“I’m trying to be positive. I’m a big fan of the Nobel Peace Prize.”
1.) Rigoberta Menchu
2.) Yasser Arafat
3.) Nelson Mandela
4.) Ron Artest
Congrats to David Stern for doing the right thing. Artest’s behavior was inexcusable.
Archives for 2004
9-1
It was a tough fight, and the steelerswerelucky to get out of Cincy with a narrow win over division rivals the Bengals. The final score was 19-14, and the Bengals are a lot tougher than their record would indicate.
Next week- Oliver’s Redskins.
Sarin Gas in Fallujah
I have received numerous emails about the discovery of Sarin gas in Fallujah, yet I have see nothing in the press. Most of the emails link to this Flash presentation in USA Today. Load the presentation and look at picture #2.
However, pretty much nothing shows up in Google News. Some audio links from NPR from an embed with the Marines that supposedly found the suspect vials, a brief mention from General Richard Meyers, and a dismissal from the odious hacks at AntiWar.Com.
Anyone have anything else? And why in the hell does google news count the AntiWar.Com weblog as a ‘news’ source?
Welcome to 1958
It looks like the Republicans are not going to wait to make me regret voting almost straight ticket two weeks ago:
Comparing pornography to heroin, researchers on Thursday called on Congress to finance studies on “porn addiction” and launch a public health campaign about the dangers.
“We’re so afraid to talk about sex in our society that we really give carte blanche to the people who are producing this kind of material,” said James B. Weaver, a Virginia Tech professor who studies the impact of pornography.
Internet pornography is corrupting children and hooking adults into an addiction that threatens their jobs and families, a panel of anti-porn advocates told the hearing organized by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., chairman of the Commerce subcommittee on science.
Brownback, a father of five, said when he was a boy, the typical kid’s exposure was limited to occasional peeks at dirty magazines illicitly obtained by a buddy.
Now, he said, pornography seems pervasive. Children run across it while researching homework on the Internet. Vulgar ads arrive unexpectedly by e-mail. Some of his middle-age male friends limit their time alone in hotel rooms to avoid the temptation of graphic pay-per-view movies, Brownback said.
Mary Anne Layden, co-director of a sexual trauma program at the University of Pennsylvania, said pornography’s effect on the brain mirrors addiction to heroin or crack cocaine. She told of one patient, a business executive, who arrived at his office at 9 a.m. each day, logged onto Internet porn sites, and didn’t log off until 5 p.m.
Looks like instead of the war on terrorism, we are going to spend the next four years fighting the war on dirty pictures.
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Tragedy
Tragedy in the Cole household this week- my beloved 1983 Chevy Celbrity finally died. I had planned on driving this car for another 5-10 years, but either the head gasket is destroyed or the head is cracked, and it just isn’t worth putting a new engine in the car. Another expense I did not want to deal with.
Joy.
Hollywood and the FCC
If there is a government agency I find more useless and more offensive than the loathesome FCC, I am hard pressed to name it. With that in mind, let me state something that I think is being overblown in this whole MNF/Desparate Housewives dust-up.
It is not just holyrollers and bible thumpers who found the introduction offensive. My mother found it offensive. I found it offensive. Normal people all over the country found it offensive for a variety of reasons.
My mother found it offensive, stating: “Even though I was alone, I felt uncomfortable. And besides, what kind of athlete would leave his team-mates on the field just to hook up with some slut?”
I found it offensive because it was so stupid and over the top and so unnecessary. Why? Why? MNF is a franchise- it is how I make it through Mondays- knowing MNF is around the corner. Why did they need to cheapen this, knowing full well there are millions of kids watching? IN other words, I was not offended by the skit itself, but I was pissed off that they would air it because I knew the reaction it would create.
I don’t know what these execs are thinking sometimes. Why must the always heapen good ideas with something unnecessary, and why is taht something unnecessary usually something so tawdry?
I have issues with infidelity- it pisses me off. It is easy enough to get divorced, and if you aren’t married- break up with the person. In short, infidility infuriates me. I simply can not watch movies or shows that contain or are centered around cheating. In fact, I remember watching about 20 minutes of Unfaithful with Diane Lane before turning the movie off in disgust. A year later, I saw Diane Lane’s character in Under the Tuscan Sun going through a painful divorce, and all I could think was: “Good. I am glad you hurt. You deserve it for cheating on your husband in Unfaithful, you bitch.”
At any rate, back to my point I watched the Horse Whisperer this afternoon for the first time (side note- Chris Cooper is the quintessential American actor), and I loved it. Until they turned the whole damn story into an issue of infidelity. Why?
Monday Night Football is a solid product. So could the Horse Whisperer have been a solid product. Why ruin them?
This, of course, does not mean I condone the nanny-state mentality of the FCC, but I want my fellow readers to understand that both sides in this case are wrong from my perspective.