February 08, 2006

Mid-Week Round-Up

Sometimes there is just so much interesting or bizarre stuff out there that I have to squeeze it all into one post of "quick hits".

First up, Paul Mirengoff at Powerline was at a press conference for Sen. Dick Durbin of IL and threw him a curve-ball about the NSA surveillance issue. Durbin was caught flat-footed because Mirengoff framed the question in a legal context. The video is here. It's pretty amusing.

The Senator looked like someone had just smacked him across the face with a sock full of manure and he asked Mirengoff what publication he represented. Durbin, apparently, has never heard of Pajamas Media or Powerline. A reader of the blog pointed out that such mediocre minds as Durbin's are not used to being questioned by legal specialists (Mirengoff is an attorney by trade) but rather by ignorant reporters who barely grasp the law themselves.

It's going to get harder and harder to prevent folks like Paul Mirengoff from asking these kinds of questions. Beware the bloggers!!

Next, never mind Global Warming. A Russian astronomer is predicting a "mini-Ice Age" later this century. But it has nothing to do with human activities. This scientist points out a troublesome fact for those Chicken Littles who proclaim that we are the cause of this phenomenon: "Dramatic changes in the earth's surface temperatures are an ordinary phenomenon, not an anomaly, he said, and result from variations in the sun's energy output and ultraviolet radiation." Hey, my oil bill has been pretty managable this winter, so I'm not complaining.

Go ahead, reach for that nacho-cheese chalupa. A new 8-year study has found no link between a low-fat diet and reduced instances of cancer or heart disease. Hey, it's in the NY Times so it's got to be true, right? Seriously though folks. Eat sensibly, get some exercise and stop obsessing about the latest fad diets. Enjoy life because it's not going to adhere to your timetable.

Now to politics. Democrats are worried that they won't be able to capitalize on the opposition's troubles enough to make any substantial gains in November. IL Senator Barack Obama says "We have been in a reactive posture for too long. I think we have been very good at saying no, but not good enough at saying yes." He's only half-right. He's leaving out the part where you have to offer voters something to say "yes" too as well.

We all know that FoxNews Channel is kicking CNN's ass on cable. And it's getting worse every day for the Atlanta-based news network. But apparently, CNN is doing the opposite on the web. CNN.com got more than six times the hits than FoxNews.com in January 2006. I have two explanations. First, as was pointed out by my FoxNews Channel watching, CNN.com surfing sister-in-law, the FoxNews website sucks. I have to agree. It's hard to navigate and find exactly what you're looking for. CNN.com definitely has advantages here.

But also, people who are looking for news and information that isn't filtered by Liberal media bias have soooo many alternatives on the Web. Those people that make up the market that FoxNews.com would most appeal too are busy surfing blogs and conservative web-zines like National Review, the Weekly Standard, The American Spectator, Human Events, Townhall.com...(the list goes on and on). Liberals have a lot fewer choices on the web to find what they're looking for and most of them head to CNN.com by default. And considering which media produces the most ad revenues, I seriously doubt that News Corp would want to change places with Time-Warner.

I'll finish with my candidate for dipshit celebrity of the week: Gwyneth Paltrow. She lives in Britain and recently said in an interview that the British are "more intelligent" than Americans. Okay. Well, this is a woman who named her daughter "Apple". I have no doubt that to her the British are very intelligent. The problem is that she assumes that the average American is as stupid as she is.

Posted by: Gary at 09:51 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 670 words, total size 5 kb.

1 So glad to hear Gwynnie is thinking of us from her new home overseas...don't rush home, sweetie!

Posted by: Pam at February 08, 2006 09:22 PM (RIEhT)

2 having read your blog I'm scared that airhead gwyneth is maybe one of the more intelligent yanks... and whats that a few posts up about germany having to support you as an "ally"? Did you know that we've (the UK, your "ally") been paying 2bn a year to you EACH year since the 2nd war... who made the big sacrifice? The UK gave away all of the empire (at strong American "request") and a lot of our money, whilst the American govt. acted like war profiteers (see any parallels to now? No? Didn't think so...) Russia made an even bigger sacrifice (20+million dead fighing Nazis) and all you conservative americans can do is bitch about the cold war and commies.

Posted by: mark h at February 09, 2006 10:40 AM (ZQtz1)

3 I think you're inferring from that post that I (and other Americans) think that Europe "owes" the United States something. That's an error on your part. What we would like, however, is some cooperation. America and its allies have worked together against a common enemy before, and we need to again. When you have a nuclear-armed Iran within missile range of your homes and Radical Islamists burning European cities, nations like Germany need to recognize these threats are real. There were groups of Yanks during World War II that argued America had no business fighting Germany because they hadn't attacked us. Fortunately, they were a minority. Perhaps if we'd gotten in sooner, a lot of lives could have been saved. But how can you make a case for stopping a madman when his own neighbors won't stand up to him? "(see any parallels to now? No? Didn't think so...)"

Posted by: Gary at February 09, 2006 11:32 AM (PLHs9)

4 Mark H, you're welcome, by the way, for not having to learn German in school. I like Fox News on TV, but I agree that CNN beats them for having a more user-friendly website. Gwyneth Paltrow says some stupid shit, and married a faux-socialist musician (Coldplay sucks, by the way) but I try not to let that keep me from enjoying her movies.

Posted by: Barry at February 12, 2006 04:08 AM (kKjaJ)

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