LINK My wife and I were fortunate to witness a little piece of history – NBC’s Tom Brokaw signed off after over two decades hosting the Nightly News. Brian Williams will serve the post well and it looks like he’s more than paid his dues in the business. In an era of declining viewership of evening network news, it’s still good to know that the “Big Three” still sustain the infrastructure that could serve us well in those times of national crisis.
LINK You’re not going to believe this one. Maybe you will. LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A California teacher has been barred by his school from giving students documents from American history that refer to God — including the Declaration of Independence. Among the materials (the principal) has rejected…are excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, George Washington’s journal, John Adams’ diary, Samuel Adams’ “The Rights of the Colonists” and William Penn’s “The Frame of Government of Pennsylvania.”
Losers. Every last one of them. Player / Games Lost / Salary / Fine Ron Artest (Indiana) / 73 games / $6.2 million / $4.95 million fine Stephen Jackson (Indiana) / 30 games / $5.1 million / $1.7 million fine Jermaine O’Neal (Indiana) / 25 games / $14.8 million / $4.1 million fine Ben Wallace (Detroit) / 6 games / $6 million / $400,000 fine Anthony Johnson (Indiana) / 5 games / $2.2 million / $122,222 fine Reggie Miller (Indiana) / 1 game / $5.5 million / $61,111 fine Chauncey Billups (Detroit) / 1 game / $5.5 million / $60,611 fine Derrick Coleman (Detroit) /1 game / $4.5 million / $50,000 fine Elden Campbell (Detroit) / 1 game / $4.4 million / $48,888 fine The losers not on this list are what pro basketball fans remaining. Pro hockey is locked out. Pro hoop is a mess. Let’s hear it for school sports – the last bastion of sportsmanship!
[Published in Lowell Sun, Lowell, Mass. letter to the editor] The U.S. Marine who was seen on video killing that terrorist in Fallujah – how many times will the news networks replay those sounds and images? Just the thought of anyone being in the position to end the life of another is sickening. From our comfortable, safe distance from the struggle, we are obliged to at least imagine the horror that our soldiers are experiencing in Fallujah right now. Bodies of dead and dieing are booby-trapped by “insurgents” solely to snuff out the life of yet another American soldier. Little reported, just the day prior – also barely mentioned by the news networks, the Marine in that video was, himself, shot in the face by a terrorist. He survived the attempt on his life, cleaned himself up, picked up his gun and went back to his job. There is, however, another video, one that is not getting nearly the attention by the major networks. Margaret Hassan, a leader within the international humanitarian organization, CARE, was summarily executed, on video, by her captors. CARE’s website reminds us that throughout her thirty years of service, Hassan “assisted more than 17 million Iraqis Continue reading →
As for news coverage on election night, I kinda liked the approach MSNBC used during the debates, a time characterized by hardscrabble and “get out of my face!” But, the election seemed to have less of a New York relevance. Life was just sort of going on all around the tired pundits. Brit Hume’s approach over on FoxNews, although a bit too sedated, did fit well with what could be described as collective apprehension and exhaustion. Sad to see NBC’s Tom Brokaw round third and head for home. He was the best and will be missed. Sadder to see Dan Rather put himself in such a position as he rounds third, a news scandal for the election-ages. Saddest to witness the melt-down of venerable Walter Cronkite who actually was not kidding when he suggested that Bush’s campaign “architect” had a hand in the recently released OBL tape. Well, Walter, “That’s #30#.”
