The Nutty Professor -- Man inflates scrotum, expands Ward Churchill's ego

Ward Churchill was the featured speaker at this year's Anarchist's Bookfair. While pictures similar to those at this link are familiar to anyone living near a university, the scrotum inflation (yes, it's pictured) is truly one of the more unique forms of protest I've ever seen -- "Stand back or I'll blow myself up!"

Good grief, Charlie Brown.

(via little green footballs)

The economy is looking good

Remember the dire warnings of economic calamity if George Bush was elected instead of John Kerry?

Well, the job market looks good,

and the the GDP is increasing in an economy that "has a tailwind." (This AP report in the Washington Post requires registration, so here are some relevant sentences for convenience.)

The economy closed out 2004 with decent momentum and appears to have picked up some speed since then, raising hopes of a better climate for jobs but also fears of worsening inflation.

The broadest barometer of economic health, the gross domestic product, advanced at an annual rate of 3.8 percent over the final three months of last year, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.

"The economy at the moment has a pretty good tail wind," said Anthony Chan, senior economist at JP Morgan Asset Management.

Tommy Denton buys into fake story? (part 2)

As we mentioned it looks like Tommy may have fallen for another fake-but-real story (remember Dan Rather and the Bush National Guard story?)with his reference to the alleged Republican talking points memo on Terri Schiavo. More doubts on the memo are highlighted at Poynter Online. Power Line says the authenticity of the memo is "going up in smoke."

Dog Blogging

My dog is as cool as Florida Cracker's


"Hey, honey. Nice red cape. Going my way?" 

Be sure to check under your bed

A recent Roanoke Times' editorial on Terri Schiavo expressed no concern for the dying woman, but for the judge deciding her fate. The editorial was strangely similar to commentary written by Paul Krugman, whose thoughts on violent right-wing extremists are examined at Power Line.

Another source of RT editorial staff opinions?

As I lay dying

The Roanoke Times' picked up the grotesque AP piece comparing the death of Tom Delay's father with that of Terri Schiavo and wrote this headline for it: "Tom DeLay agreed to no treatment for ill father, report says." We could not find the article in the RT's online version (a sign of shame?). Q and O lays bare the falseness of that headline and the article's hypocrisy.

Remember this the next time the Roanoke Times uses the words "moral values."

Roanoke Times parade of moonbats continues

It's instructive to note that a challenge to a recent Bush administration decision not to release a study on the terrorist threat to fuel rods is fanned not only by paranoid newspaper editors (see below) but also by The Nuclear Security Coalition a collection of left-wing organizations, at least one of which (Physicians for Social Responsibility) was cited as an authority in recent weeks by a Roanoke Times' editorial.

A sample of other coalition members:

Greenpeace (Ruh oh)
Kids Against Pollution (advice on nuclear power from kindergarteners?)
Nebraskans for Peace
Nuclear Free Vermont
UNPLUG Salem (not a euthanasia group)
etc.

Read the whole list.

Roanoke Times editorials -- paranoia assured?

Today's Roanoke Times' editorial addresses the Bush administration's decision to delay release of a classified report by the National Academy of Sciences discussing how to protect spent nuclear fuel rods from terrorists. There are good arguments pro and con. Reasonable men can differ on issues they all consider important to national security.

Unreasonable men (and women), however, discuss national security in these terms:

"The secret sell-out of nuclear-plant security. Siding with a cost-conscious industry, the Bush administration withholds from the public scientists' fears about spent-fuel storage...The United States has only the administration's assurance that the position it shares with the industry is scientifically reliable. Or that the academy report has been circulated among the officials who need to see it. Which is to say, Americans have no assurance at all."

But at least that's more assurance than we in SW Virginia have of a getting the truth from the Roanoke Times.

Tommy Denton buys into fake story?

Tommy Denton began his Sunday column by referring to a "secret" memo showing that Congressional Republicans tried to use Terri Schiavo's tragedy for political gain. Bloggers have known for over a week that the memo may be fake.

The Nutty Professor

Victor Davis Hanson says it may be all over but the war cries for Ward Churchill, fake Indian, artistic fraud, academic plagarist, and poseur-in-chief.

Many say Churchill is but the tip of an academic iceberg. It's certainly something that has to concern SW Virginia with its cluster of universities and colleges.

Much more on charges of academic misconduct and fraud at Michele Malkin.

And Churchill's therapist offers additional information on this particular Moonbat species, Native Americus Bullshitus.

Somewhere outside Ward Churchill's office --


"Hey, Churchill ever hear the one about the honky pincushion?" 

Kilgore another Jefferson?

Over at The Virginia Centrist, home to two young, twenty-something bloggers:

"Virginians who don't follow state politics more than one month every four years are probably pretty confused after the events of the last few years:
1...
2...
3. Jerry Kilgore announces his candidacy in an extremely high pitched voice."

Hmmm. Look at this from an interview with Jefferson scholar Joseph Ellis, author of "American Sphinx;"

Beyond Books: "He [Thomas Jefferson] was a poor speaker, publicly?"

Joseph Ellis: "He had a very reedy, high-pitched voice, according to commentators, that did not project well...He was simply not comfortable expressing himself with passion and emotion in front of others. Very reserved, very insecure as a speaker."

The history they don't teach these young folks these days. ;-)

Tommy Denton gets that old time (left-wing) religion

In his weekly column yesterday ("Bush’s budget as a failure of moral values"), Roanoke Times’ senior editor Tommy Denton cited extensively to an article by Jim Wallis, "evangelical Christian and editor of Sojourner magazine." Here (so help me God) is the first website I saw when I searched the web under "Jim Wallis."

OK, now that you’ve stopped laughing, here are excerpts from other articles about Jim Wallis:

From the New York Times which requires an online registration – "Democrats Turn to Leader of Religious Left."

From Mother Jones (yes, Mother Jones) – "Is there a lesson [in the last election} for the Democrats? Yes, there is, according to Jim Wallis, editor of the leftish religious magazine Sojourners..."

There are more, but you get the idea.

There is nothing wrong with bringing Jim Wallis’ ideas into public debate (he was one of the guests on Tim Russert’s “Meet the Press” yesterday, opining at one point that George Bush’s reference to Christ in the 2000 Republican primary was phrased in an arrogant way). Salt Lick’s concern is with the continuing lack of intellectual diversity in the Roanoke Times' editorial staff. Denton’s column is yet more evidence that the Roanoke Times editors' reading and sources are almost exclusively left-wing.

Please folks, leave the left-wing journalistic madrassa, read a little more widely, consider opinions different than yours. George Bush is not the infidel, he’s just a man who disagrees with you.

"March is on pace for the lowest monthly U.S. military death toll in 13 months"

Great news you won't see in the Roanoke Times. Let's pray the trend is permanent.

Jesus in the movies

On Friday I visited Blockburster Video, intending to rent "Jesus of Nazareth," starring Robert Powell. Somehow I got "The Greatest Story Ever Told," a better-named but less satisfying (to my mind) version of Jesus' life, starring Max Von Sydow. The mixup turned my thoughts to the subject of Jesus in films.

Here is a link to an extended review and comparison of over 32 movies touching on his life and message. It contains everything from the first "Ben Hur" (1925) to "The Robe," "Jesus Christ Superstar," "The Last Temptation of Christ," and "The Passion."

Happy Easter.

Roanoke Times feeling the pressure?

We found this commentary by Michael Malone at ABC news very interesting in light of the Roanoke Times' advertising for an Online Production Editor.

Malone asks, in part:

So why do newspapers linger on? Why do so many papers refuse to accept reality and metamorphize into real Web presences rather than merely online downloads of their print copy?

He said "web presence." Heh.

Roanoke Times' parent company sued for defamation

Plaintiff seeks 5 million dollars. Suit is against Landmark Communications and the Virginia-Pilot.

(Via SW Virginia law blogspot.)

Navy christens new ships

Lost in the publicity surrounding the lauching of the nuclear-powered submarine named after former President Jimmy Carter:


U.S.S. Boxer, Kennedy, and Byrd 

Heard during christening ceremonies on the Senators' respective ships:

USS Boxer: "You call this a Captain's Quarters? There's not even a g*ddamn latte machine in this room!"

USS Kennedy: "Let us skip the 'Yo ho ho, whatever' formalities and look for the bottle of rum, shall we, gentlemen?"

USS Byrd: "And look at all these young nigra sailors. I love to watch young nigras work... hauling rope... and singing, yes, singing. Do any of you boys know 'Camptown Races?'"

Roanoke Times' political cartoons -- Pictures are worth a thousand words

We've already chronicled a week of Roanoke Times' editorial ad hominem attacks against Bush McHitlerburton. Now look at the paper's choice of political cartoons last week.

These are some angry newspaper people. But at least they're focused.

Sunday, March 20

Jack Ohman on Bolton's nomination to the U.N. 
Jack Ohman

Monday, March 21Cartoon attacking baseball players for steroids and lying.

Tuesday, March 22

Walt Handelsman on Bankruptcy bill 
Walt Handelsman

Wednesday, March 23 Cartoon about Taiwan and China.

Thursday, March 24

Benson on Delay 
Benson

Friday, March 25

Drew Sheneman on Bush 
Drew Sheneman

Saturday, March 26

Jack Ohman on Bush 

Lancet Journal study of Iraq deaths debunked

Only days before the last Presidential election, a front page article in the Roanoke Times screamed that the invasion of Iraq may have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths. Salt Lick doesn't remember on what the RT based that headline (other than perhaps a desperate attempt to sway voters), but the study most often relied upon by the war's opponents, the one in the Lancet Journal has been debunked.

Just thought everyone would want to know.

The experience of dying of thirst

Wittingshire shares information contradicting that Los Angeles Times article about the euphoria of being starved to death.

Good Friday post for Will Vehrs

Bruton Parish Church, Williamsburg, VA 

With my luck, Will is probably Jewish, but regardless, with his being so interested in the Commonwealth and her history, I'd bet a Hardee's Monster burger that in his years at William and Mary he attended a function of some sort at Bruton Parish Church.

Roanoke Times' new columnist (Letting Teddy Drive)

Looks like our concerns about The Roanoke Times replacing libertarian columnist James Lileks with liberal Rick Horowitz were well-founded. Here's a sample from Horowitz's column today:

Culture of Lies. Are you old enough to remember when conservative politicians believed in the separation of powers?...Do you ever suspect that the only thing lots of today's "conservative" politicians want is to conserve is their own grip on power?

Subtle. Nuanced. Note the concern for Terri Schiavo. Wow. Lileks could never match that.

The months when I hate flatlanders

I hate you.

Roanoke Times feels pressure from internet news and blogs?

Looks like they're hiring.

Cries and Whispers in The Roanoke Times news room

Reposted in tribute to reporter Michael Sluss' balanced reporting (so far) on Virginia's governor's race:

(First voice) "What do you mean you can't go out to lunch?"

(Second voice) "Gotta save money."

(Silence)

(First voice.) "You didn't get a Christmas bonus, did you?"

(Silence)

(First voice) "It was that reporting you did on the governor's race -- the one where you said Republicans weren't so bad -- wasn't it?"

(Silence)

(First voice) "You dork! I told you, man -- never, never, NEVER give those guys credit for anything if you're gonna work here. Don't you think maybe there is a REASON the entire editorial staff are Bush-hating, lefty moonbats? Well, don't you? Jesus, where's your g*ddam head, man? Pay attention to what management thinks is important or you're looking at the road. Is that what you want? "

(Second voice) "Did you know a recent study showed that only 39% of adults get their news from newspapers, down from 60% in 1996, and that this newspaper may soon have less subscribers than Blue Ridge Country Magazine," a publication devoted to fun and history in the Appalachian mountains?"

(silence)

(First voice) "OK, shut up and let me have one of those sandwiches."

Starvation -- "...a very smooth, graceful and elegant way to go."

So reads an article carried in today's Roanoke Times (unavailable on-line there, but accessible at The Los Angeles Times website. Since a sign-in process is necessary to access the article, here are excerpts.)

Ceasing Food and Fluid Can Be Painless

By Karen Kaplan and Rosie Mestel, Times Staff Writers

In the evolving saga of Terri Schiavo, the prospect of the 41-year-old Florida woman suffering a slow and painful death from starvation has been a galvanizing force.

But medical experts say going without food and water in the last days and weeks of life is as natural as death itself. The body is equipped with its own resources to adjust to death, they say...

"What my patients have told me over the last 25 years is that when they stop eating and drinking, there's nothing unpleasant about it -- in fact it can be quite blissful and euphoric," said Dr. Perry G. Fine, vice president of medical affairs at the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization in Arlington, Va. "It's a very smooth, graceful and elegant way to go."

But even if [Terri Schiavo's] brain were functioning normally and she were aware of her condition, she would be comfortable, doctors say.

"The word `starve' is so emotionally loaded," Fine said. "People equate that with the hunger pains they feel or the thirst they feel after a long, hot day of hiking. To jump from that to a person who has an end-stage illness is a gigantic leap."

"The cessation of eating and drinking is the dominant way that mammals die," said Dr. Ira Byock, director of palliative medicine at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire. "It is a very gentle way that nature has provided for animals to leave this life."

"Total starvation is not painful or uncomfortable at all." Sullivan said doctors are likely to give some [morphine] to Schiavo, although, "frankly, I think they might as well give it to each other, because it will probably be more painful for them than it will be for her."

U.S. media -- unknowing (?) ally for terrorism in Iraq?

Colonel Austin Bay (ret.) explains how a lack of media perspective encouraged the Iraq insurgency:

Collect relatively isolated events in a chronological list and presto: the impression of uninterrupted, widespread violence destroying Iraq. But that was a false impression. Every day, coalition forces were moving thousands of 18-wheelers from Kuwait and Turkey into Iraq, and if the "insurgents" were lucky they blew up one. However, flash the flames of that one rig on CNN and, "Oh my God, America can't stop these guys," is the impression left in Boise and Beijing.

Saddam's thugs and Zarqawi's klan were actually weak enemies -- "brittle" is the word I used to describe them at a senior planning meeting. Their local power was based on intimidation -- killing by car bomb, murdering in the street. Their strategic power was based solely on selling the false impression of nationwide quagmire -- selling post-Saddam Iraq as a dysfunctional failed-state, rather than an emerging democracy.

Read the whole thing.

(via Instapundit)

Terri Schiavo -- Saying what you feel

Sometimes when you are trying to stay objective and calm, it's satisfying to hear someone else, like Rachael Lucas, give vent to your emotions.

(via protein wisdom)

Roanoke Times reporter -- credit where credit is due

Michael Sluss' report yesterday on Jerry Kilgore's campaign kickoff was a sparkling piece of professional work, as far as the Salt Lick could see. A "just the facts, ma'm" piece of work, this is something we wish we could see more of. If Sluss wrote the article's headline as well ("Kilgore would leave tax raises up to voters"), he may have to do without a Christmas bonus from the Roanoke Times.

Good work, sir.

Iraq -- "We have been brought from darkness to light."

Dean's World carries an amazing array of stories about continuing progress in Iraq and the Middle East. Terrific stuff.

Horowitz replaces Lileks?

A recent letter to the editor of the Roanoke Times thanked the newspaper for replacing libertarian James Lileks' column with that of liberal Rick Horowitz. If this is true, it's a shame, though no surprise. Lileks is recognized as one of the best columnists in America, but his take on things usually runs counter to the liberal slant of the Roanoke Times. As we've pretty well documented, the trend at the RT is to consider less and less the opinions of anyone who disagrees with its world view.

Thus grows fanaticism.

UPDATE: Could anyone beat Lileks' summary of the Schiavo case?

In short: err on the side of life is not a bad motto to keep in mind. This seems simple enough. I respect those who nod, count to three, and offer a soft “however” so that we may refine the particulars. But I don’t have much time for those who hear “err on the side of life” and automatically bristle, because they hear the voice of someone who, damn their black and God-addled brain, once sent $10 to a politician who opposed parental notification law that did not have a judicial review.

Moonbats over Blacksburg

Predictably, the two year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq brought out the Moonbats who cluster in university-heavy Southwest Virginia.

Their appearance reminded me of Bill INDC's ground-breaking study of various Moonbat species in the Washington, DC area.

No word as to whether former House of Delegates Representative and banker Barnie Day joined the demonstrations, or merely satisfied himself by stubbornly clinging, like most Democrats, to the idea that the Iraq invasion was not worth the cost. Of course, most Southern Democrats didn't think it was worth 600,000 dead and millions of wounded to free the slaves, either.

Lincoln lied, men died, you know?

I got to know many of our local Moonbats when I first moved to Blackburg. I attended their protests of the first Iraq War ("Bush is America's Saddamn," "Down with American Imperialism," "No Blood for Oil," "Save the Whales," "Help Steven pay his rent" -- it kinda covered everything). Most of our Moonbats are relatively harmless people who work intermittently, disappear for long periods of time, and believe their activities against imperialist America and Bush McHitlerburton are monitored in Washington so that army special forces might descend on them at any time. Can't wait for the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq when they protest elections in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and Iran.

Emmylou Harris in Roanoke

Emmylou Harris 

Emmylou Harris will appear in Roanoke on April 3, 2005. My how I'd like to go see her, but in recent years appearances by my favorite singers in large venues have disappointed me. I was listening to Emmylou way back in college, when we were both youngsters. I'd guess her appearance in the "Down from the Mountain" tour which highlighted the music of the movie "Oh, Brother" brought her some new fans. It's hard not to love that angel's voice. The fifty-eight year old singer has worn well (and looks well, as you can see).

Roanoke Times sources National Public Radio

Last Sunday, the Roanoke Times began an editorial "National Public Radio broadcast a story..."

That NPR is a biased, liberal institution is fairly well accepted by now. Not long ago we linked to a discussion of bias at NPR and elsewhere by Jay Rosen, Associate Professor in New York University's Department of Journalism, where he observed at Press Think:

For ideas that illuminate the rage out there journalists have to go outside their comfort zones, including the "liberal" zones in press thought. They have to find other sources of insight, and listen to explanations that may at first sound alien.

That article written in response to growing public outrage, and NPR's response to the outrage, that a program funded in part by public money has become so slanted with liberal bias.

There is plenty more discussion of NPR bias throughout the internet. Just type "National Public Radio Bias" into your search engine. Some examples can be found here and
here and here.

So lately we have documented Roanoke Times' editorials citing support from:

-- NPR
-- The New Republic
-- The New York Times
-- The ACLU
-- The American Library Association
-- American Editor, publication of the American Society of Newspaper Editors
-- Vera Institute of Justice (funded in part by Bush-hating billionaire George Soros)

You have to wonder how narrow is the Roanoke Times' "comfort zone." Maybe as narrow as their minds?

Terri Schiavo -- an intolerable dilemma?

I started out reading about this Schiavo thing as a bit of an agnostic. My wife and I have living wills saying we'd prefer not to live under Terri's circumstances. I've slowly come around to the "keep the tube in" postion mainly for two reasons. 1) We have no reliable evidence that Terri would want to be starved, 2) Terri has a loving family -- father, mother, brother, sister -- who consider it a joy, not a burden to take care of her.

Another thing the controversy has made me consider is the idea that Terri's life is not worth living. Maybe that's how some of us honestly feel for ourselves, but what do our preferences for ourselves have to do with Terri? I get the impression that some folks want Terri dead because it challenges their notion that there is no important side of life that resides in the soul.

And that has to be wrong.

Our desires for ourselves shouldn't matter if Ms. Schiavo preferred otherwise. Just because we recoil at the idea of being bedridden and helpless doesn't mean that type of existence is so worthless it should not be lived at all. Is a life's worth to be judged by what it accomplishes, by whether such a life would be "intolerable" for most of us? Who are we to decide for someone else? Take a look at an excellent discussion on this "intolerable dilemma" at Sisu's weblog.

Ms. Schiavo left nothing in writing about what she'd prefer. What we do know is that her family have cared for her for years and are willing to continue doing so. In fact, they are fighting furiously to keep her alive. Absent evidence that Ms. Schiavo would want otherwise, who dares say her existence is worthless and tells her parents you have no right to comfort, commune with and pray for her even if you have given up hope?"

Plenty more discussion at Wizbang and Florida Cracker and a very good article here.

Women's Month

"Put some Elvis on the hi-fi and fetch Daddy's whiskey from behind the shed. It looks like our heroes have really gotten stuck this time." 

I was fortunate to be raised in a family of remarkable women, in particular -- my aunts. Now that I'm older, I realize they were the ones that made big family reunions happen, that "civilized" the men, that planted faith in our hearts, and sometimes, as William Faulkner wrote, just "endured."

Happy Women's Month, ladies, and thank you for keeping the family together. You still make the best desserts in all of Dixie.

Photos of Roanoke Times' "experts?"

Last week the Roanoke Times cited as an authority an organization called
Physicans for Social Responsibility.

Hmmm. Are they in this demonstration here at Wizbang?

Headlines of doom?

The Roanoke Times insists that the bias of its editorial staff, who are uniformly anti-Bush and anti-Republican, never leaks over into the news side of its operations. So when you open up a paper like this morning's you just have to laugh. Let's take a tour of Middle-East related news, as headlined today in the unbiased "news side" of the Roanoke Times:

2 YEAS AFTER INVASION: Iraqis are split between hope and despair

Analysis: Murky future hides end of war. Some analysts say Iraq will need thousands of U.S. troops for years, if not decades, to come

Some say elections have not brought safety

Shave and a haircut: 2 bits -- and your life. Gangs of militants are warning barbers in Iraq that it is forbidden to shave men's beards or do Western-style haircuts

Extremists on both sides could derail peace effort

Conflicting demands stall government

Pledges for democracy subject to budget cuts: The administration has funded democracy in Muslim countries, but virtually nowhere else

Or as liberal reporter Helen Thomas once whined at Bill Clinton during his presidency's darker days, "Mr. President, everything is going down the drain!"

Well, not really. The wonderful thing about the internet and blogging is that the "talk-down model" of journalism, where the mainstream media controls the flow of news to fit their agenda, is crumbling. For readers interested in side-stepping the Roanoke Times' spin, here are some interesting links:

Instapundit links to a study showing the Iraqi population has turned against the insurgency, with stories about great reconstruction projects underway.

Chrenkoff demolishes the AP article about "Iraqis split between hope and despair." Look at his main site, also. He often compiles the good news unreported by the MSM.

Power Line carries a letter from a Marine who tells his father about the remarkable turnaround in security in Fallujah.

Haaretz reports on positive developments between Israel and Palestine.

Oh yes, here is a historic picture of the first Iraqi legislature, guaranteed never to appear in the Ronaoke Times.

And here is other evidence of a hopeful Middle East events. Here, and here and here.

Read these over and ask yourself, as does columnist Charles Krauthammer at Colonel Austin Bay whether anything but shame is left for liberals like those on the Roanoke Times.

Maureen Dowd "in fetish gear?"

David Adesnick, a Fellow of the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, casts a doubtful (and humorous) eye on one of the Roanoke Times' reguarly featured liberal columnists at Ox Blog.

Attention Roanoke Times copy editor -- It's Virginia

On your website, the headline for the Virginia Women's Institute article spells our state's name "Vriginia."

We're just here to help.

UPDATE: We chuckled when we saw you'd changed the headline altogether. We know you're reading. Like you, we have our sources.

Good advice for the Roanoke Times -- journalists must go outside their comfort zones

Jay Rosen, Associate Professor in New York University's Department of Journalism, observes at Press Think:

For ideas that illuminate the rage out there journalists have to go outside their comfort zones, including the "liberal" zones in press thought. They have to find other sources of insight, and listen to explanations that may at first sound alien.

Read the whole thing. Great insight on why the mainstream media fails to see its own bias.

Selectively Chosen Factual Information -- Are We Talking About Roanoke Times' Journalism?

Today's Roanoke Times' editorial is yet another self-righteous, ad hominem attack from the editorial staff, the most vituperative passages of which we will post in the "Roanoke Times Editorial Hall of Shame." Basically, you see, George Bush wants to poison babies. It's not just a disagreement about how to approach a serious problem. It's that he really wants to poison babies.

Or perhaps, what do you say, Lars, maybe the RT wants to be the only one allowed to "slant" the news?

For what it's worth, the editorial cites support for its opinion from Physicans for Social Responsibility. Well, you know...

For more balanced,less hysterical coverage of the mercury pollution debate read this.

Jesse Ventura Wrestles with the Truth at Virginia Tech

We deserve more choices than two. It’s like walking down the soda aisle in the grocery store and when you get to the sodas you only have the choices between Coke and Pepsi.

Yeah, Jesse, but does the other choice have to be Jack Daniels laced with steroids?

From the Collegiate Times -- you gotta see this picture.

More on Ventura here and here, where some folks in his home state have had a bit of fun at his expense and exposed that maybe Jesse isn't quite the truthteller he claims to be. Ahem.

George Soros and the Roanoke Times?

In last Sunday's editorial ("Turning the Spotlight on Prison Conditions") the Roanoke Times tells us that a "privately appointed panel...organized by the New York group, Vera Institute of Justice plans to recommend prison reforms from local to federal levels."

Follow that link and you will see it leads to a website for Soros.org.intiatives. As in George Soros, the renegade billionaire who hates George Bush so much he spent an estimated $26 million dollars trying to defeat him in the last election.

Read it all, and you will gain a window into the mind of the Roanoke Times and what it considers "unbiased."

Roanoke Times Editors Afraid to Think?

It's amazing, but over the last several days the Roanoke Times editorials have cited, as support for their arguments, the following publications and organizations:

-- The New Republic
-- Congressional Budget Office
-- The New York Times
-- The ACLU
-- The American Library Association
-- American Editor, publication of the American Society of Newspaper Editors
-- Vera Institute of Justice (more on this above)

With the exception of the Congressional Budget Office, the guiding philosophy of all of these is liberal-to-left wing. It's truly astonishing to discover that the reading of an editorial board is so lacking in philosophical range. You'd think that for the sake of argument, even to erect a straw man, that the writers could cite to arguments different from their own. Do they ever read "The Weekly Standard," "The National Review," "The Washington Times," or even "The Atlantic Monthly?" Or do they only read opinions that agree with their own?

It's as if the Roanoke Times is intellectually incurious, or dare we use the word -- bigoted?

Roanoke Times And Minorities -- Do As I Say, Not As I Do

Today's Roanoke Times editorial solemnly tells us that while Virginia Tech's recent statement affirming a commitment to diversity is laudable:

...Tech's words will ring hollow unless the state's largest university finds some way to pursue that goal as aggressively as it is does a Top 30 spot among the nation's premier research schools, or a national championship on the football field.

Hmmm. But just how diverse is The Roanoke Times itself?

Heh.

The Nutty Professor Continued

Frustrated by the failure of University of Colorado administrators to properly discipline faux Indian, artistic fraud, and alleged plagarist Ward Churchill, Native Americans take matters into their own hands.

Somewhere outside Ward Churchill's office --


"Six inches higher, honky, and I'll Eichmann you. 

Pitchfork Rebellion in SW Virginia?

Ask the Roanoke Times why their entire editorial staff is left-leaning and they will tell you their mission is "to provoke" Southwest Virginians. The recent appearance of three blogs questioning the Roanoke Times' bias indicates the paper's provocation is working.

Southern Conservative

The Roanoke Slant

and, of course, The Salt Lick.

Attention newspaper moguls: Does this indicate a potentially lucrative market for an alternative newspaper in Southwest Virginia?

Roanoke Times' New Anti-Bush Tactic -- Pushing the Welfare State?

Commonwealth Conservative carries a link to an interesting column by Michael Barone which addresses Democratic attempts to create a European-style welfare state.

This article especially caught Salt Lick's eye inasmuch as he's noticed what might be a trend in the Roanoke Times' editorial page pushing a national healthcare system. Yesterday, for the second time in weeks (see analysis of Feb. 28 editorial here) a Roanoke Times' editorial has hinted that it's time for government to kill "the business" of healthcare:

New thinking is in order -- not just for Medicaid, though, but for the entire health care 'industry.'...[Arnold] Relman, a professor emeritus of medicine and of social medicine at Harvard Medical School, makes a strong argument that the commercialization of medicine underlies its growing deficiences. Medicine is not just a business like any other, and treating it as such has made U.S. health care the most expensive in the world, but far from the most effective.

Is this just another manifestation of Bush-hate at the Roanoke Times? Or is it a sincere philosophical belief that government will run healthcare better than private enterprise? On the other hand, with all the talk of Hillary Clinton being the Democratic Presidential candidate in 2008, coupled with Ms. Clinton's effort to seize control of healthcare during her husband's adminstration, Salt Lick wonders if we are seeing a new front in the war on American freedom at home, just as we are winning the one overseas.

Roanoke Times Continues Throwing Turds in the Punchbowl

The political cartoon on today's Roanoke Times' editorial page depicts a happy George Bush gardening amongst flowers labeled "Mideast Freedom," but sniffing the air from the perfume of two skunks behind him labeled "Iran" and "Syria."

This is just sad. The momentum all over the Middle East is for freedom, and all the Roanoke Times can do is throw a turd in the punchbowl. The hopeful stories are everywhere, too numerous to link, but interested readers merely need to visit Instapundit and Power Line to see something profound in the history of the world is occurring. And with or without the Roanoke Times.

Tommy Denton -- "I'm Right. All My Friends Agree!"

Senior Roanoke Times' Editor Tommy Denton's weekly column often provides insight into the thought processes behind the paper's leftish slant, but rarely so much as yesterday. Denton's topic -- the dangers of an over-secretive government -- is one that all liberty-loving Americans must take seriously. But consider who Denton cites as support for his arguments.

First, Denton writes that the American Civil Liberties Union is involved in forcing the Bush administration to act in the "sunshine." Oh yes, the ACLU, that organization recently discovered to be violating the privacy of members and donors, not to mention its annual campaign to protect Americans from nativity scenes and creches, and force the Boy Scouts to accept homosexual leaders. Sure, we trust them.

Denton assures us the American Library Association likewise supports "Sunshine Week," though the ALA is known to be so left-leaning it won't condemn Castro. Well, maybe for smoking cigars.

Then Denton gives us this howler --

Leading the institutions trying to air out and deodorize the dankness of offical secrecy through the "Sunshine Week" project is the American society of Newspaper Editors...[as well as] various magazine and newspaper companies, academia and journalism organizations."

Oh, if newspaper editors, academia and journalism organizations say so, it must be true.

Denton ends his column with a quote from Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, one of the most partisan politicians now in Congress.

Good grief.

It's sad, but Denton's problem, as well as his newspaper's, is that he no longer possesses credibility, and it appears that part of the problem is that he listens only to people who agree with him. The Roanoke Times' sins of anger and spleen are coming back to haunt it. Blindly playing its game of Bush-hate, it's lost the ability to engage in reasoned discourse, preferring to listen to its worser angels. The Roanoke Times needs to diversify its intellectual base and listen to voices that disagree with it, not just those who support its views.

Or to paraphrase the words of the "WHO" song -- "Tommy, can you hear us?"

Prejudice Unseen at the Roanoke Times?

Sunday's Roanoke Times carries a piece examining the history of the famous Harlem Globetrotters in which one on the team's earliest members is quoted as saying the worst discrimination the team faced was from a "prejudice unseen."

Reading this reminded Salt Lick of a recent study showing that the percentage of minority members on the Roanoke Times' staff has sunk to its lowest level in fifteen years (4.2% in a region 11.7% minority -- down from 10.7% of staff 10 years ago). Is this a sign of racism in Roanoke Times' hiring practices? Odds are that it is not. Liberals' self-image is usually tied up in how many minorities with whom they can surround themselves. The actual people aren't important; skin color is. On the other hand, is the low percentage of minorities at the Roanoke Times a sign that it might be experiencing the same difficulties in attracting qualified minority candidates as other corporate and academic entities? Probably.

If we were enterprising, big-time journalists, we might also point to the fact that the Roanoke Times' parent company is Landmark Communications. Landmark's website tells us that one of its "Core Characteristics and Behaviors" is that it "achieves diversity in the workforce." Well maybe "tries to achieve" diversity would be more honest.

The most interesting point, however, is that the Roanoke Times, like so many other left-leaning organizations and individuals (remember Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg's failure to hire a single minority staffer?) talks a better game than it walks. These organizations and people don't hesitate to repeat charges of "racism" when someone else is doing the hiring, but when it comes to themselves, racial diversity is a "statistic unseen."

No weekend blogging

My woodpile is low and I need to clear the garden for planting greens, so there will be no weekend blogging at the Salt Lick.

And good golly, as I write, all of a sudden there's big snowflakes falling outside. It looks like angels are having a pillow fight.

Yep, Spring is very shy in the mountains.

Your Bias is Not My Bias

Jay Rosen at Press Think suggested some time ago that "Maybe Media Bias Has Become a Dumb Debate." Interesting discussion here that should be read by Citizen Journalists complaining of bias in the media.

Letters to the Editor are for Chumps?

The American Digest offers some interesting advice for those who've found the Roanoke Times unresponsive to charges of "bias."

Quit Being a Chump and Start Being Effective: Here's How to Make Your Views Matter to the Mass Media

EDITORS LOVE IT when you write outraged letters to them, but not for the reasons you might think.

Editors love your outraged letters because it tells them you're reading them. They love your letters, even when you scold them, because it shows you care.

Editors love printing your letter that takes them to task because it shows they are pleased to balance a large chunk of airtime or copy with a few seconds or inches of dissent.

But the dirty little secret beneath the editors' love for your outraged letter is that means, almost all of the time, that you didn't send that letter to one of the editors' advertisers.

Read the whole thing.

Because Maybe They're Biased?

If a real newspaper can broaden the intellectual diversity of its editorial staff, why not the Roanoke Times? As RT interviews candidates to replace Geoff Seamans, is it looking at something other than skin color, sex or membership in the College Democrats? Only time will tell.

UPDATE: Whether it's Iraq, Medicaid, or Taxes, or Social Security Bush McHitlerburton is Just Plain EVIL

ADDENDUM: AND THE REPUBLICAN-CONTROLLED REISCHSTAG IS JUST AS BAD AS BUSH MCHITLERBURTON!

WOW! FIVE successive days of paranoia and self-righteousness from the Roanoke Times editorial:

Saturday, March 5: “Calling the Roll in Iraq: Critics of the war [in Iraq] rail, correctly, that the Bush administration pushed the United States into war on a false premise. And officials have maintained the spin with unacknowledged errors and unwarranted optimism since then...One lie too many could destroy what is left of the public trust, and support for the war could crumble.”

Sunday, March 6: “An Immoral Medicaid Plan: In truth, it’s not so important to the adminstration how the cuts are achieved as that the target is met as Bush scrambles to find the string and putty to hold together the budget wreck his first-term policies created... Without the programs, communities can expect homelessness to go up; jail populations to go up; suicides to go up. The Bush deficit – that would go down.”

Monday, March 7: “Caution: Shifting tax burden ahead: Depending on how a consumption tax is used and the code simplified, they could also allow President Bush to make permanent huge tax cuts that favored the wealthy by reducing the deficit they created with revenue largely from the rest of America.”

Tuesday, March 8: "Social Security con just gets bigger: The Bush administration and its political allies regularly abandon ethics, honor and especially truth to press their ideological/political agenda...America's con artists must be green with envy. Bush started out with classic confidence-game tactics...Any good confidence man could have concocted this scheme...but only [Bush] could reach into the pockets of 280 million pigeons to help pay for the con."

Wednesday, March 9:"It figures. The Republican-controlled Congress is eager to do the bidding of the deep-pocketed credit card and banking industries...Millionaires can protect their trusts, but average Americans cannot protect their homes. It figures."

Thursday, March 17:"For the Bush administration, 'factual information' is relative, subject to the political advantage it may bring to its own agenda...An estimated 630,000 babies a year in the United States are at risk from [mercury poisoning,]" but the Bush administration chooses to ignore this.

But don't worry, none of this affects the paper's "news" side, where reporters work blithely ignorant of management's proclivity to hire and reward an editorial staff that thinks "Farenheit 911" was, you know, real.

Newspapers = "Dinosaur Blogging?"

Or making yourself extinct with your own hot air?

Virginia Politics 24/7

If you really, really want to watch the upcoming state elections from the point they are a small ripple (right now) to the day they become a roaring wave throwing a mass of candidates' signs on front lawns (in November), start reading Bacon's Rebellion, Commonwealth Conservative and all the blogs on the Old Dominion Blog Alliance. These gals and guys don't just have the playbooks and programs, they're making them.

Salt Lick probably won't pay close attention until Fall, after the hogs are slaughtered and the meat is hung.

A young, blogging, Virginian, Marine recruit

Brandon Meyer should be interesting and fun to follow through Marine Corps basic training and beyond.

Salt Lick International Headquarters

The Salt Dome HQ 

Actually, it doesn't have any domes other than the white, junk bathtub that forms the roof of the outhouse, but we think "The Salt Dome" has kind of an international flavor. Gracious, it was a devil of a time getting an internet connection.

Things stay pretty quiet around here, although Chris Matthews did interview one of our more famous neighbors. Well doggies, who said we were out of touch?

Cries and Whispers in the Roanoke Times Newsroom

(First voice) "What do you mean you can't go out to lunch?"

(Second voice) "Gotta save money."

(Silence)

(First voice.) "You didn't get a Christmas bonus, did you?"

(Silence)

(First voice) "It was that piece you wrote attributing some of the state budget surplus to the Republicans, wasn't it?"

(Silence)

(First voice) "You dork! I told you, man -- never, never, NEVER give those guys credit for anything if you're gonna work here. Don't you think maybe there is a REASON the entire editorial staff are Bush-hating, lefty moonbats? Well, don't you? Jesus, where's your g*ddam head, man? Pay attention to what management thinks is important or you're looking at the road. Is that what you want? "

(Second voice) "Did you know a recent study showed that only 39% of adults get their news from newspapers, down from 60% in 1996, and that this newspaper may soon have less subscribers than Blue Ridge Country Magazine," a publication devoted to fun and history in the Appalachian mountains?"

(silence)

(First voice) "OK, shut up and let me have one of those sandwiches."

Don't Bother me with Common Sense

A Virginia Tech graduate student complains in the Roanoke Times of racial profiling when an FBI agent tells him "Your cultural background and your interest in flying raised a red flag." Let's see....a young, Arabic-looking male who wants to fly. Give him the keys!

It might be instructive to supplement this with Captain's Quarters' two part discussion of "When Political Correctness Kills," here (the story of how security personnel avoided just such profiling and missed 911 terrorist Mohammed Atta) and here (detailing how fears of appearing racist impede investigations).

Of course, the Roanoke Times won't give you that kind of balance. That's what we're here for. We report, you decide.

Virginia Press Association?

Our attention was drawn to an article in the Roanoke Times several days ago announcing that several of its staff received awards from The Virginia Press Association. Congratulations to those staffers on bringing home the bacon to Southwest Virginia.

It did give Salt Lick pause, however to read that the VPA awarded former RT editorial staffer Geoff Seamans first place in the editorial writing category. We've no desire to rehash the bile that Seamans' poured out onto the RT's pages during his tenure there; he is gone. But given Seamans' penchant for ad hominem attack and self-indulgent prose, it does make Salt Lick wonder what the VPA is "all about." A visit to VPA's website doesn't offer much. The site seems to be indifferently maintained and the "rules" for it's annual contest gives no specific guidelines or standards on how entries in the editorial writing section are judged. A copy of the winning editorial is not as yet posted.

Given that the RT's editorials are not signed, Mr. Seamans could indeed have written an excellent, anonymous editorial worthy of an award, but there is precious little public information on the judging process. Salt Lick is unfamiliar with VPA. Does it judge editorials on political content or excellent writing? Anyone who knows, please inform us. We are only here to help. No one would want an award given by a Virginia press organization to acquire the reek of the Nobel Peace Prize, which these days is a political tool awarded to horny, old kelptocratic, terrorists such as Yasser Arafat and failed anti-American presidents like Jimmy Carter.

BTW, the VPA's "Contest Rules" list all major newspapers in Virginia and their circulation. See here for circulation numbers. Use the link to "Contests."

Bush Revolution Continues.. all over the damn place!

More information you won't see the Roanoke Times publish via Publiuspundit

Postcards from the edge

But she'll never reach the pool! 

My grandmother sent this postcard to me from Arkansas when I was a kid. She was trying to let me know she was thinking of me, but this card was disturbing. First thing was that 50 foot tall woman diving off the hotel. (I had just seen "Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman" and it scared the beejeezus out of me. As a 12 year old, of course, I was titillated by the movie's depiction of a giant woman running around in her underwear like a model from Sears' catalogue. A grown woman in bra and panties. And not even your Mom. Wow. But when Queen Kong started calling in that weird giant voice for her drunken lout of a husband just before she quished him, it was too, too creepy.)

And it didn't help that the streets in the postcard were totally empty. Like in "Twilight Zone" when a guy wakes up to find himself all alone in the world, except for this incredibly beautiful (normal sized) woman who is really some kind of spider-snake thing that eats his face off in the last scene. Thanks, Granny. Good thing you taught me "Now I lay me down to sleep..."

Now, I wasn't a dumb kid, and I reckoned this postcard was supposed to be "artistic," but that part escaped me too. What's artistic about diving into blue concrete? And the card was from Arkansas, for goodness sake - even I knew there were no palm trees in Arkansas. And didn't they have cars there? I'm not sure I ever asked grandma about these things when she returned. I'm sure she could have answered me. She was a very smart woman.

Happy Women's Month, Grandma.

The Insurgency Continues...but it's not the one you think

The “news” pages of today’s Roanoke Times sadly illustrate the paper’s continuing efforts to vent its spleen on the Bush McHitlerburton administration, no matter what the cost.

Let’s not spend too much time on the subheadline written by an RT minion for a news “analysis” of Condi Rice’s performance: “She has accomplished some things that Colin Powell could not, but some of it is just luck.” You can almost hear the writer choking back the urge to insert “dumb” in there.

Perhaps worse is the incomplete AP story the RT runs on its front page concerning the accidental shooting of an Italian journalist in Iraq. There is much wrong that the RT could have corrected if it wanted, but let's just note that while the AP article used by the RT begins "Left-wing journalist Giuliana Sgrena..," Ms. Sgrena actually works for what another AP story calls "the communist daily Il Manifesto." Well, you know, the RT wouldn't want to slant the story by letting the reader know that.

Typically, Jeff Goldstein at protein wisdom rips the MSM slant on the story to shreds with a good dose of humor. Read it.

As "blogfather" Glenn Reynolds notes at Instapundit

One suspects that a lot of people are happy to have a story they can use to take some of the bloom off events in Iraq, regardless of what liberties have to be taken with the truth.

Heh.

Read it all, and compare it with what the Roanoke Times put on its front page under the large, screaming title "I could have been the target."

Sure Giuliana, and pasta was invented by the Vikings.

Women's Month and Two of my favorite time zones

Williamsburg, Virginia, circa 1770 and 1970. 

Williamsburg, VA is one of my all-time favorite historical memories. Another is my parents as young people still unstamped by life's demands. I always think of Mom when I look at this postcard, and especially today during Women's Month (you didn't know?). Of course, while women have come a long way, baby, since colonial America, these days their approved avatar is not like the woman on the bicycle because, well, lots of reasons. She's got hips and she looks kind of soft. Today's ideal woman is more like this, or this.

And so the Salt Lick celebrates Women's Month with a passage from Virginian Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities, describing the women at a high-society social gathering:

The women came in two varieties. First, there were women in their late thirties and in their forties and older (women “of a certain age”), all of them skin and bones (starved to near perfection). To compensate for the concupiscence missing form their juiceless ribs and atrophied backsides, they turned to the dress designers. This season no puffs, flounces, pleats, ruffles, bibs, bows, battings, scallops, laces, darts or shirrs on the bias were too extreme. They were the social X rays, to use the phrase that had bubbled up into Sherman’s own brain. Second, there were the so-called Lemon Tarts. These were women in their twenties or early thirties, mostly blondes (the Lemon in the tarts), who were the second, third, and fourth wives or live-in girlfriends of men over forty or fifty or sixty (or seventy), the sort of women men refer to, quite without thinking, as girls. This season the Tart was able to flaunt the natural advantages of youth by showing her legs from well above the knee and emphasizing her round bottom (something no X ray had). What was entirely missing [from the party] was that manner of woman who is neither young nor very old, who has laid in a lining of subcutaneous fat, who glows with plumpness and a rosy face that speaks, without a word, of home and hearth and hot food ready at six and stories read aloud at night and conversations while seated on the edge of the bed, just before the Sandman comes. In short, no one ever invited... Mother.

Happy Women's Month, Mother. If it were up to me, you'd have gotten the month, and they'd have only gotten the day.

Geoff Seamans' 100th Nightmare

So there I was, an ace reporter covering the demonstrations in Lebanon, when one of those beautiful young Lebanese women demonstrators approached me. God, those alluring, dark eyes. The hint of a thousand and one nights of pleasure. She reaches my side, she smiles and reaches seductively for my lapel. AND THEN SHE PINS A "THANK YOU GEORGE BUSH" BUTTON TO MY COAT! AAAARRRGGGH."

Radford U. Plays Lotto

But the new president's credentials indicate she's no gamble. Welcome home, Ms. Kyle.

Never Forget The Fallen

So far, two former members of Virginia Tech's Corps of Cadets have given their lives in the War on Terror. Buy one of the car magnets honoring U.S. Army 1st Lt. Jeffrey Kaylor, of Clifton, Va., and Army 1st Lt. Timothy Price, of Midlothian, Va., both of whom were killed in action in Iraq in 2003 and 2004 respectively.

Klan Organizes World Domination from Southwest Virginia

"That's right, Billy, you're gonna have to lead the march. I soiled my sheets and can't leave the bathroom. I think it was those tacos. Who'dve thought the Mexicans were part of the International Zionist Conspiracy?" 

(Photo with permission of protein wisdom.)

UPDATE: White Supremacist leader denounces Lefkow murders as "heinous crime."

Mikey will eat anything

"Hee, hee. Stay wight 'der, homeboy, so after I finishes 'dis ear I can have me some piece 'a fwoot." 

A Virginian with the Right Stuff

Happy belated birthday to Tom Wolfe.

Roanoke Times Finally Understands -- "Give Bush his Due"

Today's Roanoke Times' editorial echoes what The New York Times and Washington Post suggested days ago -- George Bush deserves credit for the momentous move toward democracy in the Middle East.

"The U.S. war in Iraq has boosted the impulse for democracy in the region...It is a hope nurtured, in part, by President Bush. Give the administration its due. It can lay claim to a share of credit for the encouraging events in Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East."

Reaching this conclusion must have taken a great deal of soul-searching for the Roanoke Times. We hope this opens the door to an overall intellectual self-examination by the newspaper. The departure of Geoff Seamans from the RT offers a perfect opportunity for the RT to broaden the political makeup of its editorial staff. One has to ask -- if the Roanoke Times' editorial board had been more intellectually diverse, would it have exhibited the same faulty judgement with regard to the invasion of Iraq? Been so universally hostile to George Bush?

You can only broaden your mind by listening to another voice, not an echo.

A Party Flew Into the Cuckoo's Nest

Howard Dean takes Democratic Party leaders for a ride. 

But when Dean gets back
Nurse Ratchet will make everything just right.

"Yeeeaaagh!"

Tainted Judge or Tainted Accusers?

The Roanoke Times carried an editorial on Feb. 24 which implies Marcus H. Long Jr. "bought" his recent election to Judge of Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court of the New River Valley by contributing to the campaigns of Delegate Dave Nutter and Senator Brandon Bell. Given the Times' proclivity to attack Republicans (which both Nutter and Bell are), most readers would have undoubtedly given the accusation the attention it deserved.

On Tuesday, however, local Blacksburg attorney Harriett Dorsey weighed in to support the charges that Long's election carried "the taint of backroom politics." Ms. Dorsey goes on to compare Democratic judge appointment procedures as superior to Republican appointment procedures and further charges gender bias in the selection process.

While the machinations of judge appointment are unknown to the Salt Lick, he nevertheless has some questions about Ms. Dorsey's impartiality in this dispute. You see, over ten years ago Ms. Dorsey handled the closing on Salt Lick's home. It was probably one of the most unprofessional performances by an attorney Salt Lick has ever witnessed. In the first draft of the deed, Ms. Dorsey even incorrectly described the property being purchased by Salt Lick. The property description is, of course, pretty basic to a deed. When Salt Lick mentioned this to an attorney friend, she said something like, "Oh, Harriet is more concerned these days with trying to become a judge than doing her work."

Hmmmm. So even ten years ago Ms. Dorsey was angling to become a judge? And she's still not a judge? Isn't her arguing in this case what one might call "a conflict of interest?" Or maybe at least an "undisclosed interest?"

Salt Lick doesn't know. He's just asking, like the Roanoke Times. One thing Salt Lick does know however -- it will take a lot more than the reporting of a highly partisan, pro-Democratic newspaper and a disgruntled, seemingly lackadaisical attorney to convince him of any impropriety in Judge Long's election.

Bush Revolution Continues in Middle East

Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria -- The Revolution is rolling with such amazing speed that I got tired just reading about it. So I'll let Austin Bay tell you about how the Iraqi insurgency is losing steam and the Mainstream Media is backtracking. And I'll let Roger Simon tell you how the liberal British Guardian and liberal NPR newsman Daniel Schorr and The New York Times are all admitting that maybe Bush was right to invade Iraq.

Of course, some of you guys just want the pictures of all the beautiful Lebanese girls pouring into the streets to demonstrate for freedom. OK, go here.

Hey Stupid -- Spider Man Uses a Web

Building jumping (sometimes unscuccessfully) a new teen fad.

Sweet Home Alabama -- Shutup

Students at the University of Alabama fight faculty-imposed speech codes.

Wonder if it's still OK to call 911 victims little Eichmans?"

Bush Revolution Continues in Mid-East?

More great news via RealClear Politics. Look here and here too.

And interesting developments in Islamofascist state Syria.

Question for the Roanoke Times: If a wall of tyranny falls, and a newspaper doesn't see it, can everyone else hear the sound of freedom?

Actresses with Class

Hillary Swank at the Oscars impressed writer and academy member Roger Simon.

"Swank is fascinating person. I think she will be moving us in films for decades to come. She has really got it. [She] reminds me of some of the great actresses of the forties. It's not about looks."

Right. Remember this lady?


Marlene Dietrich with the troops 

Everytime I hear Madonna whine about "censorship" impinging on her "artistic integrity" I think of the German Marlene Dietrich, at great personal risk, entertaining troops to help them invade her blighted homeland. Of course, Susan Sarandon would probably do the same thing.


I'd lay my best jacket under her feet.