Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Everybody must get ... wait, what?

Rough night on the culture desk at the Nation's Newspaper of Record:

A Critic’s Notebook article on Tuesday about the Newport Folk Festival, which paid tribute to Bob Dylan’s famous performance with an electric guitar there 50 years ago, misstated part of the title of a Dylan song that was played. It is “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35,” not “#12 and 25.” The article also misstated part of a lyric from the Dylan song “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” which was also performed. It is, “Forget the dead you’ve left, they will not follow you,” not “Forget the debt you left, they will not follow you.” The article also misstated the title of a song James Taylor sang. It is “Carolina in My Mind,” not “Carolina on My Mind.”

On my mind I'm going to ... Look! Up in the sky!

An obituary on Tuesday about A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, India’s 11th president, referred incorrectly to the Supermarine Spitfire, a British fighter plane that he read about as a child. It was a propeller aircraft, not a jet.

Given all this, is it time to place a new order for those "Don't Trust Anyone Under 60" T-shirts?

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Thursday, July 23, 2015

Today in Kenyan perfidy

Fair 'n' Balanced network a bit tame for you these days? Have some of the good stuff! Truth Revolt is channeling ... could it be Warner Todd Huston at Publius' Forum?

Obama has decided that newly naturalized Americans will no longer have to pledge to defend the USA against enemies. So, he’s taken out the part of the pledge requiring new citizens to bear arms on behalf of the United States or perform noncombatant duties in the armed forces in times of war.

... Notice what is at the end of that oath? Will Obama next move to end the “so help me God” part of the oath? You can bet on it.

But that is nothing compared to the fact that Obama is now giving succor to enemies of the USA by allowing pretenders to come here and now won’t even have to mouth the words that they will come to the defense of the USA.

I guess Obama felt that the millions of Muslims he’s importing into the country would feel uncomfortable pledging that they would defend the USA?

Rest easy, kids!

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Location, location, babbling racist paranoia

Sometimes, all you can do is ask: Why does Fox News hate free enterprise? WHY DOES FOX NEWS HATE AMERICA??? But there's so much packed into this frontpage tale that it's worth exploring in a little depth:

A proposal in Seattle meant to increase homeownership among Muslims by offering financing compliant with strict Islamic law -- known as Sharia -- is gaining ground in the latest test for local leaders trying to accommodate diverse religious beliefs.

Well, that's not quite what the story at The Fox Nation (borrowed from the Puget Sound Business Journal) said last week:

For some Muslims, it can be hard to buy a house, and Mayor Ed Murray plans to do something about it.

On Monday, Murray's housing committee released its recommendations for ways the city can increase housing in the city.

Pesky homeownership! Certainly less interesting than Fox's take on ... what's that, The Fox Nation commenters?

Why not look for a way to accommodate Christians who do not want to bake gay wedding cakes. The rest of us have to pay interest on loans... banks are a business and they must treat all equally. but lets find a why for banks to get around it for Muslims?


Hold that set of misapprehension for a second while we return to today's Fox story:

Read more »

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Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Fox populi, vox dei

Shock outrage scandal! Good thing there's someone to speak on behalf of The People!

President Obama has ordered that flags be lowered to half-staff at the White House and federal buildings across the country to honor the victims of last week's shooting rampage in Chattanooga, Tenn., after facing pressure from lawmakers and others.

The "others" must be The People, right?

... The decision comes after congressional leaders ordered flags at the U.S. Capitol lowered to half-staff earlier in the day -- that decision fueled questions over why the White House hadn't yet done the same. 

And ...?

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a veteran, earlier released a statement calling it "unconscionable" that the flags had not been lowered, as of Tuesday morning. "The flag and all it represents is sacred to our military, and the President must know that lowering the flag is a signal of honor and respect," he said.

Shortly afterward, the White House issued its proclamation, following similar instructions for the Capitol by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner. 
Read more »

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Saturday, July 18, 2015

Today in elongated yellow fruit

NPR on "Nosferatu": Murnau's "hemoglobin-gobbling villain."

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Monday, July 13, 2015

Thanks, liberal media!

Given the morning paper's avowed intent to "correct all errors of fact," I'm looking forward to how the Tuesday edition addresses this, hem, interesting claim about the state of things in the Fractious Near East.

Needless to say, we're in no position to prove the negative here. I can no more "prove" that Iran doesn't have nuclear weapons than I can "prove" that the Free Press doesn't import large amounts of cocaine for the orgies at which it sacrifices innocent young interns to the unquiet ghost of Father Coughlin. I do think it's in order to suggest if the Freep is ready to demonstrate that Iran has nuclear arms, the story ought to be a little higher on the front -- and, conversely, that if it isn't, it should probably stop pretending to cover the world outside the tri-county area until it can distinguish nuclear research from nuclear weapons at better than chance levels. If we can't make people smarter about the world outside, at least we can avoid deliberately making them stupider.

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Friday, July 10, 2015

'Scuse me while I bury Paul

Stop press! Everything we hold dear is under attack from an unexpected quarter, according to the morning's No. 4 story at the Fair 'n' Balanced Network:

Either this is a brilliant marketing campaign or McDonald's has egg on its face.

Or, when in doubt, bet the null: (c), neither of the above.

Customers have complained that a talking minions toy included in recent Happy Meals uses curse words.

Some news organizations really shouldn't play those friendly games of chance by themselves. On the bright side, the minion doesn't seem to be saying "Islam is the light" this time. But what is it up to?

Concerned Parent said her 5-year-old daughter, Daughter, opened up the minion toy from her McDonald's Happy Meal while she was sitting in the back seat of their car  and what they heard immediately got their attention.

Parent said she heard, "What the F-," (expletive) followed by "All be damned." The little girl's grandmother thought Daughter said it at first. "She said, 'no that wasn't me, that's the minion, that's the toy,'" Parent told FOX 13.

Language learning is a wonderful thing. Could we hypothesize that a standard-issue 5-year-old who has learned how to say "What the fuck?" has probably also learned how to blame it on Barbie, her little brother or Muggles the kitten? You can enjoy the video clip for yourself, but I wouldn't call the audible part of that any closer to "All be damned" (whatever that means) than to "yabba-dabba-doo."

People see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear. Journalism won't fix that by telling people that they didn't really see their preferred deity on a tortilla chip, or that their kids will stumble into sex and drugs perfectly well without the help of coded messages from the entertainment industry. But we can -- you know, thank the caller politely and hang up, thus saving space and time for things that really did happen.

There's actually some free advice for Fox News in general here. If you really want those BENGHAZI!!!!! exclusives to drive your election coverage, you should think about cultivating an aura of enlightened skepticism. If your fondness for made-up stories starts to form a pattern, readers might notice.

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Wednesday, July 08, 2015

Today in visual journalism

Hey, kids! How far into this 860-word Torygraph article does the Kenyan usurper make his first appearance?

Go ahead and step forward, all you in the 575-600 bracket. So spare a moment's kind thought for the Torygraph editors who might be scratching their heads at the turn their comments took after the sun rose over Planet Drudge this morning:

Obama steps in and says "Hey. I have rasied are national dept by 10 trillion in almost 8 years, with no ramifications....here is a list of numbers for the chinese that own the country...give them a call"

Obama made his firs "intervention" into Greece's financial problems. How special is THAT? A man who has failed utterly to bring our economy back thinks he can intervene in someone else's. The arrogance just keeps on comin'.

You idiot, do not get us in any more trouble and stop wasting our money. You've made a mess that will take years to repair if ever....so go to your room and wait there until we can replace you... that is all.

Obama has supported civil wars in pretty much the entire North Africa and Middle East regions. His work is finished there, now time to move the civil unrest to Europe.

Drove downtown the other day, saw a group of afro-americans protesting racism. All I could do driving at 30mph was roll my eyes. WHy are the protesting, is someone getting paid? That should be hate speech that they are propogating it for any chills to see and ask what racism is. The democrats are the slavery party.

O-shitstain could not poor pi ss out of a boot with directions on the heel LMFAO

Obama won't want the socialist nirvana Greeks to fail, he'll call $Billions of American Taxpayer money "Humanitarian Aid."

Obama could care less about hard working Americans, his interest lies in black racist thugs, illegal immigrants, and the idiot socialists that are destroying large swaths of Europe.

" … leaders were prepared for a " black scenario" …? Wait a minute. We talkin' Greece or DEtroit?

It's been a while since Drudge brought out this particular trope; appearing below today's front are a couple examples from last September. Discuss among yourselves whether the first or the second level of agenda-setting is better represented here, and whether agenda-setting or framing is better suited to be the One Ring that rules all of masscomm theory.




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Wednesday, July 01, 2015

VIII score and seven years ago

How about those Roman numerals, Ask The Editor?
Q. The Roman numerals entry doesn't make clear AP's stance on movies. Would it be "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope" or "Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope" or "Star Wars Episode Four: A New Hope"? – from New York on Wed, Jul 01, 2015
A. Star Wars: Episode VIII
Thanks for clearing that up.

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