Cleaning out my email, and ran across the above come-on from a couple of days back.
So. Your value proposition is that you’re creative. And that, if I buy your product, it will help me be creative, too…
And that’s how you sell it to me? “It’s hard to be creative without creativity”?
Yep. Sure is. Can’t argue with that…
Got some great news from our regular Bud (a.k.a. William Bloom). He’s a grandpa — again.
Above you see his second granddaughter, who was literally born yesterday, weighing in at 6 lbs., 11 oz.
He’s also got a son graduating from U.S. Navy training up at Great Lakes, and he is beside himself:
I’ve got a real dilemma. My son graduates from navy boot camp Friday in Chicago and my new granddaughter is in Brooklyn. Can’t be in 2 places. Since the Chicago trip is already planed I guess that’s where I’ll be. Hopefully in a couple of weeks I can go to Brooklyn. My head is still spinning over all this excitement.
That is all so wonderful, Bud. We’re thrilled for you. Have a wonderful trip to Great Lakes — and to Brooklyn as well.
Our Japan correspondent, Hunter Brumfield, passes this on. I don’t know where he got it, but I don’t think the original source was Japanese:
DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted project which you had
carefully set in the corner where nothing could get to it.WIRE WHEEL: Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light . Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say, ‘Oh shit!’
SKIL SAW: A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.
PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of blood-blisters.
BELT SANDER: An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor touch-up jobs into major refinishing jobs.
HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle… It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.
VISE-GRIPS: Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.
OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub out of which you want to remove a bearing race.
TABLE SAW: A large stationary power tool commonly used to launch wood projectiles for testing wall integrity.
HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new brake shoes , trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.
BAND SAW: A large stationary power saw primarily used by most shops to cut good aluminum sheet into smaller pieces that more easily fit into the trash can after you cut on the inside of the line instead of the outside edge.TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST: A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of everything you forgot to disconnect.
PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids or for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads.
STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER: A tool for opening paint cans. Sometimes used to convert common slotted screws into non-removable screws and butchering your palms.
PRY BAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.
HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to make hoses too short.
HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the object we are trying to hit.
UTILITY KNIFE: Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on contents such as seats, vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles, collector magazines, refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts. Especially useful for slicing work clothes, but only while in use.
SON-OF-A-BITCH TOOL: (A personal favorite!) Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage while yelling ‘Son of a BITCH!’ at the top of your lungs. It is also, most often, the next tool that you will need.
Hope you found this informative.
There is no need to send me a thank you note.
No trees were harmed in the creation or transmission of this message.
However, a large number of electrons were temporarily inconvenienced.
And the thing is, this one is one of Eleanor Kitzman‘s bosses — House Ways and Means Chairman Dan Cooper, 50.
This came in over the transom yesterday, and I suppose it’s the letter that John O’Connor (oh, and happy birthday today, John) referred to in this story.
Of course, I kid about the “middle-aged white guy” thing, because I find Identity Politics (particularly as practiced by Ms. Kitzman) so wonderfully goofy. But the real issue is how unprofessional it is to play the defensive toady to ONE of your bosses in such a public manner.
So I can see how Rep. Cooper would not approve.
Pretty scathing, huh?
Thought y’all might find this interesting. I’ll apologize in advance, though, for not using names. That was a condition of my using the material.
These images are from a Westerner who works for an American company in Bahrain. He lives right smack in the middle of protest central, which is having a big impact on his daily routine. He’s been keeping people at the home office apprised of the situation. When he was asked yesterday by someone back home whether he was “having to schedule your leaving and returning around the demonstrations and are you having to stay in once you arrive,” he answered as follows:
Yes and yes… security posted a message to get to the villas before 5:00, otherwise it will be almost impossible unless
you park at the mall and walk a mile or more through the crowd. It clears out around 1:00AM. I took this at 4:15 PM today and the bigger crowds will not assemble for another couple of hours. They have live music, a wedding, food vendors, and speeches ongoing. The noise even at 36 floors above the ground is crazy…Once I get in I cannot leave until very early the next day….As long as it stays peaceful it’s actually a pretty amazing spectacle to witness. I have hotel lined up should it turn violent again.
I’ve kept the picture files big so that you can zoom in and see large televisions, tents and food vendors, all contributing to a sort of celebratory, tailgating atmosphere. The picture above was taken out the window of his 36th-floor apartment.
Today, he sent the picture below and the following additional message:
Got a good show going on down below this afternoon. They are marching from the Ministry office downtown which was a planned and scheduled event. It’s very peaceful just very noisy and traffic is blocked as far as you can see in that direction. Glad I stocked up this morning. Also glad the plants are on the other end of the island and our roads to the port are in the other direction as well.
This doesn’t give you the whole picture of what’s going on there, but it does give you one man’s view.
Today, I received TWO e-mails from the aforementioned campaign to draft, of all people, Donald Trump, to be, of all things, President of the United States.
Never mind what they were about; it’s the number of them that gets me.
This is disturbing. It rattles my sense of proportion and perspective.
Please… I know the other campaigns are taking their time getting organized this time, compared to the pre-2008 rush, but some of y’all please put me on your mailing list, now. Someone relatively (and I stress relatively) sensible, like Mike Huckabee, or Mitt Romney.
(Funny, after thinking they were a little out there when they were running against John McCain, I’m seeing those guys as relatively sensible. Shows how much the GOP has shifted since then. In 2008, Romney was DeMint’s guy. Today, he’s … the Father of Obamacare. Who knew?)
Sometimes my readers spend time thinking about an issue at some length, and write me a note about it, and suggest I write about it on the blog — and I realize it will be days before I find time to think about it as much as they have (if I ever do), so… why not just post that reader’s thoughts? Sort of what I did with Kathryn’s contribution the other day… although I solicited that; this one just came in over the transom.
Anyway, here’s what Mark Stewart thought yesterday after reading an editorial on the subject in The State:
Brad,
I read The State editorial this morning and thought that they came close but missed the boat on a few key points that might make for an interesting discussion on your blog.
After education, I believe that the Port of Charleston is perhaps the most important driver for economic prosperity across the state over the next fifty years. I don’t normally grandstand on words like this, but I would argue that this issue may be one of EPIC proportions for South Carolina. As happened with airline hubs, the emergence of a new shipping paradigm, the 50’ depth for super-container ships, will render obsolescent most of the remaining American ports as far as international trade goes. Only a few of the ports will be viable in this new world. This will lead to an even greater consolidation of economic activity.
The clear winners will be Los Angeles/Long Beach; New York/NJ; Norfolk, VA and Seattle. But there will likely be a few others. One of those might be a Southeastern port. At present Savannah is the nation’s fourth-largest container port. But it has a serious issue – it is 35 miles up a river which is now only 42 feet deep. As Charleston did in the 1830’s when it drove the first Southern railroad to Augusta, The Port of Charleston has the opportunity now to seize back the economy of North Georgia from Savannah. With a mega port, South Carolina would have the opportunity to become the hub of the Southeast and parts of the Midwest, funneling the economies of Atlanta and Charlotte along the way – and possibly also of Florida.
Georgia recognizes this need/opportunity in a way that South Carolina does not. And yet, the Obama administration did not support Savannah’s request to begin the dredging process just as it did not provide funds to Charleston. I believe this is because, unlike with New York and Norfolk, it is not clear who the winner will or should be in the Southeast.
That’s an opportunity.
But here is where The State’s editorial missed the entire picture. Simply dredging Charleston is not the answer. The real problem is on the land. The thing that will hobble South Carolina’s future is the current lack of a robust port to railroad connection. What is the point of dredging the harbor channels to a depth of 50 feet if the intermodel connections to move freight throughout the state and region efficiently are not there? Now trucks clog I-26 and the local roadways in North Charleston and yet that city continues to fight more complete rail access to the Port terminals. Worse still, the largest container terminal is on Mt. Pleasant and not even near a rail line. So the issue really isn’t whether all politicians support the allocation of federal funds for dredging, it’s does the State of South Carolina support the creation of the landside infrastructure that would make the decision to dredge deeper a rational one?
The second point that the editorial touched on, but did not hammer home is this: Sen. DeMint wants to promote legislation to have the Corps of Engineers be the party ultimately responsible for selecting which of America’s ports are dredged to the new trade standard. What he seems not to understand is that this is not a scientific process of comparing variables. It is instead a political knife-fight. Yes, items such as channel depths, distances to open water, intermodel connections, and port terminals are critically important in advocating one’s position. But what we are really talking about is the economic future of our state. It’s not just that there will be winners and losers; it is that the winners will see compounding economic growth. If Sen. DeMint does not understand that this is an issue of politics and that the U.S. Congress will be the ultimate battleground, then maybe national politics isn’t the right place for him. We are not talking about philosophical viewpoints on the issue of earmarks; we are talking about representing the State of South Carolina in the most important battle for our long-term economic vitality and growth. Senator DeMint is not showing any sort of leadership on this issue – in fact, it appears that he does not even realize what the issue is or that the fight is already on.
Do I agree with Mark on this (as I do on most thing, although not all)? Well, really, I agree with him and The State both. And I’ll add that, like The State, I’m a little more sympathetic than Mark seems to be toward Sen. DeMint’s desire to have the Corps decide. I think that’s a solid, Good Government 101 approach, and I hesitate to endorse Mark’s approach of saying we just need to squeeze all the political advantage for SC that we can out of this situation.
Again, I like The State‘s approach — concede the rightness of the senator’s original intent, but point out in no uncertain terms that such laudable original intents do NOT excuse his subsequent boneheaded behavior on the issue. Here’s what I mean:
Mr. DeMint says he’s focused on convincing the Congress to change the law so that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can use its own judgment to decide which projects to pursue, rather than abiding by the political dictates of the president and the Congress. It’s a wonderful idea, and not just because any honest evaluation of our nation’s ports needs would conclude that the Charleston harbor is a better investment of federal dollars than other ports whose deepening is being funded. But there is no realistic chance that it’s going to pass, which means that he has an obligation to work on Plans B and C as well. (If Mr. Wilson or any of our four new members of Congress have any plans for getting the port deepened absent a presidential request or a congressional earmark, they’re keeping them to themselves.)
Would their signatures have guaranteed that President Obama included the funding in his budget? No. In fact, Mr. DeMint might well be correct when he says that it would have made no difference. But he might not be, and the need is so great, and the cost to him and Mr. Wilson so low that it is simply incomprehensible that they would refuse to lend their names to a letter. Their refusal is akin to a mother whose child needs a life-saving operation she can’t afford refusing to sign a letter that her husband wrote to a charity asking for help simply because the charity’s director roots for a different ball team than she does.
One more thought, on one facet of this issue: At some point, South Carolina has to make a decision which it’s going to respect more: the desires of the rich Yankees who move to Charleston (and rich neoConfederates allied with them) and don’t want any nasty commerce spoiling the quaintness they paid for, or the desperate need of this whole state for economic development. Or maybe South Carolina has already decided, and decided wrong. In which case, it’s time to think again.
And finally, I want to thank Mark for getting me to address this important issue. And I addressed it in the best possible way, in the mind of an old assigning editor: I got somebody else to do all the work. Cindi Scoppe and many others who worked for me as reporters will recognize my modus operandi.
Isn’t that a great headline?
Stan Dubinsky sends out a lot of cool stuff to read via e-mail. You should ask to be on his list — if you’ve got time to read the stuff. I don’t really, but I do tend to glance at the headlines to see if anything draws me in (which, Journalism 101 here, is what headlines are for). And “What Happens in Vagueness Stays in Vagueness” definitely did the job.
And the piece was worth reading. An excerpt:
What Happens in Vagueness Stays in Vagueness
The decline and fall of American English, and stuff
I recently watched a television program in which a woman described a baby squirrel that she had found in her yard. “And he was like, you know, ‘Helloooo, what are you looking at?’ and stuff, and I’m like, you know, ‘Can I, like, pick you up?,’ and he goes, like, ‘Brrrp brrrp brrrp,’ and I’m like, you know, ‘Whoa, that is so wow!’ ” She rambled on, speaking in self-quotations, sound effects, and other vocabulary substitutes, punctuating her sentences with facial tics and lateral eye shifts. All the while, however, she never said anything specific about her encounter with the squirrel.
Uh-oh. It was a classic case of Vagueness, the linguistic virus that infected spoken language in the late twentieth century. Squirrel Woman sounded like a high school junior, but she appeared to be in her mid-forties, old enough to have been an early carrier of the contagion. She might even have been a college intern in the days when Vagueness emerged from the shadows of slang and mounted an all-out assault on American English.
My acquaintance with Vagueness began in the 1980s, that distant decade when Edward I. Koch was mayor of New York and I was writing his speeches. The mayor’s speechwriting staff was small, and I welcomed the chance to hire an intern. Applications arrived from NYU, Columbia, Pace, and the senior colleges of the City University of New York. I interviewed four or five candidates and was happily surprised. The students were articulate and well informed on civic affairs. Their writing samples were excellent. The young woman whom I selected was easy to train and a pleasure to work with. Everything went so well that I hired interns at every opportunity.
Then came 1985….
Undergraduates… seemed to be shifting the burden of communication from speaker to listener. Ambiguity, evasion, and body language, such as air quotes—using fingers as quotation marks to indicate clichés—were transforming college English into a coded sign language in which speakers worked hard to avoid saying anything definite. I called it Vagueness….
We all note, and many of us decry, what social media have done to (and for; there’s an upside as well) effective and elegant use of language. But I found this piece interesting because it went far beyond that, and identified an insidious enemy not only to communication, but to clear thought as well.
That enemy is Vagueness.
I guess the answer to my question is, Nick McLaughlin would:
COMMITTEE TO DRAFT DONALD TRUMP IN 2012 FORMED
National and New Hampshire Leaders Named
ST. CHARLES, MO. — Decorated Iraq War veteran Nick McLaughlin of St. Charles, Missouri, has announced the formation of a grass-roots, all volunteer organization to draft New York developer Donald J. Trump for the 2012 Republican Presidential Nomination.
McLaughlin saw combat in three tours in Iraq in the US Marine Corp and was hit by shrapnel from a car bomb in Ubush, Iraq. He was awarded a Purple Heart and nine other medals including a Presidential citation.“Under Barak Obama, America has become a laughingstock around the world,” said McLaughlin. “America needs a strong leader like Donald Trump to restore America’s economic strength and respect around the world.”
McLaughlin, who has never been active in politics before, said he had filed the committee with the Federal Election Commission and that the organization was not directed, authorized or funded by Trump. “I have never met Mr. Trump,” said McLaughlin, “But I am certain he is the man America needs.”…
Volunteer? Really? Who would actually want Donald Trump to be president of the United States, and want it bad enough to spend time and energy trying to make it happen, except for someone who was being paid to do it?
This is a question to which I do not have an answer.
I’m not doubting the guy’s word; I just don’t understand his motivations.
I continue to occasionally get press releases like this one:
MANHATTAN BOROUGH PRESIDENT SCOTT M. STRINGER
TO CELEBRATE GEORGE WASHINGTON’S BIRTHDAY
AT NY’s FACING HISTORY SCHOOL, FEBRUARY 15, at 10 AM
(New York, NY) To mark the Washington’s Birthday holiday, Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer will read and discuss George Washington’s Letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, RI of 1790 with students at the Facing History School, 525 West 50th Street, on February 15, 2011 at 10 AM. Washington’s Letter, which promised that the government of the United States will give “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance,” is one of the nation’s clearest expressions of religious freedom and separation of church and state. Stringer is encouraging all schools in Manhattan and the other boroughs of New York City to read and discuss this important document.
Stringer’s visit is part of a multiyear project called “Give Bigotry No Sanction” created jointly by the George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom (www.GWIRF.org) and Facing History and Ourselves (www.facinghistory.org), an international organization that delivers classroom strategies, resources and lessons that inspire young people to take responsibility for their world.
Founded by John L. Loeb Jr., the George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom supports efforts to educate students about religious liberty and separation of church and state through an exploration of Washington’s Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, RI of 1790. In this historic letter, Washington promised that in the United States, “All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.” The Institute supports educational programs for scholars, public figures, students and teachers who want to learn about and discuss religious freedom in America.
A former U.S. ambassador to Denmark, John L. Loeb Jr. has long advocated for interreligious understanding. Regarding Borough President Stringer’s visit to the Facing History School, Loeb said, “Even New York, the world’s most diverse and tolerant city, has recently been divided over the issue of freedom of worship. The nation’s first president made it clear that religious liberty was not subject to majority opinion, but is an ‘inherent natural right.’ Every student, every American, should read Washington’s Letter to the Hebrew Congregation.”
Press Contact: Norah Lawlor | Lawlor Media Group (www.lawlormediagroup.com)
Tel: (212) 967-6900 | Norah@lawlormediagroup.com
Why I get them, I don’t know. Some Mad Men must really be indiscriminate, and send their publicity materials to everybody in the country who have ever worked in, or consumed, news media. Weird.
Being at the source of our beloved language, I particularly enjoy this e-mail that Samuel Tenenbaum passed on. I’d read some of these offerings from some of the cleverer practitioners on both sides of the pond, but not all:
When Insults Had Class
These glorious insults are from an era before the English language got boiled down to 4-letter words.
The exchange between Churchill & Lady Astor:She said, “If you were my husband I’d give you poison.”He said, “If you were my wife, I’d drink it.”
A member of Parliament to Disraeli: “Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease.” “That depends, Sir,” said Disraeli, “whether I embrace your policies or your mistress.”
“He had delusions of adequacy.” – Walter Kerr
“He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.” – Winston Churchill
“I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure.” Clarence Darrow
“He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.” – William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway).
“Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I’ll waste no time reading it.” – Moses Hadas
“I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.” – Mark Twain
“He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends..” – Oscar Wilde
“I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend…. if you have one.” – George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill“Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second…. if there is one.” – Winston Churchill, in response..
“I feel so miserable without you; it’s almost like having you here.” – Stephen Bishop
“He is a self-made man and worships his creator.” – John Bright
“I’ve just learned about his illness. Let’s hope it’s nothing trivial.” – Irvin S. Cobb
“He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others.” – Samuel Johnson
“He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.” – Paul Keating
“In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily.” – Charles, Count Talleyrand
“He loves nature in spite of what it did to him.” – Forrest Tucker
“Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?” – Mark Twain
“His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.” – Mae West
“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go..” – Oscar Wilde
“He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts.. . for support rather than illumination. ” – Andrew Lang (1844-1912)
“He has Van Gogh’s ear for music.” – Billy Wilder
“I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.” – Groucho Marx
I haven’t heard anyone say anything that clever since I’ve been here, but I am enjoying the accents.
A month from now, I’ll be in England. So I did feel a bit of empathy for a moment when I read this e-mail this morning:
How are you doing? I came over to England(UK) for a short vacation.
unfortunately,I was mugged at the park of the hotel where i stayed,all
cash, cell phones and credit card were stolen from me but luckily for
me i still have my passports with me.I’ve been to the Embassy and the
Metropolitan Police here but they’re not helping issues at all and my
flight leaves tomorrow but i am having problems settling the hotel
bills and the hotel management won’t let me leave until I settle the
bills. Please I really need your financial assistance..Please, Let me
know if you can help me out?I’m looking forward to hearing from you.
Thanks and Regards,
Charlie.
But as it happens, I’m familiar with this come-on. And no, I don’t know this Charlie guy. He must think me a proper flat…
NPR is still having a trouble with e-mail. It doesn’t want to give out its journalists’ addresses.
I know. So last century. My kids don’t even DO e-mail, and haven’t for many years, because it’s so slow and indirect and retro. Or something (I confess I don’t fully understand the problem). It’s as though a film studio were still debating whether to take the plunge into VHS.
Don’t know about you, but a pet peeve of mine is going to anyone’s Web page — a business, a nonprofit, any kind of organization or even a personal endeavor such as a blog — and looking for a way to contact the key individuals, only to hit a wall. No e-mail address. Not even a phone number (for those just a step past smoke signals).
I’m not the only one this bugs. In fact, one of our neighbors right here in Colatown made it into an essay on the subject:
NPR does not publish staff email addresses.
It should.
About once a month someone writes to say they find it arrogant and standoffish for a news organization —that demands access to others — to not offer a common form of communication to its audience.
And it’s not always that a listener wants an email address to write a nasty note.
Sometimes they want to share information. Sometimes they want to ask a question, or even provide information to correct an error. Sometimes, they simply want to say “Nice job” directly to a reporter.
“Today I just wanted to tell the ‘A Blog Supreme’ producers-writers how important the blog has been to me,” wrote George Mack, of Columbia, SC., a listener for 20 years.
“However, there is no way to contact them except to post a public comment or to come to a black hole dialog box like the one I’m using this very moment,” he continued. “I’ve always thought this stand-offish concept was just plain arrogant and it gives rise to negative feelings.”
Right now if someone wants to get in touch with NPR via e-mail, they have to go to the “Contact Us” link and fill out a form. It will go to a news show, my office or an office called “listener services.”…
Amen to that, brother. I hate those forms. Whenever I click “contact us” and get a form to fill out, instead of an actual person’s e-mail address, I feel like the message is “Bug off.” Only with a different word in place of “Bug.” Even if that’s not intended, that’s what I receive.
Yes, I know e-mail is a hassle. It consumes too much time, and if you’re a reporter with a national medium, the flood will be Noahesque. But hey, figure out something. If that impersonal box “works” for managing the flood, it’s only because it discourages people from trying to make contact at all, thus reducing the volume.
Nowadays, public radio doesn’t need to be ticking off the listening, voting public. NPR shows great resourcefulness, thoughtfulness and creativity in presenting the news. Apply some of that to basic communcations, please.
And oh, yes. You can reach me at brad@bradwarthen.com. And I’ll get to it as soon as I can (usually same day). And there’s just me.
I was on Keven Cohen’s radio show again yesterday. Sorry I forgot to tell y’all in advance (or did I? I can’t remember; maybe I said something on Twitter…). But the phone lines lit up anyway, and we had a nice, lively discussion. He wants me on the show again before the election; I’ll try to give y’all a heads-up before then.
When I got back to the office, I got this from someone who DID listen in:
Dear Mr. Warthen:
I listened to you on Keven Cohen’s program on WVOC this afternoon and I was just wondering why an endorsement by Sarah Palin to Nikki Haley would embarrass you? Of course, you once said on Kev’s program that you despised Ronald Reagan so, that comment shouldn’t surprise me.
Do you fear Governor Palin because she has more of a spine than you and your other liberals do? Are you jealous of her success? Please don’t tell me that she is a “numbskull” compared to the current occupant of the Oval Office in the White House. She is “head and shoulders” smarter than that community organizer!
Anyway, comments like that are why you are no longer employed by South Carolina’s largest newspaper. One day, THE STATE will complete the trifecta and get rid of Cindi and Warren and replace them with people who don’t toe the Democratic Party line and print their talking points.
Sincerely,
Robert Owens
Lexington
Do you see why I tend to give trolls a lot of rope here on the blog before I give in to community opinion and ban them? I’ve gotten stuff like this my whole career. Par for the course. And unfortunately, being a never-say-die guy, I actually try to reason with them, to wit:
“Fear?” It never occurred to me to FEAR her. I just would be embarrassed to be endorsed by her. That’s what I said, and that’s what I meant.I think it’s a very great shame that my main man John McCain elevated her to prime time, for which she was most demonstrably not ready. If you’d like to read an elaboration on that point, you should check out my blog post the other day about what one of her former handlers had to say…
My effort to reach across the divide was rewarded thusly:
Well, I think that you do fear her. As far as John McCain goes, as a 20+ year USAF veteran, I respect his military service and what he went through as a prisoner of war; he is an abject failure as a politician. He and Lindsey Graham were totally against a border fence between the US and Mexico a few years ago. When The Maverick figured that he might have a tough time winning the Arizona GOP earlier this year he was all for the fence. I about puked when I saw the commercial of him walking with an Arizona sheriff and he was telling McCain about the problems they were having with illegal immigration and then Big John looking at the camera and saying, “Build the dang fence!” What a damn hypocrite! I held my nose and voted for him in November 2008 because I knew what a disaster the community organizer would be. It would have been so much better if the ticket had been Palin/McCain instead of the other way around though.Of course, some of these former handlers are going to say stuff about her because she had some ideas to save the campaign and they had no gonads and let the Dems take the election!You can have McCain, he is a disaster! I hope that the next time that he reaches across the aisle to help the Democrats that he locks arms with Graham, Snowe, and Collins and takes them with him. Also, do you really think that Obama is ready for prime time? What an idiot and our country is paying the price for it. He is still blaming Bush yet when he was running he was The One with all of the answers.Anyway, here is you to getting a spine someday!RLOLexington, SC
Still catching up with my e-mail…
I got this message from Holly Gatling in response to this post:
Dear Brad,
Do you have a marriage license? A piece of paper you were willing to sign your name to as a statement of commitment?
That’s the difference between Sheheen and Haley. Haley put her name on a statement of the agenda of South Carolina Citizens for Life and Sheheen declined. How sad.
And why is there such hatred across this land for conservative, pro-life, Republican women? The misogyny is grossly apparent. Conservative, pro-life women are the greatest threat in politics today to the abortion industry, the greatest destroyer of human life on the planet.
We’re in this economic crisis because 50 million members of the human family have been wiped out by abortion. That’s 50 million members of a tax-paying workforce and ALL their progeny.
I urge and encourage you to THINK with the body part men and women share equally — the brain.
Committed candidate v. undecided. The choice is clear.
Your friend,
Holly Gatling, Executive Director
South Carolina Citizens for Life
I appreciate my friend Holly — we worked together at the paper years ago — taking the time to respond. Here are some thoughts that her note generates for me:
Mind you, in the past I have praised SC Citizens for Life for THINKing rather than going with the emotional flow, such as in this column on Feb. 7, 1996:
The endorsement of Jean Toal by S.C. Citizens for Life last week constituted one of those little epiphanies that have the potential to enlighten public life, if only we would pay attention.
In this case, the lesson to be learned was this:The terms “liberal” and “conservative,” as they are popularly used today, serve virtually no useful purpose. They help not at all in the increasingly onerous task of meeting the challenges that face us in the political sphere. In fact, they often get in the way.The Toal endorsement, while making perfect sense to the objective observer, momentarily demolished the world view of self-described “liberals” and “conservatives” as surely as Galileo messed with the heads of the geocentric crowd. “Conservatives” lost their cozy view of there being two kinds of people — Christians and “liberals.” Meanwhile, “liberals” couldn’t quite bring themselves to celebrate the endorsement because having common cause with those “conservative” right-to-lifers makes them queasy.It’s nice to see nonsense knocked on its rear end.
My purpose at the time was to contrast the good sense demonstrated by Holly’s organization, as opposed to the mindlessness of her frequent allies among “conservative” Republicans who wanted to boot Justice Toal for the sin of being a Democrat (and therefore, in their small minds, a “liberal,” a word they use with all the thoughtfulness, subtlety and understanding of the mob crying “Witch!” in Monty Python’s “Holy Grail”).
My point then, as now: THINK.
Whoa! Not to be outdone by the “You Lie!” guy, his opponent in the 2nd Congressional District is getting a bit overwrought in his rhetoric. I just got a fund-raising release from the Rob Miller campaign urging supporters to help “finish him off” — referring to Joe Wilson. In fact, that was the headline on the e-mail: “Finish Him Off.”
Totally aside from the implied violence of the phrase, there’s the additional problem of inaccuracy. It invokes a picture of Joe lying on the ground at death’s door awaiting the coup de grace. But near as I can tell, Mr. Wilson is poised to do what he usually does — get re-elected.
Bob Ford shared this old newspaper page with me over the weekend. How old? So old that it’s from before I even worked at any newspaper, much less The State. My career starting in 1974 as a copy boy at The Commercial Appeal. But this is from Nov. 3 1972 — the Friday before I voted for the first time.
And yet — there are several people pictured here whom I would later work with, or at least come to know in the community after I arrived at The State in 1987 — Levona Page, Kent Krell, Margaret O’Shea and others. In fact, when I became governmental affairs editor in ’87, one of them was still on the beat and working for me: that hepcat Lee Bandy (dig the hair!).
This ad boasts of the resources devoted to covering politics, and indeed, back then newspapers had reporters spilling out the windows, and newshole to burn. It was still that way when I started covering politics myself in ’78. But then the long decline began, and finally newspaper finances went over the cliff this past decade.
One might also reflect on how different the SC political scene was in those days. First of all, there were no Republicans, except Strom Thurmond and Floyd Spence. So the Democratic primary was usually the election. Then there was the fact that the color barrier had just been broken in the Legislature, with a handful of black House members (but none in the Senate yet). This was two whole years before the legendary Pug Ravenel campaign, which idealistic then-young Democrats speak of today as though it occurred in the misty time of Camelot, or of King Elendil who wielded the sword Narsil before it was broken.
Anyway, I thought some of y’all would enjoy looking at it, too.
This just in — an e-mailed statement from the very stunned Vic Rawl regarding the guy who beat him Tuesday:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEStatement by Judge Vic Rawl
Judge Vic Rawl issued the following statement today:It has been an eventful three days for our state.The results of the Senate primary on Election Day surprised almost everyone in the state, apparently including Mr. Greene.There are a number of serious allegations out there about the election. No one yet knows if they are true.I do know that Jim Clyburn is an icon in state politics and what he had to say today should be taken very seriously.If any of the allegations have merit, the people of South Carolina have a right to know that.My campaign is looking closely at data from Election Day and otherwise for irregularities.As for Mr. Greene, what happens next is entirely in his hands. I wish him well, and hope he makes his decisions in the best interests of his family and the people of South Carolina.Paid for by Vic Rawl for U.S. Senate
My attention was drawn this morning by an e-mail with the following headline on it:
Make an Investment in Jim Rex!
Sorry; I wish Jim all the best and everything — he’s certainly been supportive of me in the past, and I appreciate it — but in hard, cold dollars and cents, I just don’t think he’s a good investment bet right now.
If my highly trustworthy financial adviser (who gets nervous whenever I name him, lest people think I’m a good example of his work, so I won’t) were to recommend that as a good place to put my pennies to work, I think I’d get another financial adviser.
The question for me at this point is whether Vincent Sheheen wins it without a runoff. I doubt it, but you never know. In any case, the way this ends is that Sheheen is the nominee.
But I was interested to check out the names of people who will be at this Rex fund-raiser. Stuff like that always interests me. Here’s the list:
Ann & Frank Avignone | Amy & Robert BergerDuncan Buell | Amanda & Todd BurnetteAnastasia Chernoff | Ken Childs | Don DoggettDavid Dunn | Paula Harris | Valerie HarrisonBeth Howard | Lana & Steve Hefner | Lee Ann KornegayBetsy Carpentier & Phil Lacy | Oscar LovelaceAnnette & Steven Lynn | Barbara Rackes & Michael MannSue & Robbie McClam | Heather Preston & Tim MousseauAngela & Stephen Peters | Julia & Jim PraterSusan & Ron Prinz | Cynthia Davis & John ReagleLinda Salane | Susan Heath & Rush SmithTroy Cassel & Zeke Stokes | Diane SumpterLeah & Donald Tudor | Dr. Hoyt Wheeler
I received this from Bob Coble over the weekend:
I am attaching the City’s current Budget and Investment Reconciliation Statement that shows all of the City’s bank and
investment accounts are reconciled and balanced.I am attaching the link to the City’s current financial that is on our website. The statement is through April. http://www.columbiasc.net/depts/finance/downloads/April%202010%20Report%20Cover%20Memo%20and%20Revenue-Exp%20Report%20Preliminary.pdf
Also, attached is the link to our current check register that is through April 30th. The register shows all the checks written by the City this fiscal year. http://www.columbiasc.net/depts/finance/downloads/Truth%20in%20Spending%20April%202010.pdf
I wanted to give you a budget update. We are continuing to make progress in bringing in a budget. The current budget’s expenses are $5.7 million under budget. General fund revenues are above target. Next year’s proposed budget includes, through greater efficiencies, an additional $500,000 for police overtime. We will add 15 police officers
from stimulus funding. The fire department budget fully funds all fire suppression and prevention responsibilities, and fully funds all firefighter staffing levels. Additionally, we have eliminated over 30 unfilled positions saving over $1.4 million.Columbia’s financial statements are current and on the City’s website. The City’s check register is current and online. All City bank accounts and investment accounts are reconciled. The City’s general fund rainy day fund and GASB 45 reserves are above $30 million. Moody’s reaffirmed in 2009 the City’s excellent credit rating for the general fund and the water and sewer fund. I will continue to keep you posted.
I also received a copy of an op-ed he sent The State. Last time he sent me one of those I posted it here before The State could consider it, and I worried that I was hurting his chances of being published. Makes me hesitate this time…
