The last four days of media feeding frenzy

Quartzsite, AZ - Here's a reality check:

• We have a dictator in North Korea that wants to nuke us. Or in lieu of that he wants to sell the weapon to someone else that will.
• You have a team of whack jobs in Iran that want to bring about Armageddon by trying to wipe Israel off the map.
• The US House of Representatives just passed one of the largest tax hikes in history in the name of the Church of Global Warming.
• Our current President makes President Roosevelt look conservative and President Carter look like a genius and is doing his best to destroy our way of life by shoving European style socialism down our throats.

And all we got on the news Thursday night, Friday, Saturday and Sunday was all Michael Jackson all the time. And if we weren't watching the networks wouldn't be covering it.

Does anyone else find this disturbing?

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It is precisely the purpose of the public opinion generated by the press to make the public incapable of judging, to insinuate into it the attitude of someone irresponsible, uninformed.
Walter Benjamin

A new kitty

  
Everyone, this is Scruffy. Scruffy, this is everyone.

Last Friday morning this little hairball was sitting in the middle of the right turn lane on US-19. To leave her there would have been a death sentence. I mean how many of you would have left her sitting there? This kitten barely outweighs her own fur. Her eyes were filled with goop and the inside eyelids were mostly closed. And she had lots of drainage coming out of her nose.

So we took her to the vet before taking her home. As big as my heart is, I won't risk the other animals in the household.

According to the vet, Scruffy:

• Weighs about 2/3 what she should weigh.
• Has an amazing nose and eye infection.
• Was temporarily blind from the above infection.
• Has hook worms.
• Has a scorching case of fleas.

I thought her name should be Lucky.

The little ball of fur had nothing wrong with her that couldn't be cleaned up, so the treatment began. Until today I had no idea there was a 24 hour flea pill. Talk about a weapon of mass destruction. The quantity of dead critters that fell off that little kitten over the next couple hours was amazing.

As of this morning she is eating like a horse. Much of her eyesight has returned and her inner lids are almost completely receded. She sees well enough to pounce on toes wiggling inside socks. Her nose is still runny so she is still isolated from the rest of the animals.

Yet another cat…

- 30 -

"We are not getting another animal!"
- Me

Fire Letterman over Palin family jokes?

According to Fox News, New York State Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb (R) wrote to CBS CEO Les Moonves asking that David Letterman be fired for his slimy jokes about Gov. Sarah Palin and her daughter.

“Firing Mr. Letterman would send a clear message that CBS will not tolerate any of its employees — even an established media figure like Mr. Letterman — making demeaning and degrading comments about women.”
Fox News: New York Lawmaker Calls on CBS to Fire Letterman for Palin Comments

I don't think so.

Letterman's humor catered to the left for many years. I gave up watching Letterman a couple years ago after a couple dozen rations of "Great Moments in Presidential Speeches." Once was funny, twice is for those that missed the gag the first time. Everything after that went beyond satire and humor into disrespect and open hostility toward the President.

I checked with some folks that still watch Letterman. It is interesting to note there are no more "Great Moments in Presidential Speeches" now that President Obama has the reins.

Letterman's comments about Gov. Palin's daughter (I don't care which one he was talking about) are repulsive. I vehemently disagree with his politically fired monologs. But all that has nothing to do with his right to hold those beliefs and say those things. Assemblyman Kolb's call for Letterman's firing is at worse an attempt to bring about official censorship on politically correct grounds. At best it is simply a grab for some face time on the news.

If Letterman losses his gig, it should be due to the one thing that makes all of television go round: Ratings. Not because he stepped on Gov. Palin's toes or violated some indistinct line drawn by the politically correct police.

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I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.
- Voltaire

Attention left leaning commentators, editorialists and bloggers: You're doing it wrong!

The murders of a Kansas abortion doctor and Holocaust Museum guard Stephen Johns were tragedies beyond words. What takes those tragedies to the level of outrage is that each were killed over social disagreements. But those murders became fodder for some left wing pundits to bless us with even more completely irrational finger pointing at all things conservative. 

Numerous writers and talking heads lashed out against Bill O'Reilly after Scott Roeder overdosed on religion and shot late term abortion doctor George Tiller. Each one scolded O'Reilly saying he "created an atmosphere of hate" or "set the stage for violence" by continually calling Dr. Tiller, "Tiller, the Baby Killer." Many went so far as to say O'Reilly should be arrested as an accomplice or at least for conspiracy. Their logic is that Roeder would never have thought it was okay to shoot Doctor Tiller without Bill O'Reilly egging him on through the magic of Cable TV.

After the shooting at the Holocaust Museum once again most of that same group of writers came out blaming conservatives, President George Bush and radio talk shows for creating the climate of hate that makes this sort of inhuman assault possible.  They would have us believe the shooting at the museum would never have taken place if it wasn't for all these mean spirited conservatives and their blatant disregard for the plights of all the recognized victim groups.

Here's a flash for all those pundits.

Blaming Bill O'Reilly or anyone else for the insane actions of an individual completely unknown to them is a cheap shot. Those who did so are not worthy of their trade. They may as well blame Jodie Foster for John Hinckley's assassination attempt on President Regan.

A case can made the other way around. One example is the extensive list of misguided young people that commit crimes from burning brand new Hummers to setting booby traps designed to kill or maim loggers. It is far easier to tie rhetoric handed down by high profile disciples of the Church of Global Warming then blaming conservatives for abortion clinic terrorism or white supremacist whackos.

Come on people, lets get real here. You can't have it both ways.

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"Them Jews aren't going to let [Obama] talk to me."
- Rev. Jeremiah Wright

A story from an e-mail…

I rewrote this from an e-mail I got today. I did so to clean up some grammar and to protect the identity of the production, author and innocent by standers.

Get this. Our permit was good until 5:00 a.m. After the that the street was going to open for morning traffic. As usual we were running late. Every scene required multiple takes and resets. The show runner wasn't helping by continually reminding everyone in ear shot that we only owned the street until 5:00 a.m.

At 4:30 we began striking and we were really short on skilled hands. So we detailed out a couple of AP's to move the movie cars back to the lot so we could lend a hand with other things. We managed to get everything clear of the traffic lanes by 5:03 a.m.

Around 5:15 our off duty police officers came around craft services asking if anyone new what happened to their police cars.

We had one of the AP's run them over to the lot to sort their police cars from the movie cars.

I love it.

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"We have associate producers because someone has to associate with the producer."
- Anonymous

Under the bus

This weekend I learned:

• Always check your sources. It doesn't matter how well you know and trust the source. The fact is they may not check their sources. The wall in the Chicago News Bureau used to read, "If your mother tells you she loves you, check it out." I need to adopt that way of thinking, even in my personal life.  
• The last couple generations have no concept of what freedom means in this country. Nor do they even remotely grasp dangers of forcing people into silence when their words do not toe the politically correct line. To the last couple of generations these are all concepts adjustable to fit the current circumstances. I attribute this to the fact these last few generations have never been in any real danger of loosing any of those freedoms. Most of these are the same people that believe the constitution is a living document.
  
• The politically correct crowd hijacked the word "lynch", limiting its use to racial attacks only. Merriam is going to need to update her dictionary.
  
• I really need to get over the personality defect that compels me to jump in with both feet, ready to go to war whenever and where ever I think someone is being bullied. This is doubly so when someone I care about is the apparent victim.
  
• No good deed goes unpunished.

In the mean time, if anyone needs me I can be found under the back wheels of the bus.

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In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up.
- Martin Niemöller