Racism in the news media

From the LA Times:

Katrina Takes a Toll on Truth, News Accuracy

Rumors supplanted accurate information and media magnified the problem. Rapes, violence and estimates of the dead were wrong.

By Susannah Rosenblatt and James Rainey, Times Staff Writers

First, I am not African American. My grandfather was "passing", but everybody else in my family is white except for a little Native American on my father's side several generations ago. But when I learned, as an adult, what my grandfather went through to become a teacher and then a school principal during the segregated '30's, I was shocked by the stupidity and racist mindset of people who lived "back then". Now, once again, I am shocked at the racism in the news media. You would never hear breathless reporting about baby rape in the aftermath of an earthquake in Japan, or landslides in La Conchita, California, so why did they spread such horrible lies about African Americans?

I'm sick of it all.

IRA has scrapped its arsenal

NEWS STORY: IRA has scrapped 'entire arsenal'

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1997332005

The world is getting to be a better place.  

Stopping Junk Faxes 1

Today I took the first step in stopping junk faxes. This morning I got 5 junk faxes in a row from a company who addressed a fax to "All Employees who own homes in California".

I called the number to ask them to stop faxing me and got put on automatic hold.

I called my State Senator's office, Tom McClintock, and asked what legistlation there was to prevent this sort of attack on my business, and was told a bunch of garbage that looks like it came directly from the Junk Fax Lobbyist Association.

I called the phone company, and was told there was nothing they could do.

Junk faxes take time, materials, and tie up capital equipment. It is not time to make them stop.

They drew first blood.

Exit Plan? Let's be careful about this

In the '70's we were deceived by the communists into believing that we could not win a war against communism in Southeast Asia, and we bailed out of Vietnam. Among the many horrible results of the quick and violent coming to power of the communists was the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge--The Kampuchean Communist Party. Between 1975 and 1979 the communists killed over 1 million people. They were not killed due to U.S. military action: they were killed, mostly in secret, by the Kampuchean Communist Party.

Now we have people with great political and demogogic influence demanding that we leave Iraq, but they are not thinking through the consequences of leaving before a democratic govenrment is in place. There are no good options to democracy. Imagine the consequences to Japan if after we defeated Japan we did not occupy the country and enforce democratic reform. Whatever your view of the reasons for going to war in Iraq, technically the formal war is over and we are there to enforce the development of democracy by keeping the murderers who want to excercise absolute political power from having their way.

If you want to hate Bush and his decisions, you are free to do so, but before you demand an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, tell me how you plan to create democracy after we are gone.

Make your life better

I'm an older guy: 51 years old, a Berkeley graduate, so still sort of a hippie from a now lost generation. When in high school I was an advocate for environmental protection. I went on to get a degree in soil science, a true ecology major. But over the years I have been kind of worn out by silly environmental activists who don't think through their positions. So I don't want to be thought of as an environmentalist, but as a conservationist. God has given us only so much, and we are required to conserve.

This week in central California where I live, gas is topping $3.00 per gallon. That's about $0.80 per liter, so it still isn't absurdly expensive, but being that California has historically been an oil producer and home to many refineries, it is much more than most of us are used to.

Anyway, still being a conservationist, I can't see a reason to burn gas just to go a few miles a day to work. So I looked at my old bike, and thought perhaps I could commute by bicycle. I live in a community with very many steep hills, and my old bike is not right for commuting, so I went out and bought a new bike for the purpose. Now for two weeks I've been riding to and from work, a total of 10 miles a day, with the last mile a tough hill climb. My legs are killing me, but I am getting a workout everyday without paying gym fees.

In the mornings I usually ride past a husky motorcycle cop with his radar gun. On almost every day after I wave hello to him he immediately pulls out to chase down some poor soul who was speeding.

I have to ride by an Andy Gump portable potty and a field spread with manure. I also ride by strawberry fields, and houses cooking breakfast in the morning and dinner in the evenings. I couldn't enjoy the aromas of the outdoors when I as driving in my car.

I can see children playing in the yards and on the streets. I see neighbors working in their yards, and hear the birds. I also see all the flattened road kill and the cigarette butts and garbage littering the streets.

I see other bicyclists, most of whom wear those tight fitting clown costumes that bicyclists like to wear. My bike, shown above, is your standard black bike with a luggage rack, headlight and a little bell, and I wear my business attire (very geeky--I look like a Morman missionary except for the aloha shirt I wear on Fridays). So I don't look like the other bicycle riders, and in fact I think I have only seen one other guy commuting on his bicycle.

But I am saving gas, improving my health, and enjoying the ride. My legs are always sore, because I keep timing my ride home and trying to improve on it, but, hey, I'm a guy and most guys have a testosterone problem that makes us this way.

Such are the little pleasures of riding to work. So get a bike and make you life better.

How to stop Islamic terrorism now

If a 800 pound tiger were sitting in the room with you, would it make sense for you to ignore it? After the London bombing last week, there have been many talking heads telling us the best way to protect ourselves from terrorism, and how we are doing a bad job of it now. But they are ignoring the cause, and there is really only one cause.

Let's take a hard look at the cause of terrorism. First, we are not being attacked because we are in Iraq or Afghanistan. That is a silly leftist political position that ignores the last 30 years of Islamic terrorism that I can remember. We are not being attacked because or our freedoms or our lifestyles or anything else like that. That is a crock of rightist hooey. The Islamic terrorists have no interest in our lifestyle or our democratic freedoms. There is only one reason we are being attacked, and it is the 800 pound tiger that everyone is trying to ignore: we support Israel, and the terrorists cannot tolerate that.

There is one plan that will not only stop terrorist acts against the U.S., but have Islamic women ululating in ecstasy in the streets for CNN, just like they did on September 11th. The mullahs will bless the U.S. and we will thought of as doing the work of Allah. They will love us instead of hate us.

What is this plan? Right now, the only country in the world that is powerful enough to attack and destroy Israel is the United States. If we were to destroy Israel and push the Jewish nation into the sea, all terrorism will stop. Any other approach will fail and the Islamic terror will continue.

So you have to ask yourself: Is this what we want? Do we want to destroy Israel?

Our only answer to that question is no. We have these choices: to battle in Iraq (a war for to build a democratic state in the Mideast besides Israel--and no, it is not about oil--don't be misled--the U.S. has access to plenty of oil without Iraq) and Afghanistan (a war to destroy a terrorist Islamic government) or sit here and accept that there will be inevitable terrorist attacks against us. You may not like it, but that is the way it is. Now, tell my why I am wrong.

Burn, baby, burn

The house has passed legislation making the burning of the U.S. Flag a crime.

Is the burning of a Koran a crime? It is in Saudi Arabia. It's probably punishable by death there. Is burning a Bible a crime? Not here. I have seen high school students rip the pages out of Bibles to roll marijuana cigarettes. Smoking the cigarette is a crime, but not ripping up the Bible to make it.

So we are asked to support elevating the U.S. flag to the level of a sacred object, more sacred than the Bible. We are expected to treat it with respect, and I do, but burning a flag is a very powerful political statement, and I can’t see what the public benefit is to prevent that statement from being made, other than I find flag burning offensive. But other than being offended, I am not harmed if someone burns a flag.

When I was young, the rallying cry of conservatives was "I may not agree with what my opponent is saying, but I would give my life for his right to say it." I could not conceive of burning a flag, but now the House is proposing to give more protection to the flag than to the Bible. Desecrating a flag cannot happen because the flag is not a sacred object. All that burning can do is offend patriotic Americans, like myself, BUT AMERICANS DO NOT NEED PROTECTION FROM BEING OFFENDED. We do demand protection of our right to free speech. We are going to need it to protect our country.

Issues of Life and Death

The deaths of Terri Schiavo and the Pope occurred within a few days of each other. The Pope, as one of his last acts, condemned the murder by dehydration and starvation of Terri Schiavo, who was murdered by her husband with the complicity of the State of Florida.

We can argue about the right to death, freedom of choice, right to life, and a number of other things, but I would like to propose one view that I have not seen elsewhere. That is, the husband, by several acts on his part, not the least of which was violating his marriage vows, should not have had the power of life and death over his wife.

A lot of noise has been made over the law in this matter. The law did not allow for the saving of the life of Terri Schiavo.

Confucius said: "If the people be led by laws, and uniformity sought to be given them by punishments, they will try to avoid the punishment, but have no sense of shame. If they be led by virtue, and uniformity sought to be given them by the rules of propriety, they will have the sense of shame, and moreover will become good."

The parents had asked for custody. The relationship between the parent and the child is the foundation of virtue. This particular relationship between the husband and wife had no virtue, as Terri had been abandoned by her husband.

The claim of her being in a persistive vegetative state has several problems. First, the diagnosis is difficult to make, especially in a brief examination by a court appointed physician. Persons with brain damage sleep quite a bit more than they are awake, and when they are awake they do not exhibit all indications of consciousness. Therefore such a diagnosis can only be made after spending several days with the patient. No physician did that.

But it is irrelevant. If the parents want custody, it should be theirs, as they have a stronger claim to custody than a husband who wants to see their daughter dead. In given the choice between life and death, when the choice is given, choose life. It is rare enough for the choice to be given.

There are too many instances of abuse of wives by husbands, and this was one that ended in the death of a disabled daughter of parents who loved her and wanted her back. There is no virtue in this.

Thanksgiving Proclamation

George Washington

City of New York, October 3, 1789

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and Whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanks-giving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th. day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind care and protection of the People of this country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all the People, by constantly being a government of wise, just and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and Us, and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Support Democracy!

"I don't care about the result. All I care is that we are having an election. This is a sign that things are improving for Afghanistan."

This is a quote from a VOTER in Afghanistan. Democracy will end terrorism.

Media Bias favors Right Wingers

Dan Rather has been demonized by right wing talk radio and bloggers for his use of forged documents to attack President Bush, and the right wing whines about “media bias against conservatives.”

Well, the right wing ought to be grateful. Left wing politicians, such as Clinton, get a free ride from the press, even when they lie under oath about serious sexual harassment crimes. Can you imagine what the press would do to Bush if he were caught in a lie about sexual harassment? There have been no investigations by the press of the charges against Kerry about his war crime admissions, nor about the charge that he used political connections to fabricate a third, sanitized and glorified Silver Star citation. And his brother Senator from Massachusetts, Edward Kennedy, got away free from any investigation of what was likely to be felony drunk driving and homicide with the death of Mary Jo Kopechne.

In contrast, right wing politicians are hammered by the press. And both right wing politicians and the general public are prosecuted by the government ruthlessly. Martha Stewart is serving jail time for not telling the truth to government employees, and although she was never even charged with a crime related to the stock transaction, it is enough that she told a lie. Kennedy lied about Mary Jo Kopechne, and Clinton lied about his sexual harassment, and Kerry lied about atrocities committed in Vietnam, but none of them have been jailed.

But the right wingers (and the general public) should be grateful for this. Since we, the general public, and they, the right wingers, are held to a higher standard, right wingers are much more likely to be honest and honorable. I certainly do not agree with a lot of the righty-tighty viewpoints, but I know I am much more likely to hear the truth out of George W. Bush that John F. Kerry, since there is no investigative reporting in the major media about the truth behind Kerry’s claims.

The leftists cannot field a decent and honorable candidate. Because of the pressure to say whatever you think your audience wants to hear, it is much more work for a lefty than a righty to be honest in politics. Since there is no pressure from the mainstream press for the lefty-loosies to be honest, the honest lefty-loosies are selected against. I think the last of the honest lefty-loosies was Jimmy Carter.

How to create a bogus service record for any presidential candidate

Go to CBS's website and download this document:

http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/BushGuardaugust18.pdf

Now open up microsoft word, set your margins at 1.2 inches on either side, use Times New Roman font, and a 12 font size. Type it out, and you will get exactly the same doucment! CBS's document is a fake. I got this from http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/ and demonstrated it myself.

CBS:

Week after week after week after week, they told lie after lie after lie after lie.

Is this true?

"I remember spending Christmas Eve of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas. The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country in which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real." --John Kerry, Boston Herald Interview, 1986

Now hold your horses. Either this is a bogus quote or Kerry is making a bogus claim. Even I know that Johnson was President on Christmas Eve of 1968... Somebody help me here. Is this quote a fabrication of the vast right-wing conspiracy to destroy the candidacy of a good man, or is John Kerry a left-wing demagogue who will say anything, truthful or not, to make political points. Or is there another explanation?

Berkeley Professor Dings Conservatives for Good Use of Language

I got a kick out of an article in one of my UC Berekely links (http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/10/27_lakoff.shtml) where a professor of linquistics complains that the use of the expression "tax relief" is an unfair usage of language by conservatives. He has gone on to found a "Progressive" think tank.

The word "progressive" is used by left-wingers to describe themselves, as the word itself has positive connotations, (you could thing of the opposite of progressive as "regressive" and that would, of course, mean right wingers.)

The words "tax relief" have a positive connotation: relief from a "burden", so right wingers are providing relief while left wingers are causing a burden.

I love the use of language, but I think someone calling himself a progressive shouldn't complain about his opponents deceptive use of language. Lefty-loosies are no mor "progressive" (as opposed to "regressive") than righty-tighties are, and "relief" was originally used by lefty-loosies to describe social welfare programs. The word has both negative and positive load value.

Prof. Lakoff seems to be tied to political ideology rather than a cold hard look at how he is equally guilty of trying to influence the thoughts of others by the use of language. (Of course, that is what language is for.)

War Criminal for President

First, let me make one thing clear. I do not support Democrats or Republicans. Although there are a few things that I am in deep disagreement with GWB, and it may make it impossible for me to vote for him, I do think George W. Bush is one of the two most courageous presidents in my lifetime, the other being Jimmy Carter. I expect George W. Bush will meet a similar fate.

I am really bothered by Kerry. He is an admitted war criminal who machine-gunned innocent civilians. Although he claimed he was under orders to do so, there have been no records of such orders, and even if there were, if the man had the courage it takes to be President, he would have disobeyed. He went on to make a political career out of being a war criminal! He is supposed to be a good guy because he wasn't a draft dodger? I would rather have a draft dodger for President. (President Carter pardoned all draft evaders the first day in office. That was a courageous act.)

Arthur Renfrew Roberts

My father was Arthur Renfrew Roberts. He was born in 1927 and died in 1978. He suffered from multiple sclerosis and heart disease. Until a few years before his death, he was a well known pediatrician and neonatology researcher.

He worked very hard and died very young.

I've done a web search for his name and found nothing. There should be something about this man, so I am posting here.

He was born in Oakland, California, and grew up in Berkeley. He joined the navy right after high school, and was stationed in Chicago during the last months of WWII. He was trained as a radio technician. The war ended soon after he joined, and he entered U.C. Berkeley. He told me that he wanted to study astronomy, however in his third year at Cal he was accepted to USC medical school and he went directly to medical school without graduating from the undergraduate program.

In medical school he met my mother, Mary Nell Boone. My mother was the daughter of a school teacher and principal in Pasadena, who died when she was 16. My mother married my father when she was 19.

My brother Joe was born when my father was still in medical school or internship. I was born when my father was an intern in the U.S. Navy at Camp Pendleton, right after the Korean war. I was born in 1954. After that we moved to 29 Palms, and then to Hollywood where my brother Danny was born. My father did residency there and at Children's Hospital, Orange. In the late '50's we moved to Fullerton, and my brother Tim was born in 1959 and my sister Emily in 1962.

My father loved his family, but he worked hard, and we never saw much of him until he got sick.

He was awarded "Humanitarian of the Year" once, and received many other awards for his work.

Just one story. When I was a high school student I went into a restaurant with him. The young waitress, a very pretty girl indeed, who was one of his patients when she was younger, said to him: "Dr. Roberts! Don't you remember me?" To which her replied: "Not with your clothes on."

18 May 2004 Initial Entry

Am I the only one who is tired of hearing the right and the left call each other "liars"? I find that word obscence, and I'm sick of it. These people go after each other like two different high school booster clubs. There is no discussion of truth when you dismiss another view as lies.

I don't believe the leftists who say the George W. Bush is a liar. I don't believe the rigth wingers when they say John Kerry is a liar. I want to get accurate information, and I cannot get it from the politically active. Where do I go? Everyone seems to have a political agenda, and do not want to present both sides in a balanced way, which includes the history of a political view.