February 29, 2008
Happy Leap Year Day
I can't pass up the chance to post this. This is the first time since I started my blog that there has been a leap year and a February 29th. So, today let me say "Happy Leap Year Day".
"Breaking News" - A Year Later
Apparently CNN still has the same consultant telling it to lie to it's viewers it did a year ago when I wrote about false "breaking news".
I was at lunch today and the moron producers at CNN ran a story about something that happened in Las Vegas yesterday. Beneath the video of police cars at night at a Las Vegas resort, CNN ran the caption..."Breaking News". To top it off they put up another caption saying "Thursday". So they pretty much admitted the story was old. I guess they were having a slow news day. How can a story that broke yesterday be "Breaking News".
It can't. But in order to attract viewers the consultants tell CNN to put crap like this on the screen even when the story is almost a day old.
I was at lunch today and the moron producers at CNN ran a story about something that happened in Las Vegas yesterday. Beneath the video of police cars at night at a Las Vegas resort, CNN ran the caption..."Breaking News". To top it off they put up another caption saying "Thursday". So they pretty much admitted the story was old. I guess they were having a slow news day. How can a story that broke yesterday be "Breaking News".
It can't. But in order to attract viewers the consultants tell CNN to put crap like this on the screen even when the story is almost a day old.
February 20, 2008
The Angry White Man
I received the following article when I checked email this afternoon after work. The author is a columnist for a Colorado newspaper.
In election 2008, Don’t Forget The Angry White Man
Gary Hubbell
February 9, 2008
There is a great amount of interest in this year’s presidential elections, as everybody seems to recognize that our next president has to be a lot better than George Bush. The Democrats are riding high with two groundbreaking candidates — a woman and an African-American — while the some Republicans are in a quandary about their party’s nod to a quasi-liberal maverick, John McCain.
Each candidate is carefully pandering to a smorgasbord of special-interest groups, ranging from gay, lesbian and transgender people to children of illegal immigrants to working mothers to evangelical Christians.
There is one group no one has recognized, and it is the group that will decide the election: the Angry White Man. The Angry White Man comes from all economic backgrounds, from dirt-poor to filthy rich. He represents all geographic areas in America, from urban sophisticate to rural redneck, deep South to mountain West, left Coast to Eastern Seaboard. His common traits are that he isn’t looking for anything from anyone — just the promise to be able to make his own way on a level playing field. In many cases, he is an independent businessman and employs several people. He pays more than his share of taxes and works hard.
The victim syndrome buzzwords — "disenfranchised," "marginalized" and "voiceless" — don’t resonate with him. "Press ‘one’ for English" is a curse-word. He’s used to picking up the tab, whether it’s the company Christmas party, three sets of braces, three college educations or a beautiful wedding.
He believes the Constitution is to be interpreted literally, not as a "living document" open to the whims and vagaries of a panel of judges who have never worked an honest day in their lives.
The Angry White Man owns firearms, and he’s willing to pick up a gun to defend his home and his country. He is willing to lay down his life to defend the freedom and safety of others.
The Angry White Man is not a metrosexual, a homosexual or a victim. Nobody like him drowned in Hurricane Katrina — he got his people together and got the hell out, then went back in to rescue those too helpless and stupid to help themselves, often as a police officer, a National Guard soldier or a volunteer firefighter.
His last name and religion don’t matter. His background might be Italian, English, Polish, German, Slavic, Irish, or Russian, and he might have Cherokee, Mexican, or Puerto Rican mixed in, but he considers himself a white American.
He’s a man’s man, the kind of guy who likes to play poker, watch football, hunt white-tailed deer, call turkeys, play golf, change his own oil and build things. He coaches baseball, soccer and football teams and doesn’t ask for a penny. He’s the kind of guy who can put an addition on his house with a couple of friends, drill an oil well, weld a new bumper for his truck, design a factory and publish books. He can fill a train with 100,000 tons of coal and get it to the power plant on time so that you keep the lights on and never know what it took to flip that light switch.
Women either love him or hate him, but they know he’s a man, not a dishrag. If they’re looking for someone to walk all over, they’ve got the wrong guy. He stands up straight, opens doors for women and says "Yes, sir" and "No, ma’am."
He might be a Republican and he might be a Democrat; he might be a Libertarian or a Green. He knows his wife is more emotional than rational, and he guides the family in a rational manner.
He’s not a racist, but he is annoyed and disappointed when people of certain backgrounds exhibit behavior that typifies the worst stereotypes of their race. He’s willing to give everybody a fair chance if they work hard, play by the rules and learn English.
Most important, the Angry White Man is pissed off. When his job is flooded with illegal workers who don’t pay taxes and his wages drop like a stone, he gets righteously angry. When his job gets shipped overseas, and he has to speak to some incomprehensible idiot in India for tech support, he simmers. When Al Sharpton comes on TV, leading some rally for reparations for slavery or some such nonsense, he bites his tongue and he remembers. When a child gets charged with carrying a concealed weapon for mistakenly bringing a penknife to school, he takes note of who the local idiots are in education and law enforcement.
He also votes, and the Angry White Man loathes Hillary Clinton. Her voice reminds him of a shovel scraping a rock. He recoils at the mere sight of her on television. Her very image disgusts him, and he cannot fathom why anyone would want her as their leader. It’s not that she is a woman. It’s that she is who she is. It’s the liberal victim groups she panders to, the "poor me" attitude that she represents, her inability to give a straight answer to an honest question, his tax dollars that she wants to give to people who refuse to do anything for themselves.
There are many millions of Angry White Men. Four million Angry White Men are members of the National Rifle Association, and all of them will vote against Hillary Clinton, just as the great majority of them voted for George Bush. He hopes she will be the Democratic nominee for president in 2008, and he will make sure that she gets beaten like a drum.
Gary Hubbell is a columnist for the Aspen Times Weekly.
In election 2008, Don’t Forget The Angry White Man
Gary Hubbell
February 9, 2008
There is a great amount of interest in this year’s presidential elections, as everybody seems to recognize that our next president has to be a lot better than George Bush. The Democrats are riding high with two groundbreaking candidates — a woman and an African-American — while the some Republicans are in a quandary about their party’s nod to a quasi-liberal maverick, John McCain.
Each candidate is carefully pandering to a smorgasbord of special-interest groups, ranging from gay, lesbian and transgender people to children of illegal immigrants to working mothers to evangelical Christians.
There is one group no one has recognized, and it is the group that will decide the election: the Angry White Man. The Angry White Man comes from all economic backgrounds, from dirt-poor to filthy rich. He represents all geographic areas in America, from urban sophisticate to rural redneck, deep South to mountain West, left Coast to Eastern Seaboard. His common traits are that he isn’t looking for anything from anyone — just the promise to be able to make his own way on a level playing field. In many cases, he is an independent businessman and employs several people. He pays more than his share of taxes and works hard.
The victim syndrome buzzwords — "disenfranchised," "marginalized" and "voiceless" — don’t resonate with him. "Press ‘one’ for English" is a curse-word. He’s used to picking up the tab, whether it’s the company Christmas party, three sets of braces, three college educations or a beautiful wedding.
He believes the Constitution is to be interpreted literally, not as a "living document" open to the whims and vagaries of a panel of judges who have never worked an honest day in their lives.
The Angry White Man owns firearms, and he’s willing to pick up a gun to defend his home and his country. He is willing to lay down his life to defend the freedom and safety of others.
The Angry White Man is not a metrosexual, a homosexual or a victim. Nobody like him drowned in Hurricane Katrina — he got his people together and got the hell out, then went back in to rescue those too helpless and stupid to help themselves, often as a police officer, a National Guard soldier or a volunteer firefighter.
His last name and religion don’t matter. His background might be Italian, English, Polish, German, Slavic, Irish, or Russian, and he might have Cherokee, Mexican, or Puerto Rican mixed in, but he considers himself a white American.
He’s a man’s man, the kind of guy who likes to play poker, watch football, hunt white-tailed deer, call turkeys, play golf, change his own oil and build things. He coaches baseball, soccer and football teams and doesn’t ask for a penny. He’s the kind of guy who can put an addition on his house with a couple of friends, drill an oil well, weld a new bumper for his truck, design a factory and publish books. He can fill a train with 100,000 tons of coal and get it to the power plant on time so that you keep the lights on and never know what it took to flip that light switch.
Women either love him or hate him, but they know he’s a man, not a dishrag. If they’re looking for someone to walk all over, they’ve got the wrong guy. He stands up straight, opens doors for women and says "Yes, sir" and "No, ma’am."
He might be a Republican and he might be a Democrat; he might be a Libertarian or a Green. He knows his wife is more emotional than rational, and he guides the family in a rational manner.
He’s not a racist, but he is annoyed and disappointed when people of certain backgrounds exhibit behavior that typifies the worst stereotypes of their race. He’s willing to give everybody a fair chance if they work hard, play by the rules and learn English.
Most important, the Angry White Man is pissed off. When his job is flooded with illegal workers who don’t pay taxes and his wages drop like a stone, he gets righteously angry. When his job gets shipped overseas, and he has to speak to some incomprehensible idiot in India for tech support, he simmers. When Al Sharpton comes on TV, leading some rally for reparations for slavery or some such nonsense, he bites his tongue and he remembers. When a child gets charged with carrying a concealed weapon for mistakenly bringing a penknife to school, he takes note of who the local idiots are in education and law enforcement.
He also votes, and the Angry White Man loathes Hillary Clinton. Her voice reminds him of a shovel scraping a rock. He recoils at the mere sight of her on television. Her very image disgusts him, and he cannot fathom why anyone would want her as their leader. It’s not that she is a woman. It’s that she is who she is. It’s the liberal victim groups she panders to, the "poor me" attitude that she represents, her inability to give a straight answer to an honest question, his tax dollars that she wants to give to people who refuse to do anything for themselves.
There are many millions of Angry White Men. Four million Angry White Men are members of the National Rifle Association, and all of them will vote against Hillary Clinton, just as the great majority of them voted for George Bush. He hopes she will be the Democratic nominee for president in 2008, and he will make sure that she gets beaten like a drum.
Gary Hubbell is a columnist for the Aspen Times Weekly.
February 17, 2008
I'm Back
I've been fighting this nasty flu bug for the past week and I really haven't felt much like posting.
But, today I am better and wanted to let the world know I am still here. I have several things I have seen in the past few days that are worth writing about and will do so when time permits. But, for now it's good to be back at the keyboard.
But, today I am better and wanted to let the world know I am still here. I have several things I have seen in the past few days that are worth writing about and will do so when time permits. But, for now it's good to be back at the keyboard.
February 09, 2008
CNN Makes a Huge Mistake
CNN tried to get a jump on it's competition and in the process made a mistake rookie jounalists wouldn't think of making.
CNN was interviewing a Kirkwood resident who was at the council meeting Thursday night when the mayor was shot in the head. After describing the scene, the news anchor asked "what condition is he in have you heard"?
In effect the anchor wanted to report hearsay. The correct way for CNN to report the story was to have a reporter call the hospital for information. I guess CNN doesnt have any telephones. Either that or it's producers are too lazy to work for the story.
CNN was interviewing a Kirkwood resident who was at the council meeting Thursday night when the mayor was shot in the head. After describing the scene, the news anchor asked "what condition is he in have you heard"?
In effect the anchor wanted to report hearsay. The correct way for CNN to report the story was to have a reporter call the hospital for information. I guess CNN doesnt have any telephones. Either that or it's producers are too lazy to work for the story.
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