrity an unschooled, ignoramus. Few were unread or unable to write in a clear, concise, even literary style. Americans rarely raised to celebrity status the low or mean, the uneducated or the stupid.

Until, that is, the 1960s.
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Brit paper Complains of American Flag in Spider-Man 3 Movie!

Well, here we go again. Another Eurotrash, elitist whining that there is a US flag in an American movie…

Ending an inconsequential review of the upcoming movie Spider-Man 3, Timesonline reviewer Leo Lewis complains:

Also disappointing is the inability of the director, Sam Raimi, to end the romp without a fleeting shot of the American flag. The Stars and Stripes just happens to be fluttering behind Spidey as he makes his triumphal return to honour, probity and good honest fist-fighting.

Lewis acts as if an American movie based on an American icon of the American comic book industry must somehow remove all aspects of what made it an Icon. If we are to make the “correct” movie, according to this snarky cretin apparently, we must remove all those gauche American things from our movies to appease America hating reviewers from England, I guess.

I have an idea, Mr. Lewis. If you hate America so much, don’t go see our movies. We can do without your business and your elitist attitude.
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PBS Drops Documentary Against Radical Islam for ‘Political Reasons’

-By Warner Todd Huston

An American tax-funded documentary, titled Islam vs. Islamists, a film on how moderate Muslims feel about the corruption of their religion by Wahhabi extremists and their experiences in facing those extremists, was axed by PBS for the very reason that it puts some Muslims in a bad light, says the film’s producer in Tuesday’s edition of the Arizona Republic. Rampant PCism is the charge, and it is hard to deny the claim once the whole story is put out there.

The producer of a tax-financed documentary on Islamic extremism claims his film has been dropped for political reasons from a television series that airs next week on more than 300 PBS stations nationwide.

Producer Martyn Burke claims that PBS, in order to be allowed to continue with the project, tried to make him fire some of his associates on the film because they belong to a Conservative Think Tank and that they still axed his film anyway when all was said and done.

So, what is all the fuss over with this film?

Burke wrote that his documentary depicts the plight of moderate Muslims who are silenced by Islamic extremists, adding, “Now it appears to be PBS and CPB who are silencing them.”

Apparently PBS, is so afraid of even appearing to say that some Muslims’ actions are problematic that they would rather suppress the whole show then deal with the truth.
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You Either Abide by the First Amendment or You Don’t

-By Frank Salvato

It really doesn’t matter whether you find radio shock jock Don Imus’s description of the women on Rutgers’ basketball team offensive or not. In an age when you can turn on any popular urban radio station and hear most of the words used in George Carlin’s “Seven Dirty Words” comedy routine the term, “nappy-headed hos” can hardly be deemed offensive, especially coming from a shock jock. What is at issue is whether or not the politically correct have used bullying tactics to infringed upon the guaranteed right of free speech under the First Amendment.

I can’t say that I am a fan of Don Imus but then I can’t say I dislike him either. I have never taken the time to listen to his radio show nor have I viewed his broadcast on MSNBC. Being from Chicago, I grew up listening to Larry Lujack, Dan Walker – the governor of Rock ‘n Roll – and later on Jonathon Brandmeir and Steve Dahl. Imus wasn’t a Chicago staple.

Of course, Chicago had its fair share of FCC imposed and special interest group inflicted radio personality suspensions but those seemed to work more in the favor of the radio show being yanked from the air than for the government or advocacy group. I predict that Imus’s suspension will work to his advantage in the long run as well. Such is the animal of America’s “car accident” curiosity and sitcom attention span.

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Imus’ selective acts of contrition

-By Michael M. Bates

In terms of media saturation, Don Imus is this month’s Anna Nicole Smith. The radio host has had a good thing going. His program is broadcast on more than 70 radio stations and cable network MSNBC most weekday mornings.

Along with big money, Imus earned standing among politicians and media personalities. Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd announced his presidential candidacy on “Imus in the Morning” last January. Senators Lieberman, McCain and Biden appear regularly. Chris Matthews, Tim Russert and Brian Williams frequently check in.

Imus evidently sees himself as a power player; some pols play along. When Senator John Kerry impugned U.S. soldiers in what he called a botched joke right before last fall’s elections, Kerry cancelled his scheduled appearances elsewhere and called into the Imus program to apologize.
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Director/Actor Kevin Smith To Attack Christians/Republicans in New ‘Horror’ Movie

-By Warner Todd Huston

Is the Clerks and Dogma creator next going to attack middle America, Conservatives, Republicans and Christians in an upcoming movie? It certainly seems so with a recent interview he gave that appears on the moviefan website called Rottentomatoes.com.

Smith, known for his irreverent skewering of conventional mores, seems to be in the midst of production on a horror movie based on a “Fred Phelps” styled character.

UK audiences recently saw documentary journalist Louis Theroux spend time with members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, a controversial church group made largely of members of the Phelps family and run by preacher Fred Phelps. Infamous in America for taking a supremely homophobic stance and for picketing the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq, the group see media interviews as a platform for airing their views and the word of their founder, Fred Phelps.

“That dude has always fascinated me and he’s really informed the horror movie that I’m working on,” Smith told us, “The movie’s called ‘Red State’ and it’s very much about that subject matter, that point of view and that position taken to the absolute extreme. It’s certainly not Phelps himself but it’s very much inspired by a Phelps figure.”

Red State, huh? Can you just guess what that means? “Red” as in Republican, “horror” as in the horror of Conservative ideals? Along with another Smith attack on religion, I can imagine how badly he is going to treat the average American in “flyover” country with this one.

Think I am reading too much into it. Well, read more of director Smith’s interview.
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BBC Says They’re Too Smart For Audience

-By Warner Todd Huston

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) continues to refute claims that they are heavily biased to the left and the State run entertainers deny any claims that they pander to the elites of British society. But a new internal study seems to be saying that the programing “remains too middle class and highbrow and needs to be driven downmarket”. Leave it to the BEEB to imagine that they are somehow too smart for their audience.

Executives at the corporation have always denied that it is a bastion of the liberal elite, pandering to the young, upmarket and metropolitan.

But now they are secretly conceding there may be some truth in the accusations and are drawing up plans to make programmes more populist.

Some “truth in the accusations”? As laughable it is for the BEEB to continue to deny their leftward leaning editorial underpinnings — they “embedded” a reporter with the Taliban to give them positive coverage, for Heaven’s sake — it’s even more outrageous that they imagine themselves the smartest one in the room.
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Al Franken on Letterman: Kyoto Protocols Great for Economy

-By Warner Todd Huston

Failed radio mouth and Senatorial candidate from Minnesota, Al Franken, told David Letterman on the set of the “Late Show” that the USA should reconsider approving the Kyoto Protocols because the treaty is good for the economy — Despite that the ruinous treaty was voted down by a unanimous Senate vote in 1997 for the very reason that it would harm the economy.

To a fawning audience and a rapt host, Franken attacked Bush over the treaty that was voted down before he ever got to office, saying “One of the dumbest things that this president has said — and that is a high bar — is that if we abided by the Kyoto agreement, it would be ruinous to our economy. The opposite is true.”

Franken went on to claim that the Protocols are actually good for the economy because cities that have voluntarily adopted the Protocols are seeing that “the air and water is cleaner and high-tech jobs were being created.”

With his simplistic one size fits all explanation, however, Franken did not elaborate upon how these isolated successes in scattered cities would translate to the entire nation nor did he discuss the fact that some cities might not be as effected by the economic restrictions as others.

Franken claimed that we need to focus heavily on renewable energies saying we need massive new government programs to create them, programs similar to the Apollo space programs of the 1960s.
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Art and Degeneration

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Art historically expressed the highest aspirations of society. In the 20th century art reversed field.

I had the pleasure today of viewing an exhibition of three-dimensional photo collages by Renee Kahn, who has an unerring eye for the artistic aspects of reality. Her subject was “Urban Dreamscapes: Stamford as a Work of Art.”

The occasion was a discussion panel (an artist, an art critic, a film historian-columnist) limning the 20th century setting of art and film as background for Renee’s work.

I was forcibly struck by recurrent themes in their presentations, some intended, some paradoxical.

A dominant theme was art, including movies, as recorder of the degeneration of life quality in the great cities.

What came across, however, was the presenters’ disdain for the source of order that historically had prevented that degeneration before the 20th century.
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Tim Robbins Two

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Stalin recognized that movies in the 1930s had become the most powerful propaganda tool for influencing mass opinion. That’s why he ordered the Communist Party USA to organize Hollywood screenwriters and crafts workers into Communist dominated labor unions.

Labor Unions: Double-Edged Blade described the affinity of actor-director Tim Robbins for Communist labor unions in Hollywood of the 1930s. The message Mr. Robbins conveys in his film “Cradle Will Rock” is essentially the original Communist Party USA (CPUSA) propaganda line at the time setting of the movie.

Seeing the great success of Leni Riefenstahl’s movies in creating public approval for the Nazi regime in 1934 and 1935, Stalin directed that Hollywood be organized to propagandize for the Soviet Union and the Communist cause.

V. J. Jerome, the CPUSA cultural commissar at party headquarters in New York City, sent Stanley Lawrence to Hollywood for that purpose in 1935. The aim was to create a single, industry-wide union that could shut down any Hollywood studio that balked at filming scripts approved by the CPUSA.
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NBC Sitcom, Andy Barker, P.I., Attacks Christians? Says Americans are Reactionary, Racists?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Why is it that sitcoms always go for the cheapest gags? And why is it that those gags are always shibboleths of leftist ideas? Does Hollywood imagine that the left never does anything that can be made fun of? Apparently Conan O’Brien and Andy Richter of the new sitcom “Andy Barker, P.I.” don’t think so, anyway.

In the pilot episode for the new sitcom from NBC starring former Conan O’Brien sidekick Andy Richter, within the first few segments we get one joke that makes Christians out to be mean-spirited and another that presents Americans in general as being reactionary racists post 9/11. In fact, these two jokes are back to back.

In the pilot episode, the main character rents a storefront in a small strip mall styled complex to open his CPA business. He meets the video store Owner downstairs who takes him on a tour to give him the lay of the land of the other shops in the complex.
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Policy makers look to the stars

-By Michael M. Bates

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin is one left-leaning gent, even by Democratic standards. The non-partisan National Journal earlier this month ranked him the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate. In the company of such stalwarts as Teddy Kennedy, Hillary the pantsuit and Barack the empty suit, that’s a noteworthy, if dubious, achievement.

Comparing American soldiers to Nazis, Communists, and Cambodia’s Pol Pot burnished Dick’s credentials. When this inanity was extensively reported, he fell back on what liberals typically do. He didn’t apologize; he simply expressed regret that others may have misunderstood him. The Arab satellite TV network al-Jazeera reported this on its Web site as “US Senator stands by Nazi remark.”
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A Review Of Faith Journey Through Fantasy Lands

-By Frederick Meekins

Few discussions will provoke opinions among believers as heated as whether or not Christians ought to enjoy works of popular fantasy.

On the one hand, some claim believers should avoid these realms of the imagination. On the other, there are those Christians so desperate to justify their interest with a veneer of spirituality that they try to establish one to one correlations between these entertaining stories and Holy Scripture.

“Faith Journey Through Fantasy Lands: A Christian Dialogue With Harry Potter, Star Wars & Lord Of The Rings” by Russell Dalton endeavors to provide a balance between these competing outlooks.

While highlighting the parts of these works that appeal to enduring values, Dalton also admits that neither are these stories themselves Scripture. Rather, he writes, “This book takes an approach that goes beyond a ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ evaluation of fiction and film. It gives the reader a chance to reflect whether or not the behaviors and beliefs of the characters in today’s fantasy stories are consistent with the Christian faith, but it also looks at the questions these stories demand of our faith by entering into a dialogue between these fantasy stories and the Christians story (7).”
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Suze Orman is an expert on what?

-By Michael M. Bates

Being in the same tax bracket as Ralph Kramden, I generally don’t need financial advice. Consequently, my awareness of celebrated money maven Suze Orman is limited. I know she is regularly seen on taxpayer funded television and has written several successful books. That’s about it.

Two weeks ago, C-SPAN aired a Senate hearing on federal college financial aid. Ms. Orman was one of the witnesses. For a person hailed as a monetary guru, it wasn’t an inspiring performance.

Perhaps she should be given the benefit of the doubt. Teddy Kennedy chaired the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions hearing. Getting within breathing distance of that dipsomaniac would be enough to give anyone the vapors, which may explain Suze’s confusion.
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A Review Of Storming Heaven by Kyle Mills

-By Frederick Meekins

Incidents such as Waco, Jonestown, and the Heaven’s Gate suicides prove the unique challenge such sects pose to contemporary society because of the threats they represent to both life and liberty while having to balance the need to protect the innocent from this danger yet recognizing these organizations have a right to operate under the First Amendment provided they have not committed what most reasonable people would consider an actual crime. In Storming Heaven, Kyle Mills examines a number of these issues in the form of an action novel.

In “Storming Heaven“, FBI Agent Mark Beamon must rescue the granddaughter of a deceased cult leader before she is sacrificed to ensure that power within the group remains within the hands of those already running the show unbeknownst to even the late sect leader. But even though this race against the clock provides most of the suspense within the novel, readers will also be riveted by the extent to which some will go to seize control in the name of religion.
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New World Realities!

-By Vince Johnson

I’m currently in the process of moving from the Coast to Aumsville, Oregon and short on time for writing a REALITY FACTOR. Therefore, this issue is an opportunity to relay some startling information prepared by an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota. He is Director of the UCEA Center for Advanced Study Technological Leadership in Education. The following information was obtained from his web page:

  • If you are 1 in a million in China, there are 1,300 people just like you!
  • The 25% of the Chinese Population with the highest IQ’s is greater than the total population of North America. Translation for teachers: They have more honors kids than we have kids!
  • Did you know that China will soon become the number one English speaking country in the world?
  • If you took every single job in America and shipped it to China, it would still have a labor surplus!
  • During the time it takes you to read this column, 60 babies will be born in the USA, 244 babies will be born in China, and 351 babies will be born in India.
  • The top ten jobs that will be in demand in 2010 didn’t even exist in 2004!
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TV Turns Soldiers Into Torturers

-By Warner Todd Huston


The AP has found a new way to attack TV’s 24. They say that because of the depiction of character Jack Bauer’s, shall we say, short-cuts in interrogating prisoners his ways have now infected the US Military. Absurdly, the AP is advancing the case, in “Does Jack Bauer Influence Interrogators?”, that “there are indications that real-life American interrogators in Iraq are taking cues from what they see on television.”

Are they indeed? Says who?

Predictably the AP reports these claims are from the “advocacy group Human Rights First”.

No surprise there, eh?
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For some, Super Bowl ad was nothing to snicker about

-By Michael M. Bates

Commercials are a major reason to watch the Super Bowl for many viewers. Advertisers pay up to $2.6 million for 30 precious seconds and seek the biggest bang for their buck. Having their ads noticed is what it’s all about.

USA Today arranged focus groups Sunday to measure the commercials’ popularity. Beer ads, naturally, ranked very high. Another commercial making the top ten this year was the one for Snickers.

Aired in the first quarter, before Rex Grossman had a chance to really show his stuff, the candy bar ad reminded me of a scene in Walt Disney’s “Lady and the Tramp.” The canine couple is enjoying a spaghetti dinner at Tony’s. Leisurely munching on the same string of pasta leads to a charmingly innocent poochie kiss.

The Snickers’ commercial had two mechanics – neither as attractive as either Lady or the Tramp – working closely together under a car hood. One pops a Snickers bar into his mouth. Then the weirdness begins. The second guy starts munching on the other end. Their lips accidentally meet. Shocked at what’s happened, they decide they need to do something “manly” and commence ripping hair from their chests.

I didn’t find the commercial amusing or offensive, just dumb. I remembered a billboard I saw a few months ago. On it was what appeared to be a picture of a Snickers bar. Rather than the word “Snickers” though, it had “Hungerectomy” shown in the familiar typeface.

At the time I thought that if I were a Snickers executive, I’d look for a better ad agency, one that didn’t associate my product with unpleasant medical procedures. Perhaps the Super Bowl commercial came from the same fertile mind as the billboard.
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CBS Report Uses al Qaeda Propaganda Film, Claims it’s ‘CBS Obtained’

-By Warner Todd Huston

So, here is a question: Why is CBS using propaganda film originally posted on an al Qaeda website and claiming it is merely “CBS obtained” with no mention of the actual source for Lara Logan’s report on The “Battle of Haifa Street”?

The anti-Iraq website called Iraqslogger posted a story about how CBS reporter Lara Logan is crying that CBS seems to have spiked her “Haifa Street” story . Logan has sent out a mass email to all her friends and colleagues in the world of journalism in hopes that they will pressure CBS to show her report that has not yet made it to TV. It has, though, appeared on the internet.

In her email, Logan claims that this story is “largely being ignored” and she asks for her pals to email CBS to get them to air it. But she urged supporters not to mention her “request” to pressure the network to air the piece if they did so. I guess she feels like begging is unseemly…. even though she is doing it anyway.

But, Iraq watcher, Nibras Kazimi a Visiting Scholar at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC., noticed something strange about Logan’s piece.
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Let’s Talk About the Butterflies and the Bees

By Selwyn Duke

Last week many were commemorating Muhammad Ali’s sixty-fifth birthday with a zeal reminiscent of Roman pagans cheering a triumphant Caesar. And as I ponder this, I’m reminded of how people are as quick to forget as they are to condemn.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Ali. Although he knocked the veneer of invincibility off Sonny Liston before I was even a twinkle in my father’s eye, I’m a great fan of history and have watched more boxing retrospectives than I care to mention. I’ve probably seen all of Ali’s notable bouts and, although I’m no Burt Sugar (you know, the guy with the hat and cigar), I’m sure I know as much about the sport as anyone else who was a pugilist for only one day in camp when he was seven years old.

Now, apropos to the topic, it’s time for a rhyme, so enough about me and back to Ali. I do think he was the greatest boxer of all time, and I also believe he was intelligent (not well educated, of course), warm-hearted and, obviously, witty. It’s also true that Ali is deeply devoted to his religion at this point in his life, as evidenced by his words, deeds and frequent prayer. And this is to be expected. Someone with such a cross to bear (Parkinson’s) could find solace only in the more ethereal pursuits.
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CBS News: We Report From the Middle, No Bias Here

-By Warner Todd Huston

When CBS launched their blog Public Eye in Sept. of 2005 they claimed it would give us “the journalists who make the important editorial decisions at CBS News and CBSNews.com” and that those journalists “will now be asked to explain and answer questions about those decisions in a public forum.”

While the jury might be out on the success of their task, we can certainly wonder at their ability to step away from themselves to render balanced judgment. Especially in the case of their recent story, “Biased In Both Directions”, where they declare that the MSM is reporting “in the middle” where it concerns stories about Iraq.

Viewers from the left and right might occasionally be annoyed by the tenor of the coverage, but they gravitated to the evening newscasts anyway, since … they remained more or less in the middle…

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Paper: Conservatives Have ‘No Qualms About Torturing’ Prisoners

-By Warner Todd Huston

Are you a Conservative who likes the TV show “24”? If so, then Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writer Eugene Kane has divined why you like it so much. It’s because you have “no qualms about torturing” prisoners.

In a gratuitous insult to all intelligent Conservatives everywhere, Mr Kane has declared you all to be slobbering Neanderthals who would rather beat your enemy to death with a club than use diplomacy and that the law obviously means nothing to you.

Some speculate one reason “24” is such a favorite of the Bush crowd is that Bauer is presented as a guy with no qualms about torturing his prisoners in order to get information as quickly as possible. In light of criticism the Bush administration gets for its torture policies, it doesn’t take a think-tank expert to see why some hail the show as a breath of clean air.

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