SLAP

As in: on the wrist. Miami's tight end, Kellen Winslow, Jr., son of ex-NFL player Kellen Winslow, is benched for the start of a game because of a couple of incidents. He will be eligible to play later in the game--Winslow just doesn't start.

Why do coaches even bother? You want a real punishment, try benching him for a game.

"Don't Adjust Your Vertical, Don't Adjust Your Horizontal. . .

. . .because we control your TV set."

Drudge points us to CNN's manipulation of a Dem presidential candidate debate. The question was about the candidate's computer preferences: PC or Mac.The questioner, Alexandra Trustman (how ironic) initially wanted to ask a complicated question about the use of technology and on the question she was told to ask, she says:

...she was "handed a note card" with the question and told she couldn't ask her alternative "because it wasn't lighthearted enough and they wanted to modulate the event with various types of questions."

The pWashington Post has a different version, including an expression of regrets by CNN here:

Trustman said she was informed that the network "thought it would be a good opportunity for the candidates to relate to a younger audience."

Guh. As if filtering and biasing the news weren't enough, now they're telling us what questions we should be asking. I know, I know, this is sort of a tempest in a teapot. Certainly the question wasn't as politically charged as Iraq, but from where I sit (and type) I'm seeing media's manipulation of image. And as we might guess, our impressions and images of a candidate influences our vote more than we think. e.g., Governor-elect Arnold.

Who knows what their political motivations are; the question is, can they be trusted to present us the truth? Last I checked, it used to only be the likes of yesterday's Russia and today's China that manipulated and controlled the news.

Just another straw for the camel's back, as it were.

A View to Islam

A blogger named, 'oceanguy', attended a lecture by Bernard Lewis and summarizes some of Lewis' thoughts about Islam, Islamdom and the War on Terror. On Wahabism (the main sect of Islam in Saudi Arabia):

[Benard] asked how these western diplomats would react if the KKK were given control over the state of Texas with all of it's Oil wealth, and then used that wealth and influence to open up schools all around the world preaching its peculiar version of Christianity. Somehow we have done something very similar in Arabia and have allowed this extremist sect to gain immensely disproportionate influence.

The blog entry is a decent summary of one view of the current state of affairs.

The Left Wing Book Burners

Check out an opinion piece in the Yale News that discusses the liberal crushing of dissent on campus. Apparently in the more progressive universities, expression of opinion is free, but only for those who have the correct opinion:

When their ideas are challenged or attempts are made to encourage intellectual diversity on campus, liberals tend to hurl epithets that have a chilling effect on discourse. Passion for one's ideas is well and good, but shouting others down with irrational cries of "racist" and "McCarthyite" is hardly liberal at all.

Veteran's Day for the Dems

In an AP news brief entitled "Democrats Use Veterans Day to Attack Bush", this is how the Dems decided to honor our veterans, as a stump for Campaign 2004:

Kerry: "Walking away from our veterans is wrong and in a Kerry administration it will be a thing of the past."

Clark: "a retired Army general, says he would spend $2 billion more annually than Bush spends on health care for veterans. In addition, he says his broader health care plan would provide medical insurance to the roughly 240,000 guard and reserve members who only have coverage when they are on active duty."

Lieberman: "called for "a decent wage" along with special compensation for housing, health care and other services so veterans can provide for their families."

The Bush campaign also made a release in response:

In a campaign release defending his record, Bush noted his increase for the Department of Veterans Affairs and said he increased the budget for the agency more in his first two years in office than in the previous six years.

How come everything has to be about the election? How come every issue has to have two competing solutions? How come the electorate has to be polarized?

TMQ IS BACK! TMQ IS BACK! TMQ IS BACK!

Over at Football Outsiders

Veterans Day

'If you choose to live in a country, then you are obligated to defend it,'

Enough said

Sometimes heros don't get $1,000,000 book deals.

(cap tip to Allah)