I've Been Holding Back These Past 10 Days

Since the shooting in Tucson of Gabrielle Giffords and 14 other people, I've wanted to make some kind of comment on it.  But something's been stopping me.

I don't mean the usual "I'm too busy with school to comment" thing that I've been going through the past few months. Which I have -- I'm scheduled to turn in my portfolio and have my teaching certification follow soon after that.  I mean, as much as I send my sympathy out to the victims of the shooting and their families, I've been having a hard time putting into words what I've been feeling about what's been going on in the past week-plus that we've been experiencing. Not about the event itself, but the aftermath.

How would you feel if your values were attacked on a regular basis by a bunch of people who call themselves "journalists?"

Since the shooting, we've experienced a wave of hate from the leftist media that, right from the gate, decided to use this tragedy as a way to attack those on the right, reflecting their own hate onto those of us who don't think the way they do.  There's been times during this whole thing that I've wanted to pull my hair out over this because of how these people want to characterize the right, but I was afraid that I would end up bald before I could teach in a classroom.

Through numerous tragedies, there's often a call to not rush to judgements.  For some reason, before the dust could even settle the liberals watching the news assumed that the gunman had to be a Tea Party member or at least someone in the right wing because Giffords was a Democrat.  And despite the details coming out that the shooter, 22 year old Jared Lee Loughner, was just a kid with a possible undiagnosed mental illness, the liberals would not let go of their idea that this kid had to be a conservative.

They tried to blame a "crosshairs" map that SarahPAC (Sarah Palin's Political Action Committee) had released last year prior to the November election which had Giffords district targeted. It failed because the Democrats had their own "target" map, and liberal gadflys Daily KOS had their own "target" list which also featured Giffords.  They tried to blame political rhetoric from talk radio hosts such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, despite the revelation that Loughner didn't listen to talk radio or watch the news according to a friend.  And despite all the finger pointing in the direction of the right, it's becoming more and more clear that the shooter had no real political agenda but was a sick person that needed help.

I'm at the point where I can't stand listening to liberals anymore.  Because it depresses me.

There are times where I take politics personally.  This is one of those times, because I feel like that my views are being attacked because of something a lone idiot did.

I know that I'm not planning on sitting down and taking it.  I plan to fight.  I will not let the liberal elites knock me down.  I will stand and defend myself and my views.  I refuse to believe that anything I say can cause someone to be violent.  Words may have meaning, but they don't have magic powers.  Those who act on those words in a violent way are deranged, and would be set off if someone said the word "pancake" to them.  Would we have to ban pancakes in fear that someone would act violently?

I needed to get this all off my chest.  It's been weighing heavy on my heart this entire time.  I don't like the idea of being accused of something that is wrong based on my ideology.  And it's been tough going online and reading the stories from those who hate what I stand for.  Well, guess what? I'm not backing down.  And you shouldn't, either.

Helen Thomas Is Retiring Effective Immediately

I'm sure EVERYONE has been following this story since Drudge Report brought attention to it.

Helen Thomas has been a newspaper reporter for a very, VERY long time. She has been a White House Correspondent for just as long. In 2000, she retired from being a reporter, but still remained a columnist. So in honor of her time as a White House Correspondent, Thomas has been given a chair up front and center in the press room.

Well, it's known that Thomas was also very, very, very liberal. And in later years she made no bones about letting this be known. She also has expressed an opinion on one occasion or another about the Israel/Palestinian conflict (which prompted former press secretary Tony Snow, during the GWBush years, to jokingly tell Thomas during a briefing that she was expressing the "Hezbollah view").

Well, over the past few days, the following video has been floating around and gone viral. It was taken last month at a White House event.



Some of the right wing blogs, including Hot Air, didn't think anything would happen to Thomas because of this. She's 89, after all. Would this just god own as the ranting of an old woman who's been in the business way too long, or would she actually suffer some consequences?

Well, let's see:

-- She's been condemned by newspapers and programs all over the US.
-- Her former writing partner has said he won't work with her anymore.
-- A Maryland high school has asked her not to speak at their graduation.
-- Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has called her remarks "Offensive and reprehensible."
-- Her agency dumped her.

And soon after Gibbs' remarks -- Thomas has announced her "retirement" effective immediately.

Hey, what do you know? Actions DO have consequences!

Free Plagarism Checker

I'm going to play around with this a little more, but this is an interesting little device.

I decided to run my article on "The UnFunnies" through it to spot any "potential" plagarism issues. Most of the issues it found were with the original article that I posted. Apparently a couple of times I used the same phrasing in other articles that I wasn't aware of. And in one case, a headline that I had never seen before ended up on the list of sources.

Why did I go looking for a plagarism checker, you ask? Well, because The New York Times had to print a correction today because their business blogger got caught. (h/t Hot Air) It's amazing how easily people don't think that others will check their work.

History Repeating Itself...

(h/t Newsbusters)

This cartoon is from 1934, during the Great Depression. The Chicago Tribune re-ran it recently asking their readers if they thought it rang true today, as well.

I would think so.

Update: How did they know??

Here's Some News for Loyal Citizen Readers

General Manager John Howe is leaving his position as General Manager of the paper and moving on.

The Edwards/Hunter Affair Roundup

There's only one thing you can count on these days -- that the new media is going to be on top of the stories that everyone really wants to know about before the mainstream media decides to jump on it.

This week, it's the Edwards/Hunter scandal. Although covered in blogs and the National Enquirer, the mainstream media neglected to jump on this one until John Edwards (D-rain on Society) tried a half-assed attempt to "clear the air" by trying to cover it up amidst the Olympics on Nightline, not realizing that ABC was going to promote the interview.

The Hot Air Roundup:

Edwards Admits Affair
David Shuster: Silky Should Apologize To The Media!
Campaign Manager Admits Giving Money to Hunter
Hunter's Family Challenges Silky To A Paternity Test
Edwards on Nightline
HuffPo: Edwards Lied to ABC On When He Met Hunter?

The NewsBusters Roundup:

Captionfest: Edwards At The Father of the Year Awards, 2007
LAT Blogger Praises Enquirer Over Coverage of Story
Elizabeth Edwards Apologizes to America at Daily KOS
L.A. Times Writer Rutten: Old Media Dethroned
Edwards Furious ABC Promoted Interview Before 'Nightline' Aired
NY Times: Edwards Scandal "Not Our Style," McCain "Scandal" Is

I Don't Say This Often, but DUDE...

A recent story on adult orphans had a major, major blunder in it.

Even when I was a reporter, I would check stuff like whether someone was gay.

As second-generation Jewish immigrants, Graber's parents were frugal and had worked their way into the upper middle class by running pawn shops. Becoming a psychotherapist and living openly as a gay man, Graber had challenged many of their expectations.

This is the correction that ran in the L.A. Times:

Adult orphans: An article in Monday's Health section that was part of a package on how people handle their parents' deaths focused on Larry Graber, a Santa Monica psychotherapist whose parents died within six months of each other in 2000. Although the article said Graber is an openly gay man, Graber is heterosexual. The reporter misunderstood the name of his partner and misinterpreted references in the conversation, and incorrectly assumed Graber to be gay.

I would think that as many hints that someone drops, I still would have asked just to be sure. There's a saying in journalism, "If his mother says he loves him, double check to be sure." I never assumed anything. This is literally Journalism 101. How in the hell do you make a mistake like this?

(h/t Newsbusters)

What Is The Best NY Post Headline?

Vote here.

The candidates are:

1) Stray-Rod (story about Alex Rodriguez being seen with "mysterious blonde")
2) Bad Heir Day (Astor fortune scandal)
3) Holy Shiite (Newsweek forced to make retraction about Koran in toilet)
4) And the classic...Headless Body Found in Topless Bar

So far, "Bad Heir Day" is winning, with "Headless Body" in second place. That one is my personal favorite, really.

The New York Post was my favorite tabloid when I was living in Brooklyn. Not only were the headlines amusing, but they were also the most conservative of the papers. After I left, I kept up with the goings on there at the paper after Abe Hirschfeld threatened to take over the paper, and a full on staff revolt occured (I still have that week's papers at my mother's house somewhere).

NY Times gets RickRolled

Well, sort of.

A reporter with the Times was doing a story on the year old Internet meme called Rickrolling. For those not in the know, the practice of Rickrolling started with a meme called duckrolling, where people would post links to a thread involving a picture of a duck on roller skates. The Rickroll is similar in that, in which people would post links saying it was to a cool new site or video, but instead they would get the video "Never Gonna Give You Up" by British singer Rick Astley from the 1980s. Carried out in the real world as an example, the group Anonymous "rickrolled" the Church of Scientology by blasting the video from their boombox at the orgs during a protest and singing along and dancing to the song.

One of the sources was a college student at Eastern Washington University who had put up a video of a recent Rickroll during a basketball game timeout. However, the video turned out to be very clever editing on the part of the student -- the incident didn't happen. The reporter in question said that his editor found the video and drew his attention to it.

So it makes me wonder what's going on at the Times, the alleged "newspaper of record," that a college student can punk them into featuring their video in such a minor story.