The Idiot's guide to News

When the greasy, misogynist pundits prefer circuses, beer over real information, Rome gets dumber...

As pointed out by Michigan Professor Juan Cole's blog, MSNBC news anchor Mika Brzezinski is shown fighting with fellow "journalist" Joe Scarborough on the lead story.

The choice is between Republicans turning against Bush on Iraq and Paris Hilton's release from jail.

Let's see... a global political issue that affects the future of U.S. standing in the world and Middle Eastern disruption...or a story about some spoiled, drunken, coked-out tart who can't keep her pants on let alone stay out of jail for being an asshole.

It's too bad stupidity rests with the "deciders," like Joe Scarborough, who don't know a story of importance from their asshole.

Keep on being real, Mika.

Glenview. Hi, we're in Glenview

I got an interview with the Sun-Times News Group for a Web job in this city, Glenview, IL.

After the interview, I wandered around Chicagoland.

With the help of a very kind homeless lady with excellent customer service (note to CTA: she's looking for a job and is a knowledgeable, friendly face), I used one of Chicago's many Metras to head to the northern village (25 minutes).

I really do see the draw of using commuter train. They pollute little and are on time, which is a far cry from the bus hook-up that made me a tad late this morning.

Commuter rail is a must have here in Madison, especially with daily commutes inward from Milwaukee, Sun Prairie, and Middleton.
On trolley's, I'm not entirely sold...

Anywho, here are some happy sights of Glenview for the kids...

Coulter takes it to the next level - From nonsense to complete nonsense

I do have qualms with some of the fund-raising through 501(c)4's, and use of said funds by the Edwards presidential campaign.

But Ann Coulter had taken it to the nonsensical level, personal attacks such as implying that John Edwards is gay, and that the Edwards couple uses their son's death to raise funds. And don't forget when she said that when she would talk about John Edwards in the future, she'd wish he'd been in a terrorist assassination plot.

Then Elizabeth Edwards took her to task, politely asking her to stop...



Coulter initially denies ever making a personal attack. What?
And then Coulter doesn't distinguish between the sort of attack she made and the sort of criticisms that I have, other policy criticisms.

"She's asking me to stop writing..." says Coulter. What? That wasn't the case.

Of course, it should come as little surprise that she puts things in a black and white paradigm, and that Coulter uses criticism of her actions to go off on some tangent, which has nothing to do with the discussion.

ARGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!! COMPLETE NONSENSE

We should all be aware of the amount of vitriol that we send to partisan opponents.

On the left, Al Franken and Michael Moore are prone to hark on President Bush's problem with alcoholism, or the hijinks of his daughters.

There's enough real criticism of Bush's foreign policy, attacks on civil liberties, No Child Left Behind, cronyism...

The CIA cares about you

Well, I'm glad the CIA finally fessed up to war crimes and spying on anti-war "dissidents." As the New York Times reported, that was decades ago. Wire-taps and toppling foreign governments is all over now, so I can finally be at ease...

The silent revolution

Shirin Ebadi, a bulldoser of Autocrats.
(courtesy of the Associated Press).





Nobel laureate and Iranian human rights lawyer, Shirin Ebadi is railing against Iran's judiciary for giving more lenience to criminals than political dissidents, reports the BBC.

The story at the beginning of this year was on how U.S.-Iranian journalist Parnaz Azima was illegally detained while returning to Iran to visit her mother.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's thugs charged the Radio Farda journalist of "spreading propaganda" on Western airwaves. Azima has since had her passport revoked and had bail set at $500,000.

Ebadi, who has been barred from seeing clients, says Azima's bail is 50 times larger than a confessed rapist. She denounced the situation in a letter to head judge Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi.

Ebadi presents signs that a democratic movement of free speech and individual liberty is alive in Iran.

Her letter is a big deal given the state crackdown. The New York Times reports that Ahmadinejad has sent letters to news editors across Iran warning them not to talk about certain topics, professors were warned about going abroad, and some students have been "disappeared" to prisons.

All the while, Iran's economy is allegedly in a rut as the government hardliners focus on dubious issues. They castigate former moderate President Mohammad Khatami for breaking religious law by shaking an unknown woman's hand. Students are silenced in the interests of national security. !!

Saber rattling by the U.S. administration, hawks and stupid democrats like Lieberman, are only giving Ahmadinejad more of a reason to clamp down.

You know, dumb things like McCain's "Ba Ba Ba, Bomb Iram," are far from the needed soft diplomacy that would recognize dissidents, enact change.

Ebadi has the best retort: "winning an election does not confer the right to rule without respect for human rights."

Divorce court

For most people in Madison, cars as more of a pain than a convenience. This seems to be a growing contention among mid-size and large U.S. cities. But I believe Madison had the first human-automobile divorce proceedings in the Midwest.

The first divorce was at the Orpheum theater, where ride-sharing program Community Car was on tap to register new customers.

"'Own less and live more,' is the Community Car motto," says newly divorced Brent Sainsbury to thedailypage.

New Isthmus intern James T. Travis (and fellow UW J-schooler) got more of the details.

Here's some photos of the new divorcees.



And an article by Bill Novak at The Capital Times.

Hip Hop Jesus

This is a little late...

But Saturday brought some Christian spoken word, with a multi-ethnic audience clapping along. I have to say that I'm skeptical when I hear people preaching about Jesus on Library Mall.

You can run into people denouncing gay marriage and abortion while holding up pictures of dead fetuses. Usually some drunken fratboys, coupled with a few philosophy majors, are fighting back.

And don't get me started on the baptist accordion quartet. They looked like nice enough gents, smiling and performing Christ-infused polka. That is, until they passed me a illustrated pamphlet on how unbelievers are all doomed to hell.

I digress...

The Saturday hip-hop evangelists were actually refreshing, speaking about such things as faith helping people out of poverty and despair.

"We're not talking about religion, we're talking about love," rapped the emcee as b-boys danced and the crowd clapped. Now that's a message I can respect.

Plus, I got a laugh out of their low-riding wheels.



As the metal band Ministry said, "Jesus built my hotrod."