Monthly Archives: October 2009

CNN in the cellar

Last place in prime time. Is that a surprise? Beats me. I stopped watching them years ago. Glenn Reynolds thinks it’s because of the way they bash or ignore conservative protestors. But that reminds me of a Roger L. Simon piece back in 2006:

"Of course, Blitzer is only a typical representative of his class. Nothing special or exceptional in any way, except for his success and longevity. Now some people call this class the ‘liberal media.’ I reject that idea and terminology entirely. There is nothing liberal about them at all. They are a rich, privileged class much like the bourgeoisie in a Bunuel movie (or Moliere, of course). What is ‘liberal’ is only a talking point to preserve their perquisites. Perhaps these values were there at some point, but that was decades ago in another universe. Now the real issues are good tailoring and homes in the country. Nothing should disturb that."

The disturbance has arrived. The viewing audience, well, the surviving portion that has not fled to the Web, is finally catching on and tuning them out. Lefty anti-military they are, for sure, but their sense of elite privilege also comes through clearly. And the CNN version no longer sells. Boo-hoo.

Father and son tackle Texas

A melodious little essay by a father mostly riding with his driving son across the west to Navy flight training at Pensacola, where my nephew also flew:

"Rested then, and once again on our way, a salt tang in the air, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama giving us back some sense of forward movement after a day hurling ourselves repeatedly against Texas."

Ah, yes, that repeated hurling against the broad width of the Lone Star and its several sharp points. One does that daily, just living here, even in the rolling green hills around home.

Crawling with the Crab, Nebula that is

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Even at a significant fraction of light speed, it looks like getting through this mess would be a challenge: the tangled Web created by a supernova first seen in 1054 C.E.

Still Muttering (by herself)

Another interesting Normblog profile, this time on NYC grandmother-of-three Ann Ulanov, a former rare reader I seldom see or hear from around these parts anymore. I would join the crowd and add a comment to her link to it, but I can never get her comment system to work, even though it’s TypePad which is supposed to be the same as mine but isn’t for some reason. My own is balky enough.

If I could comment I would say, "Ah ha, you work in software. That explains why you change the layout of your blog so often." I also see how well-read and educated she is, which makes me doubly happy that she still touts my book Leaving The Alamo on her front-page sidebar. Though she’s never said nor have I figured out why she considers it non-fiction. No matter. I hope she enjoyed it.

Bring ’em home now

Our troops should come home now from Afghanistan rather than continue risking their lives for a doofus president who’d rather criticise Republicans and the rare unfriendly news outfit and play golf than send them reinforcements. Or, in fact, make any decision at all about their fate. What a bum. (President Pantywaist, as the Brit’s Daily Telegraph calls him). Our war on terrorism clearly is over. Better to face it than continue to squander our soldiers and Marines.

Universal flu vaccine

This development could be bigger news than the latest killer strain, H1N1 or whatever. Course it has a ways to go yet before anyone outside the trials could take it, and FDA approval might slow it down a while longer. But it’s nice to see Israeli research in the vanguard again.

Get well soon, Ella Rose

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Mr. B.’s new cousin (shown here apparently discovering her hand) is in the hospital recovering from a sudden attack of an unknown disease that frightened her parents and grandparents half to death. She is, after all, only about seventy-five days old. A fever of 100.6 was the tipoff and subsequent tests showed her white blood count was seriously high. But, so far, the most awful diseases have been ruled out and she seems to be recovering.