Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Rosie Strikes Again



The emcee of the annual luncheon of New York Women in Communications was non other than Rosie O'Donnell. She lived up to her reputation by delivering her special brand of off-color humor including the "F-word", and "Eat Me!", a reference to her feud with the Donald.

Some of the attendees professed to be offended by Rosie's remarks. Robert Zimmerman, a Democrat activist for progressive causes called her "vulgar and common." I agree she's vulgar but his remark that she is "common" says more about him than her. I believe those kind of remarks are anything but common, but that's beside the point.

Some thought it was fun to watch other people be offended. I don't need to say anything about that.

However, the NY Women in Communications' managing director, Beth Ellen Keyes, expressed the group's overall pleasure in having Rosie appear and do her thing. "She was just great."

O'Donnell's publicist, Cindi Berger, told the New York Post: "When you ask for Rosie, you know what you're getting. She's not a shrinking violet. She's a stand-up comedienne. She says things that are provocative." No kidding.

Let's play a little game. People who attend these functions, watch certain television shows, listen to certain radio broadcasts, do so of their own free will. If they don't want to subject themselves to Rosie's "humor", or see sex and violence on their TV sets, or hear entertainers' humorous remarks or political opinions, they don't have to. So, our game is to substitute the name "Imus" for "Rosie" in Ms Berger's statement above. "When you ask for Imus, you know what you're getting. (S)He's not a shrinking violet. He says things that are provocative."

Lest you think that the attendees were mostly telephone operators, the Women in Communications group included such celebrities as Barbara Walters, Joy Behar, Meredith Vieira, Joan Didion, Arianna Huffington, Nora Ephron, Martha Stewart and Hillary Clinton. Barbara and Joy must be used to Rosie's nasty mouth by now but the others may not have become so jaded. I wonder how many of them railed against Imus' recent provocative remarks. I wonder how many of them will publicly denounce Rosie? Can I count them on one hand? One finger?

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Spring is Sprung the Gras is Riz I Wonder Where the Birdies Is?


Yahoo. The warm weather is keeping me outside. It's much too pretty to be inside writing or reading blogs. I'll check in later; tomorrow it's supposed to rain.

Monday, April 16, 2007

STILL MORE ON IMUS

If you can stand more on the Imus fiasco, read this editorial from THE MANCHESTER, NH, UNION LEADER

The Imus standard: You can't Say That

Radio talk show host Don Imus called Rutgers' mostly black women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos" and got fired. Al Sharpton falsely accused a white man of rape and incited a race riot that left several dead. Jesse Jackson called Jews "hymies." And yet they still mingle at the highest circles of Democratic Party politics.
Imus' comments were indefensible. Even if the women did have tattoos and look a bit street-tough, as Imus was trying to say, calling them whores was an insult too far. But is it a fireable offense for a "shock jock" who has built his career uttering juvenile comments, including regularly making what he calls "n----- jokes"?

What Imus said was a great deal tamer than what is routinely uttered by rappers who call women "bitches" and boast about using and abusing them. It is tamer than the misogynistic and even racist jokes numerous stand-up comics make a living uttering. How did this offensive but comparatively tame comment get a major radio host pulled from the air? Fellow syndicated radio host Neal Boortz has a theory.

Boortz thinks that the Left has finally figured out how to bring down talk radio: accuse the hosts of racism. Unable to compete with talk radio, the Left has opted to play thought police. Racial prejudice is the last free speech taboo in America. Peg a broadcaster as racist, and you can bring him down.

"Liberals see this whole Imus situation as a way to rid themselves of the problem of talk radio ... they will turn their attention to the rest of us. The tape recorders will be running. There is not one single significant right-of-center radio talk show out there that is not going to come under fire."

Boortz has a point. Calling black women "hos" is not offensive to the cultural Left. If it were, there would be boycotts of rap stars and record labels. But if it presents an opportunity to go after a non-liberal talk radio host, the Left will take it. With one notch on their belt, they'll be sure to seek others.

Meanwhile, the same people who demanded Imus' head on a pike will continue to give platforms to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton as legions of rappers provide the misogynistic background music.

Copyright, Manchester Union Leader, 2007

The President is Coming to Town

Wow! This will be important news for residents of our town, Tipp City, Ohio, a community of 9000 plus people, 15 miles or so north of Dayton. For once our little burg will have the spotlight on it. George Bush will be speaking at Tippecanoe High School on Thursday, April 19. What excitement for the students who will get to see him. They can brag to their children about it.

I saw two presidents in my lifetime, Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy. When I was ten years old, we were visiting Gettysburg battlefield nestled in the countryside of Pennsylvania. As we were driving out of the park, a small motorcade, car, drove by. It was a black Cadillac limo and seated in the backseat was Ike. He and his wife had a working farm in Gettysburg, right next to the park. He was an avid golfer and had on his golfing clothes, complete with hat.

My family saw President Kennedy at Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod, in 1962. My father was a civilian working at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, and was sent to Otis Air Force Base for his work. We had good friends stationed there and our family stayed with them. President Kennedy's usual weekend routine was to fly to Otis on Friday, helicopter to his family compound at Hyannis, and reverse that on Monday mornings to return to Washington. Many residents on the base would flock to the airfield to await his arrival. We joined the mini-throng one Monday while we were there and sure enough, out from the helicopter descended John Kennedy. We were probably 150 feet from him but I had my handy camera at the ready and took a few pictures. I was eager to get home and develop the negatives and make the prints in our home darkroom. My dad patiently had taught me how to do the procedures and it was great to watch the image of JFK appear on the photo paper. My camera was not very good and the picture is so grainy that you can't make out his face. However, the posture is definitely Kennedy's. What a thrill.

I hope children of my hometown get as big a thrill out of seeing our current president as I did so long ago. Of course, any photos they take will be nearly instantly available for viewing on home computers or printed out quickly at CVS or Walmart. No chemicals, no careful procedures, no thrill of seeing the image gradually develop in the solution. Digital photography is great, don't get me wrong, but the magic of film is indescribable.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Do You Believe in Hell?

Remember hearing about Dante's Inferno, describing the different levels of Hell?

Take this test to find out where you are headed. Answer the questions honestly. Get ready to burn.

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Third Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:
LevelScore
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)High
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)High
Level 2 (Lustful)Very Low
Level 3 (Gluttonous)High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)Low
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)Low
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)Very Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test


Friday, April 6, 2007

La Pelosi Lallapalooza

What was Nancy Pelosi thinking? Well, I think I know what she was thinking. Being a little drunk on power at the moment, after 100 days as Speaker of the House and undoubtedly thinking that she is technically a heck of a lot closer to the Oval Office than Ms Clinton is, it must have been irresistible to travel abroad (to one of the "axis of evil" countries no less) and pretend to be Head of State for a while. Conduct a little foreign policy, wing it if necessary, politely wear a headscarf, color-coordinated to her modest Armani suit, smile for the cameras, come home to cheering crowds and next year be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Whew! That's a lot of work, even for a woman, to undertake. But alas! Something is amiss! There is criticism of her Nobel, and noble, efforts! The second-in-line newspaper of record, the Washington Post, has compared her trip to a pratfall. Ignoring the direct request of the President not to meet with Syria's dictator Bashar al-Assad, Nancy Pelosi has shown either her ignorance of constitutionally delegated powers or she has decided that they need not apply to a woman of her stature. By circumventing our current diplomatic policy of isolating Assad and attempting to force him to denounce terrorism and prove it, La Pelosi has succeeding in shoring up Syria's terrorist support system and confounding President Bush's efforts to dismantle it.

Now there's a chance that she may go to Iran and start a "dialog" with Ahmadinejad. I remember her campaign slogan "A woman's place is in the house." May I suggest that she go back to Washington, DC, and the House and stay there a while.