The Washington Post

“I am sorry to hear that Bob Woodruff and his cameraman was hurt in Iraq, but it seems like thousands of GI’s and civilians have been seriously injured, and we hear very little about them,” an Arlington reader said.”It’s a tragedy of course that the ABC crew has been seriously injured in Iraq — but does it warrant the ‘breaking news’ coverage it’s received?” said another in Bainbridge, Ga. “American soldiers and contractors are injured and worse every day over there and they barely get a few odd grafs.”

A Madison, Wis., reader added: “Are they any more newsworthy than the injuries that befall our soldiers each and every day? Is this just media myopia?”

Fair and sensible questions.  A little too insightful.  They’re response?

These are fair questions. Obviously, as an anchor for a major network, Woodruff enjoys a certain degree of fame, and famous people tend to get more media coverage. After all, Peter Jennings was only one of many who died of lung cancer, Martha Stewart was only one of many convicted in an insider trading case, and Kobe Bryant was only one of many accused of sexual assault. The outpouring of e-mail to ABC about Woodruff and camerman Doug Vogt underscores the point.

Famous people also tend to become symbols, and Woodruff has become emblematic of the vulnerability of U.S. troops to these roadside IEDs, and of the media’s difficulty in covering this war. Everyone I’ve talked to at ABC stresses that they understand that many American soldiers have been killed or wounded by these bombs, even though their names are not widely known. Woodruff and Vogt, of course, risked their lives precisely so they could tell the story of the war, and specifically whether Iraqi troops are able to assume more of the burden from the American forces.

So they’re not just another statistic, like the rest of our guys in Arlington or at Fort Sam Houston’s burn center, for example.

“Many journalists are forbidden by their security consultants from leaving the confines of their hotels. Though not in the protected Green Zone, those hotels are surrounded by armed guards and concrete blast walls. Often, news organizations send their Iraqi employees to do interviews and gather information.

So, all of a sudden its not that they’re lazy and incompetent.  These brave descendents of the Watergate reporters are letting mean old security consultants tell them the best way to report the war from Iraq is in their living room in northern Virginia.

It’s open trackback day… So work on your masterpiece of blogdom, and then link and trackback to this page.While it may not help your TTLB score, I’ll generally hit all the sites, and permanently link in the blogroll if you have good stuff.
That is all…

New Black Cherry with Vanilla Coke. Not your normal cherry vanilla.
I give it… Three Pirate Thumbs Up!

Mostly Cajun has the instructions for men and women using ATM machines.  I’ll only quote the male procedures, head on over his way to see how women are supposed to use an ATM…

Male Procedure:1. Drive up to the cash machine.

2. Put down your car window.

3. Insert card into machine and enter PIN.

4. Enter amount of cash required and withdraw.

5. Retrieve card, cash and receipt.

6. Put window up.

7. Drive off.

Fear of Girls tells the heartwarming tale of a couple of l33t table top gamers. Just remember, True Love is but a +2 Broadsword away.

This gets funnier every time I watch it…

I hope for a nice long life. With good friends and family to spend it with. I’d rather be happy than right, even though I’m right most of the time. I wish that I am able to do good in this world. I want the world to know that I was here, that I existed, and that thigns are better because of me.
I hope I have a quick death. Not a long, slow, lingering, painful death like my grandparents before me.

I also hope that seconds before the end comes, just as the darkness starts to fall, my conciousness is downloaded into an atomic-powered killbot loaded up with guass rifles and a couple of MAL Assault Cannons in 12.7mm.

Found what used to be Howard AFB on Google Earth.

And it is completely empty.  Not a plane in site.  A few cars here and there, most likely just looting stuff.  When I was last there in around 1992 the place was very much happening.  Lots of activity.  I’m sure lots of funds going into the local economy.

And now it’s just sitting there…

Court says ID checks at airports constitutional

Airlines and the U.S government have the right to keep passengers from boarding planes if they refuse to show personal identification, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday.
GilmoreJohn Gilmore, an early Sun Microsystems employee and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an online civil liberties group, sued after Southwest and United Airlines in 2002 both did not allow him on board their flights when he refused to show any ID.

In court filing, he argued that requiring identification from airline passengers was unconstitutional, but a three-judge panel of 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed.

Libertarians are outraged, liberals blame Bush, slashdotters blather on, and so forth.

Please note:  He wasn’t arrested, threatened, interrogated, or anything else but politely told no ID, no plane ride.

Over at Dodgeblogium

The Firefly-Serenity Chinese Pinyinary

So now you know exactly what they were sayin’ to eachother, dong ma?

Thanks to the Flea…

Thank you Dane Bramage. I’ll send the cleaning bill your way for showing me the way to more of this…

Through some miracle, it actually tasted nothing like it smelled. In fact, there was very little flavor other than sour, watery alcohol. It’s hard to believe this started out as a bag of fruit snacks and grape juice. Yet somehow these ingredients went from sweet and child-like to harsh and alcoholic quicker than Lindsay Lohan.

Whoa… I remember these!  Cinnamon toothpics.  They were like the prison cigarettes of my school growing up.  You could get anything in trade for these.

Now Amazon has ‘em.  I’m sure they’re as good as always.

Does this chair look dangerous to you?

Apparently it is.  At least for Firefighters in England.  They’re not allowed to sit on the chair until they read a 4 page safety manual.  You’d think they’d be more worried about the danger of running into a burning building.

Heard this from a friend whose uncle’s nephew’s cousin’s best friend’s ex-college roommate swears it happened to him.

He figured that his girlfriend finally discovered the internet and email. They had a huge fight over it and broke up because of what he thought she was doing.  She swears it wasn’t the case, but he just knew it was true.

Seems that he started getting emails about enlarging his penis…

The Strange Story of H.M

When twenty-seven year old Henry M. entered the hospital in 1953 for radical brain surgery that was supposed to cure his epilepsy, he was hopeful that the procedure would change his life for the better. Instead, it trapped him in a mental time warp where TV is always a new invention and Truman is forever president. The removal of large sections of his temporal lobes left Henry unable to form any new personal memories, but his tragic loss revolutionized the field of psychology and made “H.M.” the most-studied individual in the history of brain research.

Yeah, I know… they did a Drew Barrymore movie about this once…

This has been said before on this blog… but after the commute I just had, I decided that it needed to be said again.

While you are driving…

DO use your turn signal!
DON’T try to read your newspaper, fix your makeup, or fold origami while you drive.
DO take a moment to LOOK before you merge.
DON’T wait until the last minute to merge into your turn lane.
DO feel free to use your horn once in a while.
DON’T believe that your crumple zone makes you invincible.
DO turn down the rap music… if I want to hear it, I’ll go buy the CD myself.

And finally…
GET OFF THE PHONE, IT MAKES YOU DRIVE LIKE A B|TCH!

Thank you for your time and attention.

Magnum P.I. is back!

The story line for the Universal Pictures film sees Magnum, with the help of his former military pals, searching for a missing buddy.

It has to be better than all the other recent old TV to movies that have flopped.  I hope!

New Scientist has an article that shows how computeres analyzing politician’s speech in Canada prove that the liberals are lying about… well, probably everthing.

With the most fiercely fought Canadian election in more than a decade taking place on Monday, the crossfire of political rhetoric between the incumbent prime minister and his Conservative Party challenger is becoming heated – but which one is more trustworthy?According to a new computer algorithm, Prime Minister Paul Martin, of the Liberal Party, spins the subject matter of his speeches dramatically more than Conservative Party leader, Stephen Harper, and the New Democratic Party leader, Jack Layton.

Check the article for the actual scores and other issues.  The conservative Stephen Harper is the most trustworthy of the bunch based on this analysis.

It’s open trackback day… So work on your masterpiece of blogdom, and then link and trackback to this page.

While it may not help your TTLB score, I’ll generally hit all the sites, and permanently link in the blogroll if you have good stuff.
That is all…