Racism rears its head

Yesterday I enjoyed watching the NFC and AFC championship games. The Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts both advanced to the Superbowl. It was only in watching the post-game coverage that I realized this Superbowl is now considered historic as both coaches are African-American. Never before has an African-American head coach made it to the Superbowl.

That the game analysts felt it necessary to discuss the coaches’ ethnicity seems racist to me. African-Americans have achieved enough that it should no longer be news that someone who has accomplished something great has a dark complexion.

It seems that true equality for African-Americans will arrive when the first African-American to accomplish something is not referred to as “the first African-American to….”

Journalists don’t know?

Hugh Hewitt interviewed Time correspondant Michael Ware about Ware’s reporting in Iraq. What most interested me in the interview is that Ware is incapable of making any judgements about events unless he has personally witnessed them. And even then, he can’t make judgements because he wasn’t there to see the alternative.

Are Iraqis better off now than under Saddam? Ware doesn’t know because he wasn’t there under Saddam. So Hugh then asked if Russians were better off under Stalin or Krushev. Ware again couldn’t answer because he wasn’t there.

Why is he even a reporter? His facts are useless. He can report but, following to his logic, we can’t make any judgements based on the information he provides. Yet people are making judgements on the information coming from Iraq. Quagmire! Another Vietnam!

The press is useless when reporters have no sense of history. Are Iraqis better off now? I’m reminded of a comment I heard about our search for WMD. Of course we couldn’t find any WMD. Everywhere we dug, we found a mass grave.

Update: Welcome Hugh Hewitt readers. And please vote for my entry “The Thinker” (entry #82) on Painting the Map Red contest. I really want the radio.

Media gone mad

While major media outlets have continued to refuse to publish the cartoons of the muslim prophet Muhammed, they are “bravely” publishing newly discovered photos of Iraqi Abu Ghraib prisoners.

Meanwhile bloggers like Michelle Malkin who did have courage to show the American people what the cartoons really looked like are getting death threats from people claiming to be muslims.

Batman vs Al Qaeda

Legendary comic book author Frank Miller is writing a graphic novel that he refers to as “a piece of propoganda,” where “Batman kicks al Qaeda’s ass.”

Cool. There was a time when comic books and entertainment media in general were unabashedly pro-American. Not only that, they weren’t afraid of naming our enemies. Captain American fought against the Nazis. John Wayne fight everyone.

Now Hollywood is so afraid of not being politically correct, they change characters in movie adaptations. Remember the movie The Sum of All Fears? The plot is that terrorists detonate a nuclear device in the U.S. In the original book it was Islamic terrorists. The movie would have none of that in a post 9/11 world. They decided that it would be better to make them neo-nazis. Okaaay.

It’s good to see an author who is not afraid of recognizing where the real threats are in the world and sending a message that they should and can be stopped.

(hat tip: Michelle Malkin)

Why are they scared?

Blogging is getting more and more influential. Each side of the blogosphere has had an impact. Senator Trent Lott had to resign as majority leader when he made a comment in support of Strom Thurmond that sounded as if he was supporting segregation. Had not blogs on the the left made a stink, it would have died down.

CBS was made to look foolish when memos it used in a news story criticial of President Bush were proven to be false within hours of the story airing thanks to the guys at Powerline Blog.

Most recently (and perhaps most dramatically) the liberal government in Canada was ousted in the last election thanks to Captain’s Quarters, an American blogger, who exposed political corruption in the Great White North.

So what happens when people become influential and others feel threatened? The threatened people insult them. Makes you wonder, if three successful lawyers like the guys at Powerline are “afraid of dealing with people in real life”, what does that make people who draw cartoons for a living?

The best stories are the ones you make up

I think I brought the flu back from New Mexico with me. What to do when you’re sick?

A. Watch daytime TV.
B. Blog.
C. Drink IBC.

Since A is worse than being sick, I’m going with B & C. I’m pretty sure medical experts agree that IBC rootbeer shortens the duration of the flu by at least 3 to 4 minutes.

As for blogging, I see the New York Times published a fake photo today (hat tip Powerline Blog). The caption claims to show the remains of a missile that destroyed from a home in Pakistan. This is supposedly the result of an airstrike from a Predator Drone the happened on January 13th that is getting protests from Pakistani citizens. Yahoo News changed their caption to claim it is “unexploded ordinance”. The catch here is that the attack was from a predator drone which doesn’t carry ordinance. American Thinker has a through debunking of claim.

Is this another case of “fake but accurate” reporting that CBS news invented with the forged Air National Guard memo?

Dishonoring the troops

Michelle Malkin points out how the New York Times misquotes dead soldiers. Cpl. Jeffrey B. Starr wrote a letter prior to his death in Iraq. Here is what the Times printed:

“I kind of predicted this,” Corporal Starr wrote of his own death. “A third time just seemed like I’m pushing my chances.”

Here is what he wrote:

“Obviously if you are reading this then I have died in Iraq. I kind of predicted this, that is why I’m writing this in November. A third time just seemed like I’m pushing my chances. I don’t regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it’s not to me. I’m here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark.”

When you see it in whole, it doesn’t sound as much as someone who regretted his duty.

Weeds of communism

For most of the summer I fight dandelions in my front yard. I spray the yard with weed killer and have green grass (well, kinda green) for a few weeks. Then one day I’m in front of the house and see another dandelion. Thankfully, there are no mainstream media reports around my house. If there were, they would be standing in front of each weed saying, “Look at all this green grass. Look at this close up. Nope, no weeds around here.”

That’s pretty much what they do with communists. Just like the San Francisco Chronicle did. Zombietime.com shows how they do it. First, start with a young protestor in San Franciso. Run photo of said idealistic youth protesting against the United States. Be sure to hide the fact that communists organized the rally. Nope no communists here.

Surely the fact that the protests are being organized by communists is significant. These are not people who love their country as much as the Chronicle may wish you to believe it.

When Cindy Sheehan protests, remember she is supported by ANSWER. Chrstopher Hitchens points out their pro-communist/anti-U.S. views.

No, the war protestors are not patriots. They don’t love their country as they are sometimes likely to claim. They want the U.S. to lose.

Best frontline reporter

Michael Yon is a freelance reporter working on the frontlines in Iraq. Go read his latest story about LTC Kurilla.

Donate to his blog if you can.

That must have been painful

News headline: Jerry Seinfeld has third baby

Ouch