Shots Across The Bow

Pieces of the Puzzle

First check out this article from the Telegraph:

...the BBC Radio 4 programme Law in Action produced evidence yesterday that it [sharia] was being used by some Muslims as an alternative to English criminal law. Aydarus Yusuf, 29, a youth worker from Somalia, recalled a stabbing case that was decided by an unofficial Somali "court" sitting in Woolwich, south-east London.

Mr Yusuf said a group of Somali youths were arrested on suspicion of stabbing another Somali teenager. The victim's family told the police it would be settled out of court and the suspects were released on bail.

A hearing was convened and elders ordered the assailants to compensate their victim. "All their uncles and their fathers were there," said Mr Yusuf. "So they all put something towards that and apologised for the wrongdoing.

That's just wonderful, but how does a country get to a point where it allows alternative systems of justice to operate freely within it's own borders? And what happens when those alternative systems come into conflict with the existing system? What happens when this same community decides to stone a woman for showing her ankles?

More importantly, why should we even care? It's England, not the good old US of A, right?

Not yet, at least.

But remember the flap in Minneapolis a month ago, where Muslim cabbies wanted the right to refuse to carry passengers carrying alcohol because according to the cabbies, it would be a violation of sharia for them to carry those passengers? In that case, the Metropolitan Airports Commission actually proposed an idea to allow the Muslim cabbies to refuse the fares without consequence. Once word of the MAC's proposal broke, the public outrage quickly put an end to that specific proposal, but the idea of "accommodating" Muslim beliefs hasn't.

Check out this article from the Tennessean:

"We need to forsake the Christendom model," Camp said. "The most basic Christian commitment … is that we say we believe in the Lordship of Jesus. But, if we claim that, how can a Muslim or Jew trust us, if we say Jesus is the Lord of all Lords?"

Co-sponsored by the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University, the daylong conference was prompted by a desire to begin a dialogue about global religious conflict.

After five years of rising gas prices, disturbing privacy issues that followed the Sept. 11 attacks and the fear of terrorism, it became apparent that everyday life in Nashville is directly affected by religious conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, conference organizers said.

"We felt like the larger community is calling for this," said Larry Bridgesmith, executive director of Lipscomb's newly established Institute for Conflict Management.

Oddly, there's no similar call for Islam to give up it's central tenet of enslaving all those who refuse to accept Allah as God and Mohammed as his prophet.

How accommodating of us.

Why I Can't Trust Newt Gingrich. Ever

The headline of the article reads "Gingrich: Free Speech Should Be Curtailed To Fight Terrorism." Now Newt didn't exactly say that, but what he did say is troubling enough.

Either before we lose a city or, if we are truly stupid, after we lose a city, we will adopt rules of engagement that use every technology we can find to break up their capacity to use the Internet, to break up their capacity to use free speech, and to go after people who want to kill us to stop them from recruiting people.

So it doesn't match the screaming headline, but it still worries me that anybody wanting a leadership role in our government can even think of curtailing our basic freedoms, and I sure can't think of any way to "break up their capacity to use free speech" that won't have some impact on my capacity to use free speech. Heck, we can't even manage to put together campaign finance laws that don't impact my capacity for free speech.

Besides, it's a stupid idea anyway. Let the bastards talk freely and openly. It sure would be a lot easier to track them, wouldn't it?
Via Captain's Corner

Things I've Done

Barry did it.
So did TN Girl.
So I'm going to do it, but since I don't follow orders very well, I'm just going to freewheel it and create a list of my own. And then I'm going to do something that might be kind of fun.

After I post this list, y'all will have a week to comment and request stories about the things I've done and as time and my modesty permits, I'll tell them. Sound like fun? Here we go:

• I've snorkeled with sharks and manta rays.
• I've been to the top of Mt. LeConte.
• I've seen the Sistine Chapel, the Great Pyramids, and the Colosseum.
• I've visited 14 countries in Europe Asia, and Africa.
• I've been thrown out of a bar.
• I've seen shooting stars, solar eclipses, lunar eclipses, the northern lights, 5 planets, and the Orion nebula.
• I've been arrested and put in jail.
• I've ridden in a Lear jet and a hot air balloon.
• I've sung karaoke in a bar and the National Anthem in a NCAA stadium.
• I've built my own furniture.
• I've knitted three sweaters and crocheted a fourth.
• I've driven across country twice, once with children. And puppies.
• I've swam two miles without stopping.
• I've been to the top of Diamond Head in Hawaii, walked the Copacabana beach in Brazil, and gambled in the Monte Carlo casino in Monaco.
• I've given a ballcap to a beautiful french girl in exchange for a kiss.
• I've been in strip clubs on 3 continents.
• I've played putt putt golf in a monsoon, and played tackle football in the middle of a security training exercise.
• I've been in love three times, and married one time. I don't expect to do either again.
• I've watched two of my children being born, one of them at home.
• I've walked from the Port Authority terminal in NYC to the Empire State building, to the World Trade Center, and back.
• I've been to the top of the John Hancock building and the Sears Tower.
• I've been slapped by a stranger at a party. I've been kissed by a stranger at a party. Both action were appropriate.
• I've fed wild monkeys in Singapore.
• I've been in a car that was run over by an eighteen wheeler, and I drove away afterwards.
• I've written a story that people other than those who liked me thought was good.
• The only famous person I've met face to face is the wrestler known as Kane.
• I've rushed the field in Neyland stadium following a win over Bama.
• I've eaten unidentified meat on a stick from a street vendor in Thailand, fried baby octopus in Hong Kong, and pressed smoked squid in Korea.
• I've been held at gunpoint.
• I launched a model rocket that never came back down to earth.
• I've slept on a beach holding a woman I loved.
• I have a friend who I haven't seen in over a year, but who would do whatever he could to help me if I needed it. And I'd do the same for him.

Atlas Shrugged

I just finished reading it yesterday and I'm still processing it, but on the whole, it reminded me of reading Battlefield Earth. When you have complete control over your cast of characters, it's easy to make a utopian vision hang together. In real life, it's a bit messier.

My first impression is that Ayn Rand is spot on with her diagnosis of what's wrong with our society. However, her prescription appears to need a little work. Altruism, the thing that she damns as the downfall of mankind, is the only thing that separates us from the rest of the animals on the planet. I'm going to have to do some more thinking, and read some of her non fiction, just to make sure I'm understanding what it is she's saying.

Why I Can't Trust Bennie Thompson. Ever

Via Captain's Quarters

It's flat out amazing. It really is. During the run up to the November elections, whenever we heard about combating illegal immigration, we heard somebody say something like "We have to make the employers of the illegals accountable. If there's no labor market drawing the immigrants across the border, then they won't cross." Yet every time a company takes steps to verify that their workforce is in fact legal, they face government obstruction. In this case, it's uniform company Cintas. House Democrat Bennie Thompson, who is going to be chair of the Homeland Security Committee sent a letter to Cintas, telling them that if they act to verify the hundreds of employees with incorrect SSN's on their job applications, then Cintas could face criminal legal action. Of course, if Cintas fails to verify the SSNs, they also could face legal action.

What kind of government do we have where a company can be penalized for following the law?

A broken one.

But here's what worries me. Mr. Thompson is soon going to be chairing the committee that oversees the department responsible for securing our borders against foreign attack, and he shows more concern over the rights of foreigners who may be here illegally than he does over the security of our own citizens.

Am I the only one that sees something wrong with that picture?

Why I Can't Trust Charles "The Tick" Rangel. Ever

Yeah, he made a stupid comment about our military, and I'll deal with that in a bit, but there's something much more troubling about this clip via hot air and Fox News something that I haven't seen anybody else comment on.. Here's a transcript:

FN

: ...a recent and very detailed study from the Heritage Foundation, Congressman, found the following and we're going to put that up.

13% of recruits are from the poorest neighborhoods. That's less than the national average of people living in those neighborhoods.

97% of recruits have high school diplomas. Among all Americans, the graduation rate is under 80%

And blacks make up 14.5% of recruits for the military, the national average is 12%.

Congressman, in fact, contrary to what you've been saying, isn't the volunteer army better educated and more well to do than the general population?

CR:

Of course not. I want to make it abundantly clear that I have been advocating a draft ever since the President's been talking about war, and none of this comes within the jurisdiction of the Ways and Means Committee. But I want to make it abundantly clear: if there’s anyone who believes that these youngsters want to fight, as the Pentagon and some generals have said, you can just forget about it. No young, bright individual wants to fight just because of a bonus and just because of educational benefits. And most all of them come from communities of very, very high unemployment. If a young fella has an option of having a decent career or joining the army to fight in Iraq, you can bet your life that he would not be in Iraq.

Let's start by giving you the link to the Heritage report referred to by Chris Wallace. And here are a couple of key excerpts.

First, on recruit income levels:

From 2003 to 2005, the representation of the highest-income quintile rose 0.68 percentage point, from 22.17 percent to 22.85 percent. As conflict in Iraq continues, youth from wealthy areas continue to volunteer for duty despite increased risk. Addition­ally, over the course of these three recruit years, representation from the poorest quintile has decreased dramatically. The representation among recruits of the lowest-income quintile fell nearly a full percentage point, from 14.61 percent in 2003 to 13.66 percent in 2005.

Next, on education:

The previous study noted the significant differ­ence between the national recruit high school grad­uation rate of 98 percent and the national youth graduation rate of 75 percent. This strong distinc­tion continues among the 2004 and 2005 recruits when compared to the national educational attain­ment levels reported by the Census 2004 American Community Survey (ACS).

So now we are assured that Chris Wallace wasn't just making this stuff up. It is true that today's military recruits are better educated and more well to do than the population in general.

And what was Rangel's response to these facts?

He rejected them out of hand. No facts, no numbers, no logical rebuttal. He just spouted his talking points without regard to reality. Denial may not be just a river, but Mr. Rangel is apparently drinking deep from its waters. Not ten seconds elapsed between a recitation of the facts and then the complete rejection of reality. It really points out the danger we are all in when politicians become more interested in running for government instead of running the government. Rangel is more interested in scoring political points than he is in making sound policy decisions for the United States. He's more concerned with beating down the Republicans than he is with beating the nation's enemies. That's why he ignores the facts; they are irrelevant to his mission.

That's why he isn't fit to be trusted.

As for the subject of his rant, our military, the important point isn't that he thinks only those who have no options join up, but this sentence right here:

No young, bright individual wants to fight just because of a bonus and just because of educational benefits.

Notice anything missing in his statement? Something that reveals a blind spot in his outlook?

Isn't it possible that some young men and women join up because they feel they have a duty to serve their country? And maybe, just maybe, they believe that their duty is even more important when we are at war? Wouldn't that explain why the Heritage Foundation study shows that recruiting among the higher economic brackets has actually increased as the war progressed, while it fell off in the lower brackets? Could it be that those of us who have the most to loose are the ones most willing to fight to protect it?

But it seems that Mr. Rangel believes that the only reason to join the military is to get something out of it, like better job opportunities, or an education, and that the only time that is a decent bargain is when we are at peace. I know he must have believed differently at some point, since he joined the military in 1948 and fought with bravery in Korea. I don't know what has happened to him to change his mind over the last 50 years, but I think that Mr. Rangel has been in Congress so long that he's forgotten what it means to actually serve your country instead of feed off of it like a blood sucking parasite.

Christianists?

Andrew Sullivan claims* to have coined the new word as a counterpart to Islamist.

Yeah, right.

Tell you what, Andrew. When the Christian right in the US begins to behead those who disagree with them, then I'll admit the validity of the word. Until then, you're just a ticked off heterophobe** pedaling spurious moral equivalencies in a fit of pique because most people do not support your sexual agenda.

* Ann Althouse gives a brief history of the word, which was used long before Sully thought it up.

**heterophobe n. one who insists that all who disagree with gay marriages are bigots, ignorant, or both.

Pictures of Mason

Happy Thanksgiving, A Bit Early

My oldest daughter came home last night for a visit but sh won't be able to stay for Thanksgiving, so we had our first Thanksgiving dinner last night. My middle daughter's baby shower is tonight. My oldest son comes home from Fort Sill on Thanksgiving.

I'm going to spend this week with my kids. See you next week.

Congratulation are in Order!!

Go by Katie's place and congratulate her on her Emmy nomination! It couldn't happen to a nicer person.

Unless it happened to me.*grin*

My Take on Lumpy

If a man walked up to me and tried to rob me at gunpoint, and I was able to draw on him, get him to disarm himself, and contribute directly to his capture, all without firing a shot, I'd be pretty durn proud of myself.

And so would you.

Unlike most of the folks who have been commenting on Lumpy, I've actually been in his shoes.

Before I went into the Navy, my college career was interrupted when UT invited me to take a semester off to consider my options. During that educational interregnum, I worked the night shift at a convenience store in Maryville.

And I was held up at gunpoint.

Let me tell you folks, I don't care how big and bad you think you are, or how many Steven Seagal movies you've watched, if you haven't trained, practiced, or been in that situation before, you will freeze up. Period.

The guy walked up to the counter at a time when nobody else was in the store, pointed his gun at me and told me to empty the cash register.

I did.

I started to empty the drawer when he stopped me, and told me to take the drawer out so he could take the money himself. I pulled the drawer out and set it on the counter for him, and he proceeded to help himself to what little cash there was. At one point, he actually set his gun down on the counter to grab money from the drawer, and I had a choice to make. I could make a grab for his gun and try to disarm him, risking a confrontation that would lead to his death or mine, or I could stay still, let him go about his business, and hope he decided not to shoot me.

What would you have done?

I did nothing.

He finished cleaning out the drawer, picked up his gun, and headed for the door, telling me not to move for 5 minutes after he left. As he left the store, he paused by the door, and looked over at me for 5 of the longest seconds of my life. I had time to realize that my decision not to act had placed my life squarely in his hands, and that I was dependent on his goodwill for my survival. I knew that I had missed my one chance to take control of the outcome out of fear, and a false sense of security. I believed that if I didn't hassle him, he wouldn't shoot me.

I was gambling on the kindness of a criminal.

And I won. He walked out of the store without killing me, but that was the beginning of the end of my convenience store career.

Lumpy was in the same boat I was, but his actions were totally different. He had practiced; he had trained, and at the moment of truth, he acted. Instead of letting the criminal control the encounter, he took control. And even more impressively, he took such complete control that he didn't have to shoot the criminal. He took a situation that normally results in a dead citizen or a dead criminal and came out with a live citizen and a disarmed captured criminal.

Yeah, I'd be a bit proud of myself.

And so would you.

Whoah! Listen to the Music!

Has anybody else noticed that the background music on many cooking shows sounds a lot like the background music for, er...um...adult feature films?

Or is it just me?

But Bush Outlawed Stem Cell Research, Didn't He?

The News Sentinel has an AP story in today's paper about a successful study using stem cell therapy to treat Muscular Dystrophy in dogs.

Stem-cell injections worked remarkably well at easing symptoms of muscular dystrophy in a group of golden retrievers, a result that experts call a significant step toward treating people.

Sharon Hesterlee, vice president of translational research at the Muscular Dystrophy Association, called the result one of the most exciting she's seen in her eight years with the organization. Her group helped pay for the work.

She stressed that it's not yet clear whether such a treatment would work in people but said she had "cautious optimism" about it.

Weren't we told in campaign commercials that President Bush and the heartless Republicans had outlawed stem cell research?

The study used stem cells taken from the affected dogs or other dogs, rather than from embryos. For human use, the idea of using such "adult" stem cells from humans would avoid the controversial method of destroying human embryos to obtain stem cells. (snip) The scientists worked with golden retrievers that suffer a crippling form of dystrophy very much like the human one. Researchers studied the effect of repeated injections into the bloodstream of a kind of stem cell extracted from blood-vessel walls.

Weren't we told that adult stem cells weren't as flexible as embryonic stem cells, and couldn't be used to generate different tissues? Here, we've got blood vessel wall cells being used to cultivate nerve tissues.

Cossu said he hopes to start a small experiment in children in the next year or two.

Weren't we told that embryonic stem cells were the best hope for treatments for muscular dystrophy, Parkinsons, multiple sclerosis and other diseases? And that adult stem cells just weren't promising enough?

I guess we were told wrong.

Generally Speaking

My belief that the media is driven primarily by profit notwithstanding, has anybody else noticed that for the last few weeks of the election cycle, the only generals we heard from in the media told us we were losing in Iraq and that we should pull out quickly, but now that the election is over, the only generals we're hearing from are saying that leaving early or setting a timetable would lead to disaster.

Most curious.

The American People Have Spoken, and They Want Change

Which is why we're hearing the same old names coming to the front for leadership positions in congress on both sides of the aisle.

"We represent change, and to prove it, we're going to change our minds about change."

By the way, way back in the past, almost two years ago, I compared Howard Dean to Newt Gingrich:

The ascension of Howard Dean as DNC chair has the potential to reform and revitalize the left just as Newt Gingrich's Contract With America did for the right. (I can hear jaws from both sides of the ideological aisle ricocheting off of their keyboards right now as I compare The Scream © to St. Newt. It's kinda fun when I do that.)

Just think back to 1992 when we really didn't know much about Newt, who he was, or what he was. He was the Minority Whip, and had a reputation as an extremist, a rabble rouser, and the kind of guy you use to rally your base, but hide in the closet when the campaign goes national so as not to scare off the swing voters.

Sound familiar?

And all this supposedly scary man did was to take core conservative values, frame them in a way that made them acceptible to those very same swing voters, and used those values to create a platform that in 1994 wrested control of the House of Representatives from the Democrats for the first time in 4 decades. He did this in a time when his party had suffered an embarrassing defeat in a presidential election and was fragmenting into a loose coalition of special interests.

Again, sound familiar?

And now the Dems have taken Congress. So obviously, it's time to fire Dean.

Borat: A Non Review

Let me see, a movie that was filmed using lies and deceptive editing for the sole purpose of showing America at its worst.

Yeah, that's a movie I want to see.

Did Adam Sorkin have anything to do with this movie?

BlogFest Reminder

What: Post Election BlogFest
Where: Barley's in the Old City, Knoxville
When: Friday, Nov 17 6:30PM
Why: To celebrate the end of political ads for another 12 months or so.

Come one, come all, bring friends, kids, babies, spouses, even that strange guy that stares at you over the water cooler at work.

RSVP me here, or by email

Grading on the Curve

Fulmer has something on John Adams and the News Sentinel sports staff. Looking at today's Vol Report in the KNS, it's obvious that something is going on.

Let's start with the report card for the game.

• Quarterbacks C
  
• Running Backs C+
  
• Wide ReceiversC-
  
• Offensive Line D
  
• Defensive Line D
  
• Linebackers D-
  
• Secondary D
  
• Special Teams C-
  
• Coaching D

Now, back when I was in school, if I made those grades, I'd get a D+ overall. I would have also gotten a trip out to the woodshed courtesy of my father.

The KNS gave the Vols an overall grade of ...wait for it...

B-???

That's some curve they've got going on there.

And John Adams, last seen ripping Phil Fulmer a new one for his handling of the Goodfellas Three, displayed his softer side today, lavishing praise on the Vols after their worst shellacking of the season. I'm wondering if Fulmer didn't offer to have Arian Foster come over to the sports desk to help out with dispute resolution or something.

Yes, John, the Vols have overachieved. But no, John, beating Vandy and Kentucky does not ever constitute 'finishing strong.' Not at UT. Not ever.

Deja Vu

I saw the trailer for Deja Vu when I went to the movies the other night.

It looks like a pretty entertaining movie, but I think I've seen it before.

Speaking of Illegal Immigration

One of the favorite gambits from the left is to loudly proclaim that either in addition to or in place of border security, we should levy fines against companies that hire the illegals. They reason that if illegal aliens couldn't find work, then they wouldn't come here illegally.

I think it's a brilliant plan. In fact, I think we should take the very same logic and apply it in many other areas.

• Fine landlords who rent to illegals. If they can't find a place to live, they won't come here illegally, right?
• Fine doctors who provide medical treatment for illegals. If they can't get medical care, they won't come here illegally, right?
• Fine anybody who sells a car to an illegal. If they can't get wheels, they won't come here illegally, right?
• Fine any utility that supplies power, water, or sewer services to illegals. If they can't turn on the lights, they won't come here illegally, right?

It's really a wonderful idea the libs have come up with, isn't it? Just deny those here illegally all the benefits of being here, and they won't come here illegally.

But for some reason, most libs seem to lack the courage of their convictions. They stop with fining the employers. It's as if the libs think it's okay to take money from illegal aliens in exchange for food, clothing, housing, etc; it's just not okay to let them earn that money.

It's very puzzling.

The Real Winners of the Election

Illegal Aliens.

Not only will Bush get his amnesty package through Congress, meaning that 12 million illegal aliens will become legal (and I'm betting that the part about the fine will vanish faster than the Republican majority) but the Democratic Congress will also be giving them a pay raise, courtesy of the Nancy Pelosi, who wants to raise the minimum wage by a couple of dollars.

I guess Christmas came a month early for the illegals.

You know, a few months ago, I saw a sign at an illegal immigration rally that said "Today We March; Tomorrow We Vote."

Why bother? We'll do it for you.

Stranger Than Fiction

4 of 5 stars

Some movies disappoint you by failing to deliver as expected. A recent example was The Prestige, which hid a compelling storyline and talented cast behind needlessly confusing editing that misled the viewer rather than misdirected him. Other movies surprise you by delivering more than you expected and Stranger than Fiction is one of them. Instead of a light fluffy comedy, we get a very funny, yet very thoughtful movie on the nature of life, comedy, tragedy, and what gives them all meaning. Will Ferrell heads up a fine cast as Harold Crick, a man who has no life until author Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson) writes him one. Unfortunately for Harold, Kay writes tragedies, so she gives him this life only to write his untimely death.

Where the movie would have worked as just a light comedy, (Think All of Me with Steve Martin and Lilly Tomlin) but writer Zach Helm and director Marc Forster ambitiously chose to go for more, and they were successful.

Instead of milking the material for laughs at Crick's expense, they allowed the humor to evolve from the characters and the situations. This natural approach opens the door for honest emotional responses between the characters on screen, and between them and the audience. And that makes sense when you think about the title of the movie. What is stranger than fiction?

Truth.

Unlike Sideways, which had unlikeable characters in a very dark and painful movie, (I still don't know why they classed it as a comedy) Stranger than Fiction explores similar territory in a much more enjoyable and engaging way.

Pre-Game Prediction

The SEC is getting squirrelly.

Auburn beats LSU who beats Tennessee who beats Georgia who beats Auburn.

Florida beats Tennessee who beats South Carolina who is beating Florida.

Gotta love SEC football, right.

So how will Tennessee do against Arkansas at Arkansas?

Well, let's see. The Vols start a reserve quarterback, and a mediocre run defense against the best rushing attack in the nation.

Ark. 31, Vols 21.

This is one of those times when I'd love to be wrong.

By the way, 9-3 is a great achievement for this team. 8-4, which would include a loss to either Kentucky or Vandy, would be a dismal finish to a great season.

Half Time Update Boy, was I way off! This is ugly. Out of curiosity, do we have a defensive secondary? I haven't seen one today. Maybe they missed the plane.

Comment Plug-in Blues

Actually, not so blue after all. The built in controls are doing a good job so far of automating spam killing, so I'm not going to worry about the Scode plugin for awhile.

If it gets bad again, I'll play with it some more

Help Me!

One of the main reasons I upgraded was to get control of the freakin' comment and trackback spam. I downloaded the plug in that Les and Michael use, but it sends all comments directly to the junk folder, no matter what I do.

The plug in is scode.

any suggestions?

Upgrade has been Completed.

I hope!

Wow, lots of new toys for me to play with. Let' see if I can break anything.

Please Stand By

I am about to attempt to upgrade my Moveable Type installation. I've yet to have one go smoothly, so there may be some turbulence. Please keep your seat backs and tray tables upright and stowed, and keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...

Blog Fest Time!

Okay, the elections are over, the Dems are giddy, the Reps are depressed, the independents are confused, and the libertarians are disorganized.

Sounds like the perfect time to consume some adult beverages in celebration or commiseration, or just because you like adult beverages. Besides, I owe SayUncle a beer since Corker won, and this gives me the opportunity to pay up.

So I am happy to announce the next BlogFest will be held on Nov. 17th, once again at Barley's in the Old City, starting at 6:30PM and running until we're asked to leave or get arrested. The location is flexible. I live out in Sevier County, so I don't know all the good spots in Knoxville, so if any of you have a favorite spot you'd like to meet up at, let me know and we'll go from there.

Anyway, to recap:

BlogFest Friday, Nov 17 6:30PM until whenever, at Barleys in the Old City.

Curses! Scooped Again by the Puppyblender!

Well, as most of the free world now knows, the Knoxville News Sentinel has become the second newspaper in America to carry Chris Muir's Day By Day comic, one that I've followed since I first became aware of it. While I'm sure that my friends on the left will disagree, to me it's every bit as funny as Doonesbury used to be before it lapsed into self-parody.

I haven't subscribed to the KNS for a couple of years now, and even though they are going to make it available online, and even though I have it on my site already, it's worth 50 cents a day to me to show my appreciation, both to Chris for writing the strip, and the KNS for carrying it.

So KNS finance department, chalk up at least one new subscriber to the paper.

And may I point out that I am doing this even though my good buddy at the KNS failed to alert me to this new development, despite the amount of time I've spent in his newsroom, making him and his colleagues look good. Sure, sure, my 3 or 4 regular readers don't mean much when compared to Glenn's bazillions, but a cc: on the email would have been nice.

But that's okay, really, it is. I'm a professional sort of amateur. I certainly won't allow this snub to color my coverage of the business section of the KNS.

That would be wrong.

Open Letter to the Democrats

You've been telling us for years that you could be trusted with the safety and security of our nation.

Here's your chance to live up to that promise.

Don't blow it.

Open Letter to President Bush

We elected a President, not a politician. You forgot that. Now we all may pay a steep price for your lapse.

Election Post Mortem

For those of you who voted to try and send a message to the Republicans to get back to conservative principles, it looks like you wasted your vote. Listening to Dubya and some other Republicans, they're all trying to spin this as not about what the voters said it was about, namely a referendum on Iraq and the War on Terror. While I don't blame them for trying to reject this idea, since it really says some harsh things about the average American citizen, you have to address the world as it is, not as you wish it was.

The American people do not believe the War in Iraq is worth the cost.

Look at the agenda Speaker Pelosi has laid out for the first 100 hours of Congress; capaign reform (again), raising the minimum wage, raise taxes, cut student loan interest rates, extend embryonic stem cell research. It's all domestic issues, like 9/11 never happened. Yes, there's a nod to 9/11 in the form of enacting all the recommendations of the 9/11 commission, which did nothing to address the fact that the terrorist threat comes from abroad. It's reactive rather than proactive.

But that 100 hour plan and it's underlying assumptions were the centerpiece of the Democratic campaign strategy.

And it resonated with the American voter.

According to the American voters, the world did not change on 9/11. We shouldn't be in Iraq. Islamofascism is not a credible threat to the US. It's far more important to raise the minimum wage and raise taxes on the wealthy and approve embryonic stem cell research than it is to fight terrorism or secure our borders.

So be it.

Hey, maybe they're even right. Maybe terrorism isn't a big deal, and losing a few thousand citizens every few years is an acceptable loss for avoiding war. After all, as some lefty bloggers have pointed out, the actual risk of any one American getting killed by terrorists is far less than risks we accept every day, like driving to work, or smoking, or eating too much junk food. Maybe the Islamic fundamentalists will realize that we are too weak to be a threat to them, and they'll leave us alone while they torture, rape, and repress their own people. It will suck for the people trapped by terror, but as long as they aren't Americans, it's not our problem anymore. We can let the UN handle it; that's what they are there for.

And the UN has such a stellar record!

And just think, Germany and France will like us again! I can't count the nights I've laid awake in bed, worrying that the French don't like us. Our social safety net may collapse under the weight of rampant immigration because we opened our borders in the name of human rights; we may tax ourselves into poverty in the name of compassion for the unfortunate; we may muzzle ourselves in the name of fairness; and we may weaken ourselves in the name of peace, but the French will like us.

It's a fair trade, don't you think?

I've rewritten this post three times, trying to let the anger fade, and it hasn't worked. I have to call it like I see it, or I can't write.

Americans copped out on Nov. 7th.

I don't buy the argument that the electorate has been hoodwinked by a liberal media, or has been mislead by liberal propaganda. We have too many sources of information that make the truth easy to find. Shortly before the election, my son complained, saying that he hated all the negative advertising. When I pointed out that when one candidate ran an ad that wasn't true, the other candidate needed some way to respond, his argument boiled down to "Well, it's 'he said, she said.' How do you know who is telling the truth?"

This from a kid who was sitting next to me on the couch using a laptop computer connected via wifi to the internet, where the facts are readily available. The problem is not a lack of information; the problem is that most people are too damned lazy to find out the facts for themselves. If they have been mislead, they have been willing accomplices to the process.

I don't blame the media; I don't blame the liberals; I don't blame the politicians. Heck, I don't blame anybody.

But I do recognize the simple fact that the American people of today never would have left British rule for independence.

They're no longer citizens; they're subjects.

And they want it that way.

A Blogger Visits the MSM Part 2: Jack Lail has the Best Job at the KNS

Jack Lail has it, and nobody else knows it.

It has nothing to do with his staff, four very bright, intelligent, and attractive young women.

It has nothing to do with the fact that he gets to play on a computer all day; everybody at the KNS does that.

It has nothing to do with the fact that his cube is tucked back into the corner of the newsroom farthest from Tom Chester’s office.

It has everything to do with the fact that in a time when newspaper staffs and budgets are shrinking faster than the President’s approval ratings, Jack Lail’s staff is growing. That’s a remarkable achievement and a sign of things to come as the internet continues to play a larger role in how people get their news. Not only is online news here to stay, but there’s no doubt in my mind that it will come to dominate the news industry. Like I said in the last installment, web based news has the capacity to combine the immediacy of television with the in depth reporting of a traditional paper, resulting in the ultimate news delivery system.

If they can figure out two tiny, small, hardly worth mentioning, I didn’t really want to bring this up, but I thought you might like to think about it issues. The first and simpler of the two is “How do we package our content appropriately?” The second, trickier one is “How do we get people to pay for something they’re used to getting for free?”

The packaging issue is easy to solve; you take the shotgun approach. You just start throwing things up against the wall and see what sticks. I was over in the multimedia section of the newsroom when Tom Chester came over to talk to Jack Lail. I don’t know what the conversation was supposed to be about, but it quickly evolved into a discussion between Tom and Erin Chapin over how to utilize audio on the website. The following is a paraphrased version of the discussion:

TC: We need audio on the website and we should put it to Thorogood. Everybody likes George Thorogood.
EC: We need to have a reason for audio, other than “We need audio.” That leads to crap.
TC: This is the multimedia section. Audio is part of multimedia. You make it work. Then it won’t be crap.
Jigsha Desai (from her cubicle): At the Washington youth conference most of those surveyed preferred their news in a text format
TC: We need audio.

On the surface, this looked like a confrontation between the old guard and the new, but it really wasn’t. I talked to both of them afterward, and they were really saying the same thing, only coming from different points of reference.

I talked with Erin for awhile about what I saw as the strengths of internet publishing vs paper. I’m not a huge fan of audio and video, although I’m slowly adding some audio posts (I’m not fond of the word “podcast”, liking it only slightly more than “blogger” which to me sounds like a 70’s video game.) It does have a place, but I’m like Erin; the content has to be served by the format. For example, my Voter’s Guide benefited from audio, because I was able to put more expression into my voice than I can capture with a keyboard. This post, however, would be a snoozer in audio. (And probably still is as text. Sigh.) My thought was that the strength of on-line publishing is the freedom it offers. In a print edition, you are limited in space, and many times have to leave things out of the story. You can’t give an in depth treatment to every story; there simply isn’t enough space. This isn’t a problem online. You aren’t limited by advertising or column inches. You can write a story and include all the relevant details, and any background info the reader may need to place the story in context.

When I said this to Erin, she bowed up a bit, and told me that an online edition of the paper should not be a repository for content that wasn’t deemed good enough for print. She told me that there is a rule that every section front must have an on-line component, which she saw as good in theory, but often resulted in mediocre content being published. I was surprised by her reaction since that wasn’t what I was talking about at all. My guess is that when newspapers first started building an on-line presence, the multimedia desk was almost like a ghetto, an Island of Misfit News Stories. Today, and more importantly tomorrow, nothing could be further from the truth. Even the old guard newspaper editors know that the future is on-line, not print.

When I talked to Tom, he made it clear that his goal was to push content into as many formats as possible, in order to see what worked. When he said “We need audio,” he had already taken into account the fact that all stories wouldn’t work in that format, but that by pushing it, they would discover more quickly which stories would work. He relies on his staff to determine how to take advantage of the varying formats to best present the stories, whether by presenting different parts of the story in different formats, or by framing the story to appeal to different demographic groups.

This story does have a happy ending. Just listen to the Big Dog audio reports on the KNS website. George Thorogood plays loud and clear!

The next problem, getting people to pay for what they’re getting for free is going to be a tougher nut to crack. Currently, Newspapers make 75% of their proceeds from advertising. Circulation, the $0.50 a day you pay for the paper, only accounts for 20% of revenue. The final 5% comes from other business, like business printing and other things. Online revenue accounts for about 5% of total revenue. The goal is to ramp that up to 30%. On-line advertising is still struggling to survive, which means that to meet it’s goal, the KNS is going to have to shift it’s revenue model somewhat, and that means, wait for it, subscriptions.

The model is already in place with GoVols Extra, the pay site half of the Sports pages. Most of the content from the print sports pages is available on-line for free, but some of it is only available if you pay for it. GoVols Extra also includes content not found in the print paper, but in many cases, it is information that the sports fan can find elsewhere for free, if he knows where to look. Right now, the pay site is doing okay, but it’s mainly seeing traffic from folks outside the circulation area of the Sentinel, and that’s what creates the problem for the KNS. How will they be able to convince readers of the on-line paper to start to pay for it? There are two possible answers. First, they could stop printing the paper and force people to go online.

That’s not going to happen.

The second option is to provide original on-line content that people can’t get anywhere else.

And that leads us back to Tom Chester’s determination to push content into different media. The only way for the KNS to meet their goals is to create original online content that people will be willing to subscribe to. And that means that Jack Lail, who is in charge of developing the on-line content, has the best job at the KNS. He gets to make the new stuff that people will want to pay for.

Back at the KNS

My secret plan has worked!

By holding back on all the dirt I picked up on my last trip, (a trick I picked up from Eason Jordan at CNN, by the way) the Knoxville News Sentinel has allowed me back into their newsroom to cover them covering election night.

Little do they know what they have coming....

Heh. (To coin a phrase.)

Anyway, I'll be here for most of the night, until things stop happening or they throw me out, so stay tuned.

5:11PM

Just got out of the 4:30 meeting which set the table for tomorrow's paper. The general feeling here is that Corker will win, the Dems will take the house, the Reps will keep the Senate, the marriage amendment will pass, and that Campbell will probably win, but it's really too close to tell. (Disclaimer: These are not poll results, and nobody said these things specifically. It's just the impression I got as they discussed how to layout tomorrow's paper.) Most of the discussion centered on where to put each story, how much space was needed, and possible changes needed if things went differently than expected.

In non-election related news, they briefly discussed the situation with the Vols, where Fulmer suspended the players involved in Saturday's incident. Leaving aside the question of whether Fulmer should have suspended the entire defensive secondary for their poor play on the last drive, it was mentioned that it seems that the UT Sports department thinks slugging a football player (half a game suspension for Foster) is less serious than talking to one without permission (two week suspension for Dave Hooker).

6:13 PM

One interesting thing is that according to the folks here, there have been no reports of major voting irregularities, other than the usual long lines. I heard reports of problems in Memphis from Fox News, including Harold Ford complaining about Diebold early this morning. KNS blogger Michael Silence noted reports yesterday of problems in Memphis including missing smart cards in Shelby County.

Then again, maybe reports of voting irregularities are no longer considered irregular.

7:30PM

I'm about to go on a trip with Jigsha Desai to the closest precicnt to get some ideas of how last minute voting is going, as well as a quick stop by both the Republican and Democrat strongholds to get a taste of the moods there. Should be interesting.

9:04PM

BAck from the polling place at West High School. The voting numbers were pretty interesting. Just over 300 people voted there and there was a line of people about 15 deep when we walked in just at 8PM. While the workers were waiting for the last minute arrivals to cast their ballots, I took the opportunity to talk to a couple of them. One gentleman told me that voting had been steady at the High School, ad that he could remember times a few years ago when they might only get 13 votes or so during a mid term election.

Turnout was significantly better than that tonight.

AS for the issues on the ballot, Harold Ford carried the precinct, the Marriage amendment passed, the tax break for seniors passed, and Bredesen won handily. Looking at the latest results from Fox, it looks like the Marriage Amendment will be an easy winner, just like Bredesen. The Ford Corker race is much tighter, but Corker is in the lead right now.

9:15PM

Fox just called the race in Connecticut for Lieberman. That's what happens when you let the zealots pick the candidates.

12:06

We just got back from touring the two campaign headquarters. Quick impressions:
The Republicans were trying to sound upbeat, but the strain seemed clear. The party was held in a smallish room, and aside from a victory speech from Stacy Campfield, the atmosphere seemed a bit grim.

The democrats by contrast were jovial, apparently confident that they would be getting good news tonight. And they weren't disappointed. Even though Schree Pettigrew lost her race, her concession speech was mainly upbeat, although I missed the ritual congratulations to the winner.

The contrasts between the two rooms were interesting.

• The Reps watched Fox. The Dems watched CNN
  
• The Reps seemed stiff andd stodgy, wearing suits and ties. The Dems were relaxed and partying, including one girl who wore a T-shirt covered in Pettigrew stickers.
  
• The Reps had no music to speak of. The Dems had a guitar player/singer who kept the energy up through the evening.
  
• The kids in both parties emulated their elders. The young Reps were dressed in dark blue blazers and ties. The young Dems were dressed for fun.

12:25AM

AP wire projects that Corker will win in Tennessee. That was the last major piece to the puzzle, and the newsroom is in high gear.

Or rather, what's left of the newsroom.

Tom Chester's voice called out the results and the few people left to finalize the paper began working rapidly. According to the 4:30 budget, the 4 star edition of the paper closed out at Midnight, so the earliest run would not have the Corker win, but would have the Dem takeover of the house. The folks left here are scrambling to reset the 5 star edition to include the Corker win on the front page.

12:41AM

Random thoughts as I finish up.

• Harry Tindell was just finishing his speech at the exact moment that CNN called the House for the Dems. The screen was behind him, so he wasn't aware that the burst of applause and cheering was for CNN, not for him.
• When we went to the polling station, all of the workers there were older, except for one youngster who operated the voting machine. Why aren't there more people my age involved in running an election?
• By the way, those poll workers we talked to worked the entire day, from 7 AM until the last vote was cast and the voting reports run and the machines broken down. At West High School, the last person in line voted at 8:35. I'm certain that there were people in other polling stations who worked much later.

  That's a long workday when you're 43, much less 63.
  

• It appears that Heath Shular has finally found a professional game he can win, as opposed to football.
  
• The Dems are jubilant about taking control of the House, but I wonder how effective they will be. They ran way to the right in order to win the majority, and many of those newly won seats could easily vote the Republican way on some issues. Also, if all these newly elected moderates vote left instead of center, what will happen in 2008?

It's been very interesting following the coverage of the election from the KNS. It wasn't the tense, nail biting spectacle I thought it would be. In fact, other than the deadline pressure, it really seemed to be like every other story. There was no sense of victory in the newsroom over the Dem takeover of the House, and the reporters I observed in the field, print and TV, all remained aloof from the celebrations. Whatever their private feelings may have been, and there were some who shared them with me, their work remained professional.

And while I can't generalize about all papers based on spending a few hours at one of them, what I've seen here tends to confirm what I thought all along. Sure, many if not most reporters vote democrat. And sure, most papers are owned by corporations and run by boards that may never have been in the same room as a Democrat. But the only bias I saw at work at the KNS was the desire to make a dollar. They're in business to make money, simple as that, and based on that, they are going to give us what we are willing to pay for. If we want to pay for quality news, they'll give us that. If all we want to pay for is dirty laundry and gossip, they'll give us that as well.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Thanks to Jack McElroy, Jack Lail, Tom Chester, Erin Chapin, Jigsha Desai, and all the other folks at the KNS who let an amateur tag along and satisfy his curiosity. By the way, this isn't part of the series I promised. The second part of that will come out tomorrow.

12:55AM

Final update. As I was typing up those last remarks, a copy of the paper, literally hot off the presses was placed on my desk. That means less than twenty minutes after Bob Corker was declared victor, the Sentinel had the headlines changes, formatted, and sent to the press, and live copies came out.

I'm impressed.

2:01AM

This really is the last update. I just got home only to find that apparently, I just went the entire evening with my fly unzipped.

Don't tell anyone, Okay?

Random Thoughts on Today's Election

I always like to watch the effect the fringes of each party has on the health of the party. During the 2004 election cycle, I watched as the rabid zealots pushed candidates who had no shot at winning a general election. Even though these folks had no shot, they were treated as credible contenders by the media. Remember the Howard Dean phenomena?

What's interesting right now is that the two parties have split in how they handle their fringes. Democrats have embraced the fringe. Howard Dean is now a mainstay of the DNC. Michael Moore is the new voice of the Democratic Party. And Ned Lamont is the Democratic candidate for Senator from Connecticut.

Compare that with the Republicans. In Tennessee, the money went to Bob Corker in the primaries, not Ed Bryant, the truly conservative candidate. Tennessee Republicans chose a candidate who could convincingly run to the center,one that would not offend or scare off the moderate voter.

Which strategy will prove more successful? We'll find out tonight.

Vols and Tigers

LSU has the better team; it's as simple as that. Granted, Tennessee played without several key players (Ainge, Johnson, Coker, Harrell) and Swain is still not at 100%, but dealing with injuries is part of the game.

I was very happy with Crompton's play. He could use a little more seasoning, but Tennessee is in great shape at quarterback even after Ainge graduates.

The biggest surprise to me was that the Vol defense, which is usually a strong point or the team, cost us the game. On the last drive, the Vol secondary really let us down on the 4th and 8 play, as well as the touchdown. I don't know if the players blew the coverage or if Chavis called the wrong set, but the Tiger receivers couldn't have been more open. It looked like I was playing defensive back on those plays.

But it's over and done with now; no reason to linger over it. Not when we get to play Arkansas next, and they're every bit as good as LSU. We could be in for two losses in a row. That would be disappointing after the great start they made, but not overly so. The Vols are back to playing Tennessee football; going deep for the big play, or grinding out the yards, they play hard and hit harder. Sure, I hate it when they lose, but if they've played hard, and done their best, I can't ask for anymore.

UPDATE: OK, yes I can. Is it too much to ask for these players to not get arrested for being stupid?

Apparently it is. Suspension should be the least punishment they face. I'd kick them off the team.

This is How It Starts

I didn't want to kill him, but she left me no choice.

A few days back, Barry, who is participating in the NaNoWriMo, asked for an opening line for his novel.

I supplied the above line, which Barry most unwisely decided not to use.

So I'm going to use it, only not in a novel. Stay tuned.

A Question about Mail

My e-mail has been flooded with messages saying that the e-mail I sent out was rejected. I;m getting like 3000 rejected messages a day. Obviously, I;m not sending out 3000 e-mails a day.

So here is my question.

Is somebody somehow adding my address to the send info of their spam, or has somebody hacked my computer and is actually sending out zillions of little spamlets?

The second question is "How the heck do I put a stop to it?"