Sunday, 24 February 2008

2004_03_28_rogerailes_archive



The Vision Thing

A constitutional amendment to prohibit gay men and lesbians from

marrying.

Steriod-free athletics.

A manned mission to Mars.

Subsidized broadband for the Red States.

Feel the pride.

posted by Roger | | 11:13 PM

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Howie the Putz explains how those humorless, ungrateful military

families just can't take a joke:

I was at the Radio-TV Correspondents Dinner Wednesday when Bush did

some slide-show shtick that includes some jokes about WMDs. I

remember thinking this was pretty sensitive ground for the

president to be trodding on, but it was in the spirit of good

humor, and most people laughed. It's since become a hot talk-show

topic, with some members of military families upset about the

lightheartedness, even though Bush was poking fun at himself.

Did he poke himself hard enough to earn a Purple Heart, Howie?

posted by Roger | | 10:56 PM

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Clowning For Cash

Clownhall.com has just completed its 2004 fundraising drive, and it

reportedly has raised $150,000 in just 13 days. From the looks of the

blood-splatered map, it looks most of that dosh was raised in the Blue

(sic) Democratic Party states. Admittedly it's easier to sell your

organs in those states, where inbreeding is less common and thus the

prices remain high.

Embarrassingly, California leads the nation in both the number of

Clownhall benefactors and the total amount raised, which is more than

1/8th of the total take.

And what does Clownhall do with its tax-deductible contributions? It

reprints insightful and articulate commentary such as this:

The times in which we're living are darker than Rob Zombie

listening to the Insane Clown Posse in Jimmy Page's dungeon... or

something like that. The fact that our current cruddy culture is

doing things that make demons blush takes no great insight for the

honest person to perceive.

Wow. That analogy is crappier than George Bush's underwear on the

morning of September 11, 2001.

posted by Roger | | 1:02 PM

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Barnicle Mike The Bigot

Unreformed plagiarist Mike Barnicle -- bosom pal to Tim Russert, Chris

Matthews and Don Imus -- has decided that making racist jokes is less

of a career-killer than stealing the writing of others and fabricating

sources.

On his radio show last week, Barnicle referred to the interracial

marriage of former Republican Senator and Secretary of Defense William

Cohen and Cohen's wife, Janet Langhart, as "[k]ind of like

'Mandingo.'" Barnicle's defense is that he forgot the plot of the 1975

film Mandingo involved slavery and the rape of slaves. Maybe he got it

confused with The Bodyguard.

The Boston Globe points out that Barnicle pal Don Imus "refer[red] to

interracial couples as Mandingos." Strangely, the Globe doesn't

mention that Imus specifically referred to Secretary Cohen's

relationship with Ms. Langhart as "the Mandingo deal."

Should we believe Barnicle's defense? After all, this is the guy who

wrote a column filled with George Carlin jokes without crediting

Carlin, then denied having read Carlin's book until a televsion clip

surfaced showing Barnicle holding the book and endorsing it earlier in

the year. It's not hard to believe that Barnicle stole the Mandingo

insult from his pal the I-man. When you hang around bigots like Imus,

the only reasonable assumption is that you share Imus's bigoted views.

(Thanks to a reader for the tip.)

posted by Roger | | 11:59 AM

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Are the rats deserting the sinking ship? Last Monday, we reported that

the World Journalism Institute's "May Term" journalism course had

dumped scandal-plagued Jack Kelley as a guest lecturer and added Gregg

Easterbrook to its faculty.

A week later, Easterbrook is off the lecturers list -- and so are

Freddy Barnes, Terry Eastland, Barbara Bradley Hagerty, David Cho and

Tim Goeglein. (Here's the old list.)

This seems like a bit of a bait-and-switch, dropping all the big

names, without explanation, after advertising their participation in

the course for weeks (except for Easterbrook).

And the tuition ain't cheap - $500 for three weeks' classroom

training. On the other hand, that charge does include "shared housing"

with "a complimentary USA Today." (Not complimentary of Kelley, we'd

imagine.)

Also of interest: Elements of Style is considered recommended reading


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