Category Archives: Scribbles

Boring journalism

The Seablogger makes a good point about the liberal media, which explains why FoxNews, the news that liberals and their running buddies in Big Media love to hate, has outstripped CNN and MSNBC combined in viewership: it is not boring. CNN, et al, have the same predictable la-de-da day after day. Comforting to the convinced, I suppose, but not very interesting to anybody else.

I’ve opined before that this could be one of the biggest problems newspapers have today: they are so predictable. Not only do they all look the same, having the same layouts, the same focus, etc., but they have the same NYTimes and WaPo stories on their front pages. We also know they’re all for diversity, multiculturalism, affirmative action, gun control, abortion, illegal immigration from Mexico, and that they just love Barry and Michelle, and distrust Republicans. So where do those who argue with some or all of that stuff–which is a lot of people, altogether–go? Well, the Internet, for one. And FoxNews, for another.

I kind of like it when CNN, et al, attack FoxNews for whatever. That is the way American journalism used to be. Newspapers not only tried to outdo each other, they attacked each other. And made $$$. But that was before credential creep, where every journalist now needs a degree from similar liberal journalism schools to get a Big Media job. Pity them not their decline. They fouled their own nests.

UPDATE:  A perfect example of how in-the-tank CNN is for Barry: You could compare W to Hitler and they’d never bat an eye. Do it to Barry and you get a microphone stuck in your face.

Pigs may fly, but not cheap

It’s about time the porkers who take up more than one seat on an airliner, finally had to pay for their indulgence in sugary foods. Good on ya, United Airlines. I hope you survive the inevitable litigation from the irresponsible obese, including the ones who will claim that they can’t do a thing about it.

Austin’s Tea Party

The liberal daily did a fair job of reporting the local conservative-libertarian rally against anticipated higher federal taxes, the pork-barrel "stimulus," and other "change," which tied up downtown rush hour traffic, drawing people (according to the selected quotes) who had never marched before.

There were none of the overhead crowd photos reported in the conservative blogosphere, however–including the estimated more than ten thousand marchers in San Antonio and St. Louis–which readily show crowd size. Instead, there was an enigmatic quote from the state police that they wouldn’t estimate the size of the Austin crowd "for safety reasons." Huh? Interesting as it all is, I’m still not convinced that it will amount to much in the long run.

Of Liberty And Tyranny

Mr. B.’s grandma, a rare reader who joined us at the rancho for Easter weekend, asked me if I was reading the book "everyone is reading" (meaning conservatives like us) i.e. Mark Levin’s Liberty And Tyranny. I haven’t yet, and probably won’t, until and unless I see that it is actually changing anything. Which I doubt it could.

I’ve read too many similar political polemics already. In this case I have to think it’s like that science book of physicist Stephen Hawking’s, A Brief History of Time. Millions of people climbed on its bangwagon to get a copy, but how many actually read it, or understood it? Much less did anything about it? Different horses, of course, and maybe the Tea Party movement will elevate Levin’s work to practice. The TP has lately become a Left Wing media target of ridicule, which is a start of sorts.

Via Instapundit.

Taxes are for the little people

Mailed our income taxes this morning, a day early for a change. Surprised only at the almost seven thousand dollars we still owed after all the takeouts over 2008. Not surprised at how ridiculously difficult it is to fill out the Form 1040 and attachments. Stuff like, "see page A-14 if your step-mother is a red-haired, gray-eyed Puerto Rican born on Dec. 25, but only except in a Leap Year, in which case you must see page B-23 and subtract $11.98 from the total on Line 66." The pols perennially promise they’re going to simplify this malarky, but they never seem to get around to it. Maybe it’s because they don’t have to low-crawl their way through this muck every April the way the rest of us do.

Double Bird Strike

This is old, but it’s the first I’ve seen it. The best I could do was "cabin manager." Try your luck at dodging birds or landing on the Hudson River. There’s another one, which is a lot harder, here. I crashed, repeatly.

Chron’s new money-maker: sex

I knew some newspaper executives would figure out a way to make money on the Web. I just didn’t stretch my imagination as far as the Houston Chronicle did. Of course, the money is yet to be made and some readers already think it is just tacky.

Via The Brazosport News.