July 23 Notebook

Now That's a Watching Party.  The husband of a contestant on RTL's Press Your Luck 2019 (airing on ABC, produced by the German television network Radio Television Luxembourg) made some crazy tee-shirts for the viewing party when the episode she taped in May debuted.  Contestants of the ten-episode summer third revival of the 1977 Second Chance (ABC daytime) and 1983-86 Press Your Luck (CBS daytime) William A. Carruthers Company and 2002 Whammy! The All New Press Your Luck (GSN) production were told of their air dates afterwards, and a watch party was organised by the contestant's husband.

Ironically, the contestant's opponents ended up with red fur as both of her opponents were disqualified from the game for reaching the Chinese adage why elevators do not carry the number of a certain NASCAR Monster Energy Series champion that won his first race Sunday.  (It's used in Asian-themed cooking shows also why they assign certain number of servings they avoid that number of servings too!)

Is This the Future?  The controversy over the Women's World Cup National Football Team that won it all continues.  But meanwhile, as we see masculine failure around us, the question will arise as more "equal pay" and "equal use of venues" becomes the issue thanks to Title IX, and even research by groups.  In college, a student who was my classmate did his Senior Thesis paper on how Title IX abuse ran him out of his previous college, as he was a wrestler on scholarship and lost his scholarship and his admission to the school as a result of abusing the Patsy Mink Education Act of 1972.  I made a reference in 2012 to the consequences, but after women scored $3,000,000 in the last World Cup and men were BUST (as they say in RTL's Card Sharks bonus round, another classic game show revived for 2019, but I am not a fan of how slow the game is because Joel McHale doesn't do it the way Bob Eubanks and the late Bill Rafferty or Jim Perry did the game), the debate opens.

The controversy over the national football team will be a warning for parents of boys.  The feminine superiority and masculine failure wil lead to the advancement of ideals in high schools, as we see participation of sports by boys drop and girls rise in many states.  Friday Night Lights will soon be girls' high school futbol, with dance teams dancing at halftime.  Boys will soon be losing their entire extracurricular activities as Title IX activists will ensure only girls are allowed to have events, and boys will not.  Dance teams are replacing cheerleading at many schools because it is girls only while cheerleading is becoming coed in order to give boys who are proficient at gymnastics (which for men is a strength sport, as seen in high bars and rings) and want to be in CrossFit (gymnastics activities are required in those events) a chance to participate in strength activities.  In New York, we learned when new schools opened, only girls could have sport activities in the schools to meet Mink Act rules.  Will boys be subject to these heinous rules in new schools first as schools try to appease the wishes of these authorities working to eliminate masculinity?

You wonder what's next.

What Are You Teaching?  Visiting a church in the area after a long day out of town, there is a discipleship training class (which is an evening Bible study before church services).  As we went through Elijah's story of discouragement, somehow Mendelssohn's Elijah came back to my head after reading about "O Rest In the Lord" and "If With All Your Hearts".  Those songs were written from the oratorio based on the Bible.  Compare that to today's modern worship songs based on feelings of the writer, and not a single part from the Bible.  Go figure.  Why are we teaching feelings instead of objective Word?  That's part of the problem in our culture today.

Regietheater Run Rampant.  So MGM/UA and EON have decided James Bond is retiring and will be in Jamaica for the next film, while regietheater freaks have replaced him with . . . someone in the PC world.  This person fits all the checkmarks of the modern progressive movement.  What?

A Tribute.  The Take-No-Prisoners editor of The Washington Times, Wesley Pruden, died Wednesday at 83, hours after just another hard day of work for the legendary editor.  The man who was that newspaper from its 1982 founding all the way to the end of his life just hours after finishing up another day at the office leaves a legacy of a newspaper he edited and knew how to do things.  Sadly, Amazon, which indirectly owns the rival The Washington [BLEEP], left insults at Mr. Pruden's stepchildren that Media Research Network noted.

An appreciation of Wesley Pruden can be found here.

And here is Pruden's last column.

The media gets it wrong AGAIN!

A University of Michigan music professor and his alleged love interest (a relationship that is a SIN per Leviticus 18:22 and Romans 1) were arrested for sexual assault.  But what heavily offended us was how that lover was listed as his "husband" when men cannot have husbands, they can only have wives.  Both men were busted for sexual assault.  And this sin was sin, and as thinking of a vintage television show, it's Truth or Consequences, he exchanged the truth and the consequences is arrest.

Please, AP, it is NOT the man's "husband".  The other man just a perverted live-in lover.

Read these Bible verses to confirm what he did was sin.

"Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination." -- Leviticus 18:22

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them."-- Romans 1:18-32

Figures lie, liars figure

Those of you who've read the TV blog know that I'm entering a chaotic week, preparing to move from Texas back to Minnesota, and I'll be honest that I've got my hands full over the next few days. My updates here will be infrequent and short, but I'm not leaving you in the lurch altogether.

Tonight, I'll just pause a moment to offer this observation. You've doubtless read in the last few days about how President Trump's approval ratings are way down, that people don't approve of his policies during the first ten days of his administration. What I find interesting about this is that these conclusions are being drawn based on the most recent polls.

When last we read about polls, it mostly had to do with how they'd been totally discredited following their disastrous predictions of a Clinton landslide, and how their methodology would have to be completely reexamined. There was even some thought that, in today's world of cellphones and political intimidation, it might be impossible to ever conduct accurate polls on a widespread basis.

My question, therefore, is this: are the polls indicating Trump's unpopularity the same ones that predicted his defeat? If so, why should we believe them now any more than then? Has something changed? Are we to believe they've been totally redone in two months? Or is the media simply counting on our short attention spans to have forgotten all about those old polls? Considering the job the media's done lately, I see no reason to take them seriously now. Do you?

New York Media shows hatred of Heartland's belief in God in light of San Bernardino Shootings

Source:Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times / Polaris 

Breakfast Thursday sounded normal, as would be the Thursday of all Thursdays, but in light of last Wednesday’s horrific terrorist attack in San Bernardino, in the Inland Empire, the shock of a Christmas Party gone rogue resulting in the shooting deaths of 14, then the chase that led to the death of the two assailants left a nation in shambles. Members of the Contender Round in the Republican Chase still remaining (that once-16 strong field has become whittled to 11; it seems there is a NASCAR Chase-style theme – Challenger 17, Contender 12, Eliminator 8, Championship 4 – in the Republican field) expressed thoughts and prayers to the victims.

That, however, left the New York Daily News to show their elite hand in their Thursday edition. The headline was in favour of gun control and mocked the quotes of two members of the GOP Contender Round, the official Leader of the Loyal Opposition (aka the Prime Minister of the United States), and our Senior Senator in a headline that ridiculed America's Heartland in favour of a worldview of the ruling elites. Much in the way Justice Scalia scolded New York elites in their overturning of Constitutions of a three-fifths majority during a famous dissent in June, the New York elites scolded the heartland of America that has a strong belief in God. Albert Mohler reminded listeners in his Briefing commentary Thursday of Genesis 4, where Cain slew Abel, and had his own rebuttal to both the Daily News and The Atlantic, which also bashed the prayerful leadership, citing references to the 1880's in regards to the quotes.

This led to me reminding myself of the United Nations General Assembly where Pope Francis spoke recently, where in front of His Holiness, Shakira performed the John Lennon hit “Imagine,” an anthem of the humanist utopia, a world without God, having been performed at the closing ceremonies of the two most recent Olympic Games held in Europe (Turin 2006, London 2012) and played before the ball drop at Times Square. Here was the Pope, in New York, and a pop diva sang the ultimate insult to those of faith. Now compare that to our little Summer Chorus in June, where we sang Felix Mendelssohn's call for prayer taken from Psalm 55. The New York Daily News had clearly pushed Lennon, while the four leaders mocked by the newspaper, and the majority of Americans, supported Mendelssohn's “Hör Mein Bitten”.  Think over the six lines from this wonderful song (from the English):

Take heed to me! Hear how in prayer I mourn to Thee,
Without Thee all is dark, I have no guide.
The enemy shouteth, the godless come fast!
Iniquity, hatred, upon me they cast!
The wicked oppress me, Ah where shall I fly?
Perplexed and bewildered, O God, hear my cry!

To have the media mock the leaders for asking God to hear our prayers, as in Mendelssohn's beautiful masterpiece that I thoroughly enjoyed singing in June, and effectively picture the vision of the world provided by a pop singer of the 1960's whose surname is a homonym of the founder of the CCCP worshipped by elites who want this nation to turn to the values of the CCCP as superior to those of the nation built on the Bible and the law of God, as De Tocqueville noted.

Is the United States a nation that believes in the godless ideals of the 1960's pop hit, or one of Mendelssohn's passionate cry for prayer?

WORK CITED
Albert Mohler, “The Briefing,” December 3, 2015.

A case of the demise of "religious" radio

The Terri Schiavo case, ten years later, has back in the news locally in South Carolina as part of an analysis of a recent announcement.  The announcement by a radio conglomerate that they were purchasing the local "religious' radio station and flipping it to their California-based commercial format with programming coming from the Golden State had me looking at the Schiavo case because of how that station's downturn was easily seen in my (soon to be) 18 years with the local Pro-Life Weekend (dinner and March for Life, scheduled for January 9-10).

In the early 2000's, the station had started its changeover, when the station ceased its media participation in the March for Life (the dinner was added in the past four years) as they were missing from media row.  They also eliminated news on the hour, and eliminated Biblical expository teachings from notable ministers such as Tony Evans (editor of the current quarter of the SBC's Explore the Bible and who spoke in our state against the massive expansion of the state government by adding a state-run numbers racket), Adrian Rogers (a legendary Memphis pastor, now deceased;  a Fox News personality recently filmed his Christmas show from his church), and current events programming such as Focus on the Family and educational radio programming Adventures in Odyssey.

The Focus on the Family issue broke out in the mid-1990's, but the controversy began when they began to discuss more current events from a Biblical worldview, and that included having their host leave the show after he confessed to an extramarital affair, and was replaced by legendary sportscaster Gary Bender for a few months.  When the show began discussing Roy Moore, the Alabama Supreme Court chief justice whose Decalogue from Exodus 20 in his office and even one outside the Supreme Court of the state infuriated the Humanist Elites, and Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman whose husband wanted to kill her in order to marry another woman (as we now know, cruelly on March for Life 2006, and was mocked by Seth McFarlane with a raunchy segment on his cartoons), the alleged "Christian" station had enough and purged the shows.  The station manager mentioned the audience for the station was 25-44 women who are mothers and rarely attend church, with Top 40-based music being the basis.  This pattern has arrived in modern churches, where many churches have turned into Life Enhancement Centres where the same emotional Top 40 fluff is played at their services as is heard on such radio stations.  The station's push for a lazy listenership where promoting rock concerts became the only thing that mattered it seemed created this mess.  This even was the subject of a 2003 WND article that was cited as stations began this push towards all entertainment, no preaching, teaching, or information.  Would a religious radio station get away with that now?

And now it has come full circle with the sale of that station to a commercial chain group.  Rush Limbaugh warns of "low information voters".  Modern radio's focus on low information listeners is troubling, and this is the result.  A station's demise started when they did not want to participate in Sanctity of Human Life programming in light of the Schiavo case has led to its demise.


WORKS CITED

"Focus on the Family Too Political," WND, 18 December 2003.

"Issues, Etc.," Lutheran Public Radio, 20 August 2014.

Flashback Friday: Public Radio returns to its roots

Local NPR Radio Station Announces New "All Membership Drive, All the Time" Format

(Pocatello , Idaho) -- KSPD, Idaho 's largest public radio station, announced yesterday that it is moving to a new "all membership drive, all the time" format as of March 1st.

Station Manager Philip T. Lucre announced the new format is in response to recent audience analysis. "Our rating figures show that people love membership drives," says Lucre. "The drives might seem like they're boring, tedious, even numbing, but we're finding that people just keep listening. Better yet, they keep sending in money and membership pledges, and we're very happy with that."

KSPD's most recent membership effort resulted in contributions of more than $20 million to the non-profit station, which is also underwritten by major foundations, local business sponsorships, commercials, tax breaks, the sale of services and merchandise, donations from large corporations, and state and federal tax dollars from the American people. "We're not talking golden goose here," said Lucre, "but it's certainly a winning formula, bottom-line, cash-flow wise. We couldn't do what we do without our listener's support. They know we're a non-profit and that we're counting on them."

Why do people keep listening to people asking them to send in money? Lucre believes it creates a drama that people find compelling.

"Our membership drives are great entertainment," he says. "You've got the tension built up by our self-imposed goal deadlines, people wondering if we're really going to make it. You've got the stories and personal testimonies finely crafted by our public relations department. The ringing phones in the background add a certain electricity. It's really good stuff, a lot better than any music, news or intelligent conversation you used to hear on the radio."

Lucre refused to answer questions about KSPD's recent purchase of four additional radio stations in California and Arizona , or its reported majority ownership of new office buildings and a resort casino being built in Winnemucca, Nevada . "We're a large business entity, and we need to maintain solid economic resources," he did say. "And besides, whatever we do has one main goal in mind: to provide the people of Pocatello, Idaho the kind of radio programs that they love and that meet their local needs."

Originally published February 20, 2007

Bad radio

The "homers, screamers, and shouters" on radio have long been a target of this blog. As the collegiate gridiron season starts, last November's Iron Bowl derby (Alabama vs Auburn) showed, oddly, the difference between a professional who has worked at the national level, and a homer. Auburn's Rod Bramblett showed the example of the bad homers, while Alabama's Eli Gold went national on his call, which was appropriate considering he has worked college and pro games (and other events) on a national level. (Mr. Gold was on the CBS roster from 1997-2000, mainly serving as #2 for NASCAR Truck Series races on broadcast while their #1 for Cup races on cable.)

That's part of the reason why I've criticised the lack of national grade radio broadcasters remaining in sport today. It's this level how broadcasting has deteriorated when homers replace national, and yet most television broadcasters in the past came from a radio background, and still keep that radio background in their calls. The big irony is how Mr. Gold used the derby's name in his call, while Mr. Bramblett did not even reference the derby's well-known title.

On Governess Brewer's Veto: Wrong for Arizona, and The Dangers of Deviancy Actions

The recent veto of toughening the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in Arizona by Governess Brewer (see picture at left) was very disturbing.  The Family Research Council called it one of the dirtiest wars in liberalism, where the press used its powers to distort the bill.  Freedom of the press, built on religious liberty, has been destroyed because speech control, part of this Administration's accomplishments in the Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes Act, took place in the advancement of propaganda against it.

One disturbing phrase I have read in recent debates between the Biblical and Humanist Worldview was made by a law professor working now with the Obama Administration, Chai Feldblum, who has publicly said “sexual freedom trumps religious freedom.” Now let's take the worldview of the Left to its full extent regarding this bill, and ask yourself what you would do in light of what has happened in other states that led to Arizona legislators proposing this bill.

Suppose a printer, a devout Southern Baptist, has a printing company, and the company actively is printing Bibles for various churches in the community (most likely a Public Domain version, not one of the numerous copyrighted versions that have appeared in the late 20th century to the present), church order of worship, newsletters for various churches in their community, and flyers for various speakers that come to churches.  Then, there comes a sexual deviancy activism group attempting to bring their “flock of lions” rally (if you remember the nickname of a minor league hockey team and the nasty rivalries in a Southern state in the late 1990's to early 2000's, you will understand the reference – the rivalry was downright nasty at times – the older of the two clubs still exists today and is Boston's AA affiliate today with the team president being a player during that era, and I'll never forget a road game I traveled that went into overtime in the playoffs and the reaction hotter than any football rivalry at the time) to the city, and they ask the printer to print flyers for the event.  The printer inspects the flyer and notes both child pornography other explicit material being featured in the file he was sent, and refuses to print such.

Now that's the issue in question.  None of the major professional sports federations that offer authentic and replica jerseys will permit customised jerseys to feature X-rated custom text.  And a business has a right to refuse printing indecent material if they refuse.  The sign outside the shop specifically says “We reserve the right to refuse printing explicit material or if it is against the law.”

But the deviancy activists sue, demanding the printer print the material.  Their claim, as would be made in the courts, is “Sexual freedom trumps religious freedom, and there are no religious exemptions, as Administration officials have stated.”

Seriously, folks, that is the issue.  Does a Bible publisher have a right to deny a sexual deviancy organisation the right to print child pornography on their printing presses?  Even though child pornography is against the law (and duly so), we know that activists will press to declare even that ban to be illegal and will use courts to advance their cause.  The deviants will almost certainly use the “sexual freedom” chant to force their agenda, and with numerous court victories, will work on their wins against Christians to advance their cause.  And in many states where marriage was redefined by courts or city-state dominated state legislators, the first line attacked is always churches and their related organisations, as we have seen with Catholic Charities and with other groups with adoption and foster care agencies.  At a recent Citizens for Life event, a former Massachusetts resident informed me that after court-ordered redefinition, they pushed sexual deviant couples to the top of the adoption and foster care line, and Bible believers were sent to the end of the line, which effectively allows for deviants to run rampant and perform child abuse on the children they exploit by adopting or caring that they cannot be prosecuted because of “sexual freedom,” as they demand.

It is religious freedom, and this type of issue, that the ill-fated Arizona bill that should have been signed, except for the massive CNN and MSNBC propaganda push that had the tell-tale signs of the CCCP, was designed to protect the Bible publisher from having to print X-rated material they refuse to print.  People need to wake up and understand how sexual deviancy activists are stopping to advance their cause, and prosecuting anyone whose worldview opposes theirs is the signature of the New Tolerance:  Accept Our Worldview Or Be Prosecuted, endorsed by Dear Leader via the Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes Act and his minions of supporters, especially those of no faith that put him over the top.  And thanks to humanist teachings in schools, that group is sadly growing.  What gives for this New Taipei City native whose formative years was spent in parochial schools teaching a Biblical worldview?  Am I headed to jail for refusing to cave to humanism?

Those of us who believe in God's Word should not be treated, as Dear Leader and his minions demand, as teams that play on Al Jazeera instead of being on NBC in the English football pyramid.   ◙

Mid-January reflections

Rookie, Is That Legal? The National Football League has strict policies on items there athletes cannot endorse. 49ers running back Marcus Lattimore, who has been on the "Non-Football Injury List" all year for legal reasons, could run afoul of the NFL's rules against gambling endorsements after he accepted money from a state gambling commission to appear in ads for the state gambling agency. Under League policies, appearing in advertising for gambling is strictly prohibited.

Sir, You Can't Use Your Name. While walking in downtown Charleston over the weekend, the local "Second Sunday on King" had book signings from local media personalities Ken Burger (retired from the local newspaper) and Bill Walsh (weatherman in the Charleston area for over 25 years, initially at WCIV-4 (then an NBC station, and in the early 1980's had Steve Byrnes as weekend sports), but the past 20 at WCSC-5, eventually replacing the legendary Charlie Hall, whom after his death the road leading to WCSC's new studio being constructed at the time was named for the station's first sign-on personality in 1953 -- 2126 Charlie Hall Blvd) with their novels. In order to prevent mainstream confusion for reasons (the late gridiron legend), the popular weatherman has to go under an assumed name for his novel so that nobody knows he works for a television station or his station. (Photo of author W. F. Walsh.)

So Freedom Doesn't Ring, but Adult Language, Adult Content, and Psychological Nudity is Permitted. Sean Hannity's decision to break up from Cumulus Media has led my regional market to lose Sean Hannity, but we now have live three hours of San Francisco's Michael Weiner, Ph. D., and his legendary "The Savage Nation." So freedom won't ring now, but one of the notoriously nasty radio personalities is now on air regionally.

Crazier Denouncements of Pro-Life Groups. The notorious Steve Lefemine came to protest the South Carolina March for Life Saturday. According to his protests, aimed at the National Right to Life and its South Carolina chapter where I marched for the 17th time in 2014, the "road leads to Rome" because the pro-life marchers were Catholic and the affiliation was with Roman Catholics. What does it say when the President of the group and many sponsors are South Carolina Baptists including Convention-affiliated North Greenville University teachers, staffers, and the college-student karaoke performers? You're barking up the wrong tree with your anti-Catholic zealotry, Mr. Lefemine! Furthermore, our speaker this year was David Barton of Wallbuilders -- and he is not Catholic.

Islamic Cheering over Israeli Deaths. The classlessness of many Palestinian and Islamic organisations after high-profile Israeli deaths is poor behaviour that I cannot stand. Eleven years ago we saw it after STS-107 (an Israeli astronaut). With the death of Ariel Sharon, we are seeing numerous cheers and parties by anti-Israel groups. And now we have a college group saying the Holy Land is evil. What is happening?

Bourgeoisie vs Proletariat. So the new Governor of Virginia was elected by the "city-state" of Fairfax, which has effectively turned Virginia into a city-state run by the area near Washington, and he boasts of every leftist cause with codewords to protect "women's rights" (code for "men are bad" and "kill as many babies as you can) and "no matter who you love" (code for driving the church out of the public square and imposing a new state religion that will eliminate God's Moral Law, as we learned from our March for Life weekend). Then you have the socialist New York mayor who wants to ban horse drawn carriages. If it isn't clear now that there is a new "proletariat" of liberal leaders attacking the "bourgeoisie" who believe in a Moral Compass and high standards, it's clear.

Commie Core. A recent report noted how Classic Literature has been replaced by propaganda for left-wing causes in reading classes for Common Core. That is part of the plan to bring more liberals who cannot read, write, do arithmetic, but will feel good and follow in the steps of every leftist cause. ◙

Biases

By Bobby Chang

Search Engines and Political Bias. While searching for the blog of Minnesota Congressman Michele Bachmann, I typed her name in a Google search. The first site that it pointed was a left-wing site that is committed to defeating Mrs. Bachmann in 13 months at the 2010 Congressional Elections. Seems editors want people to toss her out for being on the nose in political issues when the editors want more of the fringe Left in control – they'd want a two-thirds supermajority to pass treaties that surrender sovreignity to other nations. It reminded me of a Democrat political trick in 2000 in South Carolina when liberal leaders decided to cybersquat political opponents by buying domain names of potential opponents so that if you typed their name, you would instead receive a pro-DNC site designed to promote the agenda of the incumbent liberal, James Hodges, who won his election by promoting the expansion of state government with a state-run gambling operation “for the children,” for which the Palmetto State is still hurting today, as the falsehoods of promoting education has resulted in bad schools that many industries will not come to the state, as gambling as a virtue has replaced study, as money has been used to purchase new leftist books and push other teachers' union causes that keep dumbing down schools.

State-Run Gambling, Casinos, and Pete Rose. The idea that a state-run “casino” “for the children” is a virtue has created a sad state of affairs where promoting gambling has become the state's most important ideal, as states envision the state “casino” the biggest revenue maker in the state, more than any industry. What is even worse is we see state-run “casinos” advertise at sports stadia and both radio and television broadcasts across the country alongside Indian and regular casinos. Wasn't it twenty years ago Pete Rose was banned from baseball for his involvement in betting on his own team, and ninety years ago eight members of the Chicago White Sox were involved in a betting scandal at the World Series that would take 86 more years before they won another championship? What would it say today if Pete Rose is banned from the Hall of Fame for betting on his own team, but today's baseball teams are advertising state-run and private casino gambling in the ballparks? A visit to Turner Field on Peachtree Weekend this year proved my worst fear, as I observed the first-base side of the stadium had advertising for an Indian (or as G. Gordon Liddy says, aborigine) casino. Why are stadiums advertising for state-run or other forms of casino gambling when players are told they cannot participate in gambling events?

Media Bias. The Miss America Organisation announced Rush Limbaugh to be a judge at the 2010 pageant, set for January 30 (8 PM EST, TLC). Something just doesn't cut it with it being in Las Vegas, just like the NHL Awards (moved from Toronto) or the NASCAR Sprint Cup banquet (moved from New York). I'm sick of seeing Las Vegas get everything and it seems we are now seeing how gambling is a virtue since Las Vegas is the capital of major events. The Las Vegas Sun even wrote some politically charged leftist slants in the article discussing the rumours. Of course, Mr. Limbaugh as a judge at the pageant should be different than what happened when the Trump Organisation, General Electric, and Vivendi's Miss Universe organisation had when Mario Lavandeira posted a loaded question at the pageant in order to give people who opposed his deviancy agenda a zero. It just doesn't look right to see Miss America held in “hype week” (the week before the Super Bowl) on a basic cable channel in Las Vegas. I miss the days of it being held in September in Atlantic City just two weeks after the Sprint Cup race in September in Florence*.

Speaking of Loaded Questions. A report on The O'Reilly Factor noted Harry Connick Jnr had criticised a “minstrel” show on Nine's Hey, Hey, It's Saturday (Australia) by putting a zero score on the performer. The “minstrel” show in Australia had a group perform in blackface to a Jackson Five routine and one “whiteout” artist performing similarly to the late Michael Jackson in a tribute to the performance on the show many years earlier. What they did not know was they had a Louisiana native as a judge who has learned the minstrel shows are not norms in the States, and they learned cultural differences mattered. And as for Michael Jackson, I cannot believe the local downtown group has a “Michael Jackson tribute” concert set Tuesday, and a dance troupe will have a “Thriller” dance for their Halloween show. Give me a break, I'm tired of the Michael Jackson worship!

Stupid Advertising. An ad that appeared on certain ESPN Web sites posted by the Homestead-Miami Speedway for NextEra Energy Resources SpeedJam (a Grand-Am and IRL race weekend) this weekend has a static image with the IRL logo and the phrase “Sexier Drivers” for people to buy tickets to the event. Here we go again, another group advertising “sex sells” by making a clear reference to all three women of the Indy Racing League, two of which have made risqué pictures, and the third (in her full Nomex uniform) presenting an Indianapolis 500 Showcase (including doing her own speaking parts) on her home-state The Price Is Right (The host and announcer are both from the Cleveland area).

Thought Crimes. The Congressional supermajorities have decided that thought police deserves to be in the Defense Authorisation Bill for Fiscal Year 2010. I've seen this trick before, used on the minimum wage increase of 40% that has caused this economic crisis, and now they are trying to make “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” protected classes, this in essence making child molesters a protected class, and to make the preaching of God's Word a crime if the pastor makes an attempt at saying the truth of sexual deviancy. We've engrained a generation of youth into the idea that alternative lifestyles are legal, and now we are doing everything to push their lifestyles. There will be a similar tactic in another authorisation bill to force us into state-run Communist-style inefficient “health care” that will create rationing and inferior care. And don't forget about the support of ACORN, who stole Norm Coleman's legitimately won seat in the Senate and handed it over to Al Franken to help create the No Debate No Discussion Obama Is The Gospel Congress that makes too many Southern states irrelevant.

Pink Sunday. To a man, pink symbolises either intimidation or their cars. The former was used by Hayden Fry at Iowa by painting Kinnock Stadium's visiting locker room pink, and today has become part of sports lore. Some coaches thought pink would intimidate an opponent, so they would paint (as some stadia have done) the visitor's hallway or locker room pink. The latter is a reference to the “drag racing for pink slips,” (vehicle titles were printed on a pink slip of paper), and led to the inspiration of the title of the illegal street-style drag racing Pinks franchise, and also Gas Money (where the actual retail price of the car is on a pink slip) on The Price Is Right.

Now churches are promoting October 25 as “Pink Sunday” for the Susan G. Komen Foundation, an organisation that has drawn the ire of this blog in the past. At a prayer meeting Wednesday night, we were informed of the Pink Sunday gimmick, wanting everyone to wear pink. When the younger generation is familiar with just tee-shirts of every sports team is suitable church clothing, they will not have any problem fitting with the “in” crowd with pink tee-shirts, especially in a society that believes suits are out and there should be no dress code..

But to betray Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is something I cannot find myself supporting, and having associated myself with the South Carolina Citizens for Life since college, including two National Right to Life banquets, and having met Kathy Troccoli, Steve Mosher, Olivia Gans, Norma McCorvey, Jill Stanek, Vera Lord, Duncan Hunter (senior and junior), Jennifer O'Neill, Wanda Franz, and other champions of the pro-life movement in my twelve years of association with the SCCL and NRLC, I cannot understand why churches think Pink Sunday should be supported when it goes against the Sanctity of Human Life, but considering the day is no longer observed by the White House of Congress, what gives when we're promoting Planned Parenthood at churches but not the Sanctity of Human Life?

* NOTE: Darlington Raceway is in the eponymous Florence suburb, and part of the Florence-Myrtle Beach television market.

The New Media Reform

By Bobby

Media reform is a huge issue now with liberals and the Triple Crown. Here's my top Obama Media Reform Rules.

1. News Corp (Fox News, the New York Post, The Wall Street Journal) and The Washington Times will lose their seats in the White House Press Room and be replaced by Glamour magazine, Al Jazeera, MTV and its homosexual network (where the President allowed a debate, but not Fox), and a member of the Office of Media Control.


2. An attempt to pull an RCTV on the Fox News Channel and Business Network will take place. (RCTV was a private channel in Venezuela seized by Chávez. The signal was given to government propaganda.)


3. The Media Ownership Reform Act, including a Fairness Doctrine, will be cleared, and media policies of Obama will be in play. Fox News Radio, Premiere Radio Networks (Rush Limbaugh, Michael Weiner, Ph.D., Laura Schlessinger), Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and other conservative radio sources will be bounced off-air, replaced by a new wave of music as selected by ACORN and other "community leaders" which will be able to determine what radio groups will have licences. News/talk radio will be seized and replaced with these inferior stations as federal media policy outlaws news/talk radio.


4. The new MORA will also include regulation of satellite radio and cable television to ensure their agenda is the only one permitted. This includes cable and satellite carriers being asked to carry an Obama Channel (see Dish Network).


5. The Office of Media Control will ensure Glenn Beck will not be permitted on television once it voids Glenn Beck's contract with Fox News as part of pulling its licence. (Many journalists have a noncompete clause in their contracts prohibiting them from appearing on a rival station for a time after their contract expires; Jim Gandy (Columbia) and both Bill Walsh and Warren Peper (two different stations in Charleston) were barred from being on-air in those markets when they were bounced from popular stations; both signed with rival stations in the same market to appear after their noncompete expired.)


6. Religious broadcasters will be banned unless approved by the OMC. The Emergent Church (a liberal church that doesn't teach the Bible) will be permitted.


7. MOVEON.ORG will be given propaganda rights to spew propaganda to block Fox News, including hijacking the Fox News Web site, which will be approved by the OMC.


8. Federal media regulators will allow green earth agenda people to order a block on the Fox Broadcast Network on February 15, forcing a 2-hour program promoting liberal propaganda at 2 PM, and a 4-hour Live Earth rebroadcast to air at 4 PM. This will block Fox's broadcast of a major prime-time sporting event scheduled that day (the Daytona 500) and be mandated as part of new federal orders.


9. Radio broadcasts of Händel's Messiah will be purged and replaced by broadcasts of the latest Kwanzaa special promoting Communism. (See Ann Coulter's column about Kwanzaa.)


10. Anyone who spews anything against the Office of Media Control will have their broadcast licence pulled on the spot.

The History We Forget

By Drew

What with the Vice Presidential debate this evening, it seemed like a good time to remember that Sarah Palin is not the first Vice Presidential candidate to come under intense scrutinty - although she might be the first to suffer the kind of character assassination she's endured at the hands of the leftist media and bloggers. The MSM might have you believe that no running mate has ever been so seriously questioned. This is a convenient hook for them. But, of course, it lacks historical perspective.

Back in 1952, the young Richard Nixon, running mate of Dwight Eisenhower, was the subject of a headline in the New York Post: "Secret Rich Men's Trust Fund Keeps Nixon in Style Far Beyond His Salary." Many Republicans urged Ike to drop Nixon from the ticket. The result was called "The Checkers Speech."

Part 1:

Part 2:

You can read more about the background of the speech here. The upshot is that the speech was an enormous success, Nixon remained on the ticket and complied a long (albeit not always glorious) history in national politics, and the Checkers Speech became a part of American history.

That is of course, except for the times when the MSM finds it convenient to forget about it.

Doing Justice to the Justice

By Mitchell

C.J. is the gossip columnist for the Star Tribune (also known as the worst major metropolitan newspaper in America). Judging by her Sunday column, she also fancies herself something of an expert on politics. Witness this, regarding CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin’s appearance in Minneapolis last week:

Toobin is author of "The Nine: The Secret World of the Supreme Court," which is getting good reviews. However, if you only have time to read something shorter from Toobin, make it "UNFORGIVEN: Why is Clarence Thomas so angry?" in the Nov. 12 New Yorker magazine.

After reading it in the company of a source, I wondered aloud if someday Americans would find out that Thomas was off his rocker the whole time he was a Supreme. "Don't we already know that?" the source said.

Funny, but we were thinking the same thing about C.J. . . .

For a more balanced (and more educated) perspective on Clarence Thomas, check out Thomas Sowell’s article at NRO. In particular, savor his comment about “the cardboard image created by the media,” since we get so much of that kind of writing courtesy of the Star Tribune.

Get the Lead Out

By Judith

Much has been discussed in recent months about the amount of lead in different items - especially children's toys - made in China. I don't have any answers, just questions. For example:

Is there more lead in toys now than there used to be?

How much lead was in those now-antique, quaint, metal toys from Victorian times?

How much lead was in the toys that kids of my generation used to play with 40 or 50 years ago?

Were the window sills we all teethed on as toddlers painted with lead?

If there was more lead then than now, why aren't we all driveling idiots, or dead?

Is there more lead allowed in items used in other countries, and, if so, why aren't they all driveling idiots, or dead?

Does more research need to be done on the amount of lead that is risky and just how it affects us?

Is lead the alar (remember Meryl Streep wailing about "the children"?) of our day?

Is the lead scare politically motivated because all these things are made in China?

See, I don't have answers, but maybe the questions are enough for now.

If It's on the Web, It Must Be True

By Mitchell

The big news in sports today is not that Isiah Thomas was found guilty of sexual harrassment. No, the big news is that, according to CNN, there's apparently a new NBA team we weren't aware of, and in the Big Apple, to boot.

It's a team called the New York Nicks (short, one presumes, for Nickerbockers). Is this team owned by Nickelodeon, perhaps? Or maybe, because the team isn't very good, it's their way of saying they aren't worth a plugged nickel.

This obvious typo in the headline has been changed since the initial posting, but thanks to the miracles of technology, we were able to capture the original screenshot:

It probably didn't long for the editors to find this, although I'm somewhat at a loss as to why they didn't catch it in the first place. But, harking back to what Steve wrote about a couple of weeks ago (the "debarked" dog), it really gives you confidence in our media, doesn't it?

Just the Facts...Please

By Steve

All of us who play around with putting words on paper (or Word document) know that it’s not an exact science. We shy away from being too critical of others trying to make a living doing the same. But there do come times when you have to say something, especially when you find it in a newspaper that is supposedly doing straight journalism.

Case in point. Our local Strib ran a story (as I read it in its online version) on Tuesday. A sad, gruesome account about the disturbed man who admitted in court to killing a pet dog and taking part in the beheading of the poor animal. Horrible stuff, but could and should be reported, if only to show that there are shreds of justice and decency left in a pretty tattered world.

Then the story gets just weird, in terms of its description, anyway. The perp is in court, admitting to his heinous act. But we don’t just get the facts, we get much more. Here is the exact copy as it appeared yesterday in the Strib story:

“His voice — hoarse, slightly high-pitched and almost too soft to hear — was reminiscent of a debarked dog.”

What the... a “debarked dog???” In an apparent, close to nauseating, attempt to call forth the spirit of the deceased animal, we get what sounds like a high school sophomore’s attempt at Edgar Allen Poe knock-off.

I tried to be fair, thought maybe I was missing something, looked up my Merriam-Webster and found the only thing close to that word has to do with getting off a ship. I’m still open to correction, let me know if I’m still missing it.

As you can see from the online version that appears today, the "debarked dog" comment is nowhere to be seen. Apparently I wasn't the only one who noticed something was amiss.

Wordplay aside, what happens in this sentence is much more serious. We’re supposedly reading a newspaper account of a court-room scene. We end up with a weird editorial phrase that just makes you wince.

As my wise colleague said, “if you’re going to editorialize in a news story, at least make it well written.” That is strike one, strike two, Star-Tribune.