Thursday, May 29, 2008

Bill O'Reilly and Fox News are in the Tank

O'Reilly's officially lost it. Again.

Claiming that Fox News isn't in the tank for anyone is like me saying that the sky isn't blue and equally demonstrablly untrue.

For months Fox News has been the Anti-Obama network, going so far as to continue to talk about the Rev. Wright issue long after it stopped being news. They continued to talk about how bad and how inexperienced Barak Obama is and conviently ignoring the gaffes by the McCain camp and leaving Clinton gaffes by the wayside within days of them happening.

O'Reilly claims that he would never work for such a network that was in the tank for a candidate.

Well given Fox News history of trying to destroy the candidacy of Barak Obama where is his resignation, as he claimed he would give?

O'Reilly has a documented hatred for NBC. MSNBC is, by their own admission, a left of center news channel. I believe much of this hatred stems from the fact that Keith Olberman is fairly consistent in calling Bill on the times he gets it wrong. Bill doesn't like being wrong, after all he's the self proclaimed master of the "no-spin zone."

The problem here is that Bill uses a dishonest tactic called "ambush journalism". Where-in he sends one of the people in his employ to ambush interview someone when they're with their families, or going to work, or on vacation. If someone doesn't want to be interviewed their right to privacy should be respected, though their are exceptions to this rule (such as the Hall of Shame segments and such consumer protection stories).

The point here is that Fox News has been in the tank for a Hillary vs. McCain Presidential campaign. This can be proven by simply watching Hannity & Colmes or any number of their other programing.

So Bill where's that resignation you said you would give?

That's all for now

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen

End of line

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Giving Up a Soldier's Life, or Another Bush Travesty

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080520/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_quran_shooting

The above story truly sickens me. (BTW the punishment for defacing the quran is death in most middle east countries)

The sniper in the above story shot a book. I'll grant you that it was disrepsectful of him to do so, but he's an American citizen with the same right to free speech as you or me. If this was done on an American military base then there was no crime. Those bases are supposed to count as American soil to an extent but apparently the President would rather appease the Iraqi government instead of standing up for one of his own.

Appeasment. I thought we were supposed to be against that kind of thing Mr. President. What would our stalwart ally, Israel, think of us turning over one of our own like this? What would the 4000 of our own dead soldiers, sacrificed for your war, think of this? What would the 43000 soldiers who you sent back to Iraq, despite being classified as being medically unfit to serve, think of this? Of course the questions are rhetorical. You don't care about them in the least. You claim to give up golf, around the time you're having knee problems conviently enough. But of course even this isn't true as there are photographs of you playing golf after your anouncement that you were making that sacrifice in a show of solidarity with the families of our soldiers.

I, as an American citizen and the son and nephew of veterans DEMAND that you not turn over one of our own like this. I DEMAND that he face American punishment, if any at all, and above all else I DEMAND that you pull our troops out of the farce that is the war in Iraq.

That's all for now

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. Make He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen.

End of line

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

The Nature of Evil

Evil's not a word that we use very much anymore and that's not a good thing. Sometimes it's the only word that can accurately describe a situation. We shouldn't shy away from the Truth of a situation because describing it would make people uncomfortable, that's not honest and it doesn't help solve the problem in question.

Part of the difficulty is that people, by and large, have forgotten what evil really is. I hope, that with this post, I can shed some light on what I think evil is and what we can do to combat it.
One example of evil is the way that the Shank family was treated after Debbie Shank was injured in a horrific accident. She has severe brain damage and needs constant care. Wal-Mart paid for her care until Debbie's husband won a lawsuit on her behalf to help pay for her 24hr care. Wal-Mart then sued the shank family and won because they had a clause in her work contract gave them the right to do so. Their claim was that not only did they HAVE to sue her but they were also being generous and merciful because they were accepting less than they were owed. This is an example of evil. They knew Debbie's condition. They knew that her husband had to divorce her so that she could qualify for medicaid. They knew that her brain damage was so severe that she can't remember that her son died in Iraq and that every time she's told it's like hearing it for the first time.

What Wal-Mart did was evil without question. However the Shank's story was picked up by the media. News shows like Countdown with Keith Olberman showcased this and expressed outrage over the fiendish level of greed that Wal-Mart was showing. This, coupled with consumer outrage (and lots of prayer from Christians I hope) caused Wal-Mart to change their position and, as of today I believe, control over that money is back in the hands of Debbie's ex-husband.
During this story one Glenn Beck actually had the utter temerity to declare that the media was acting like terrorists in the way that they had handled the story. Apparently his stance was that Debbie has signed the contract so she was just out of luck. This attitude and the earlier example involving Wal-Mart itself are examples of the evil of the lack of caring about those who are in genuine need. It's selfishness made manifest and it's an ugly and evil thing.

There's also the evil of trying to lie about someone without actually lying. A good example of this can be found amongst people like Ann Coulter and some other radio personalities (including one who introduced McCain at an event, can't remember his name though) in their continued emphasis on Barak's middle name. Now while it should be abundantly clear to everyone that they're trying to pull a fast one we all know that it won't be.

For those who are wondering this is an example of lying without actually saying the lie. In putting the emphasis on Barak's middle name people like Ann Coulter are, rather coyly, trying to imply that he's a muslim when he's not. When called on it they try to spin the argument to say that they're only using his name and that there's nothing wrong with that.
If that were the case I'd agree but since I know what they're acutally doing I call them on it and call it for what it is. Evil.

To be sure there are other examples of evil in the world. They happen every day in all parts of the world. Murder, rape, child molesters, assault, etc.

How do we combat this you ask?

Well the answer is simple. The first part of combating it is to realize that God loves all of us and sent His only begotten son, Jesus, to die on the cross for all of us, and that on the third day He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. Accepting Him as Lord and Savior is the most important step. (Remember folks I'm a Christian so this point of view really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.)

Second we have to come together and work towards changing society. We have to change the hearts and minds of the people so we stop accepting things like the aforementioned evils. We have to get our hands dirty. We have to treat one another with love and kindness and care for the poor, the sick, the widows and orphans.

If we did all that then the world would be a much happier place to live. At least I think so anyway.

That's all for now.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May He make His Face to shine upon you.
Amen and amen

End of line.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Truth in Media

I realize that titling this entry "Truth in Media" is something of an oxymoron these days but I stand by the title anyway.

Alright now that that's out of the way we can start in on the meat of things.

Fox News (or should that be Fixed Noise) commentator Sean Hannity lied about the election. I realize this comes as something of a shock to regular viewers of Hannity & Colmes but it's still the truth.

Last night Hannity made the ereoneous claim that Hillary Clinton was leading in the popular vote. Well that's not true by a long shot. The math that Hannity presented only works if you include the votes from Michigan and Florida and then only if you give none of the uncommited vote to Barak Obama, keep in mind this is also ignoring the results of the North Carolina election AND ignored the pledge that both parties signed to not count Michigan and Florida. If you give him the uncommited vote then he's STILL in the lead in both popular vote and delegates. Sorry Hannity, as an American with integrity I can't sit by and allow the misinformation you tried to spread last night to stand. It's just not in my nature.

Now I also have to take some other people to task, Ann Coulter I'm looking in your direction since you're one of them.

There are a lot of conservative commentators who insist on using Barak Obama's full name. I'm pretty sure we all know what it is so I'm not going to be baited on that. Now the problem isn't that they keep using it, it's that they put an emphasis on the middle name. When called on it
they smile and say "well it's just his name. There's nothing wrong with it."

Well I call horse manuere on the lot of them. What they're doing is subtle, which is a miracle in and of itself where some of these people are concerned, and it pretty much embodies everything that's wrong with politics today. In emphasizing Barak's middle name they're trying to say that he's a muslin without outright saying he's a muslim. Now I don't know about the rest of you but I think that's pretty slimey. There's some pretty negative views on Islam right now and implying that someone's a muslim for the express purpose of sabotaging their election is just dirty politics. I used to expect better from the conservative movement but I'm growing increasingly disallusioned with the entire process.

It's long past time we called out the various media outlets when we catch them in a lie or doing something dishonest. At least in my estimation anyway.

That's all for now.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May He make His Face to shine upon you.
Amen and amen

End of line.