So where do you get your news?

An interesting fact came up this week in my Poly Sci class. I cannot vouch for the technical accuracy of the following statement, but it makes a good point.

If you take the total script of any major network's primetime news broadcast, and compared it to an average-sized newspaper, the script would equal less text than is contained on the newspaper's front page.

Okay, okay, but does the same hold true for the Daily Show?

Happy Veteran's Day

Yesterday was Veteran's Day. So today I read in the paper that the San Francisco City Council wants to ban military recruiters from city limits. This galls me on a number of different levels, not least of which is the fact that these so-called "enlightened" liberals have the gall to stick their noses up at the very institution that preserves their right to do so.

Now, don't get me wrong... I am probably as liberal as they come (or at least as liberal as they come in my profession and in this part of the country), but unless the people of San Francisco actually believe the United States doesn't need a military, they're just blowing smoke and reinforcing everyone else's impression of them as left-wing whackos. Please guys, as a liberal, don't do me any favors.

And thanks to all of the veterans out there.

Big Oil

I, like probably 99% of all Americans who pay for gasoline, took great pleasure in watching the CEOs of major American petroleum companies squirm in front of Congress last week as they attempted to justify last year's record earnings. And, when confronted with the twin facts that the outragous price of gas has now started to affect the lifestyle decisions of even the sacred middle class, and that Big Oil seems to literally rollong in the dough because of it, I felt justified in feeling that pleasure.

But after thinking about it, I am wondering why, in a Capitalist society that encourages competition at all levels, we're so upset when a small group of shrewd capitalists actually benefit from the system? After all, they did nothing wrong - no one is claiming that somebody created an artificial gasoline shortage, cooked the books, or somehow skimmed off of the top. These executives played the game and they played it well, and it seems to me the losing team is expeirencing a case of sour grapes. To censure them for making profits seems somehow un-American.

Don't misunderstand me; I don't believe for a minute that these august gentlemen actually deserve the scale of compensation they recieve, I'm just trying to say what's good for the goose is good for the gander. Lets not point fingers unless we're willing to point at the system that created Big Oil in the first place. Capitalism is all about economic winners and losers; "fair" or "right" have nothing to do with it.

What an Ass

News Flash - Dateline: Dover, PA. The entire 8-person school board for this small town has been voted out of office, apparently in retaliation for their efforts to force the teaching of Creationism in public school science classrooms. Pat Robertson responded by threatening the town with a natural disaster, and commented that they could "call on Charles Darwin" to help them, as they had rejected God.

This from the same individual who stated several years ago that feminism encourages women to "kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians." Can you spell "Luddite."

One very small step for mankind.... backwards!

Today the Kansas State School Board authorized the teaching of Intelligent Design in high school science class rooms.

Once I got over the initial shock, I became angry, then, and then... just... very... sad. How pathetic. How very pathetic to have such an apparently sizable segment of what we call the most advanced nation on earth not only believe such drivel. And worse, that they are allowed force their backwards beliefs on our children. One Kansas board member even stated that this was a victory for "academic freedom" and that "it gets rid of a lot of dogma that's being taught in the classroom today." Yeah, dogma like scientific method, the principles inductive reasoning, and academic objectivity. And our fearless leader (or should that be Fearless Leader) George W. endorses all of this? No wonder we're in trouble.

I read a great comment on the ID debate in a local newspaper, and, although I can't recall the author (sorry 'bout that...), it went something like this: "I am all for academic tolerance when it comes to teaching alternatives to evolution. And I'd be glad to include intelligent design in any science curricula, anywhere.... as soon as they start to teach Darwin's theories in the Bible." Touche.