Eleven months ago, I promoted in my blog a great new patriotic song I have personally licensed, "An American Heart", by an unknown artist going by the pseudonym of "Jon David", arguably the best original recording since Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA". Many of us were sickened by a new President's unsolicited, unprovoked, unnecessary, and unprecedented criticisms of prior administrations, especially the Bush Administration, to foreign audiences, and his flat denial of American exceptionalism. Almost two weeks ago on Fox News Channel Jon came out of the conservative closet in ultra-liberal Hollywood, revealing himself to be a Hollywood screenwriter and songwriter. (The intolerance of morally self-superior American progressives is legendary; the almost instantaneous boycotts over the new Arizona immigration law, despite its explicit design to be consistent with American immigration laws, is just one example. I've normally declined to comment on political issues while in academia and most IT professional settings for similar reasons.) Why did Kahn come out of the closet? My guess is that Kahn, like most of us, is alarmed at an escalating $13T federal debt, government empire building, and an administration which masqueraded to bring an end to partisan politics (but created the most hyper-political Congress in decades) and as moderate but has been shoving a radically progressive domestic agenda down a center-right nation's throat.
Bonus Video
Shepard Smith, Fox News Channel, Needs to be Terminated
The quirky, opinionated mid-afternoon and early evening news anchor Shepard Smith is typically known by regular viewers as taking every possible opportunity (even when there is none) to plug his beloved University of Mississippi alma mater and his trademark show ending "bear alert" news clips, invariably resulting in the replay of his favorite clip of a bear falling out of a tree and bouncing off a family's trampoline.
He has managed to get himself into hot air with some regular FNC viewers over the years. For example, last year during a discussion of enhanced interrogation techniques, which many do not believe in a weakened, controlled form (in fact applied during training of certain American military personnel) meet the formal criteria of torture, applied to less than a handful of detained high-value Al Qaeda terrorists (not ordinary "foot soldiers") during a limited time period after they were apprehended, Shep said the following during a televised interview:
We are America, we don't torture! And the moment that is not the case, I want off the train! This government is of, by, and for the people -- that means it's mine. That means -- I'm not saying what is torture, and what is not torture, but I'm saying, whatever it is, you don't do it for me! I want off the train when the government starts -- I want off, next stop, now!Do you need any help packing, Shep? Do you think KSM was referencing the Geneva conventions when he claims to have beheaded your fellow journalist Daniel Pearl?
Now, of course, you might think that a news anchor was aware of the fact that the practice of enhanced interrogation techniques was formally halted by the CIA director in 2006, years earlier. Shep was reacting to a director of national intelligence whom argues that use of enhanced interrogation techniques had resulted in actionable intelligence which had not previously been obtained by conventional methods. Apparently worried that viewers were confused about where he stood on the issue, Shep sought to clarify his comments in a subsequent online The Strategy Room. Slamming his fist on the table, he said:
We are America! I don't give a rat's ass if it helps. We are AMERICA! We do not f***ing torture!Here's a phrase you don't know, Shep: petitio principii. Maybe they don't teach it at Ole Miss...
What finally led me to speak out against Shep Smith was his preposterous anti-BP rant today, with Chicken Little hysteria over the latest BP temporary fix which is to smooth the jagged edges of the burst pipeline so it can be capped in an alternate approach to the prior failed Big Dome solution. The Big Dome failed when ice crystals formed from the natural gas emissions clogged the domed opening. This time they intend to pipe down hot/warm water to mitigate the crystal problem. Shep was openly dismissive, repeating criticisms from some scientists, warning the solution may also result in an increased outflow by about 20%. He openly baited Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, trying to get Allen, whom is trying to establish and maintain a cohesive working partnership between BP and the Obama Administration, to attack BP and go along with Shep's unsolicited suggestion to have BP pay the bill for Jindal's request for dredging and barrier islands.
Now I feel I have to address that point because Shep Smith, allegedly a news journalist, doesn't seem to realize that dredging and barrier islands is actually a long-pending request in fact discussed during the Katrina crisis; the point then was that barrier islands could serve as a shock absorber to mitigate the effects of storms, including hurricanes, approaching New Orleans. Now, granted, it could well be that barrier islands also can mitigate the effects of an oil spill. But why should BP pay for improvements to American infrastructure? Talk about moral hazard--BP gets to foot the bill simply because the Bush and Obama Administrations have failed to address a priority on long-standing Louisiana infrastructure requests? Now if the barriers could be constructed quickly enough to lessen BP's financial exposure to shore/wetland damages, BP should be willing to pay up to that point, helping subsidize the costs of the infrastructure. The point is, Shep is trying to punish BP for the sin of an unexpected disaster.
It is not Shep's role to judge BP's activities or to instigate conflict between BP and the federal government. He does a disservice by cherry-picking which scientific criticisms he reports and implying there is a consensus scientific opinion. Another example is his dismissive attitude towards BP's multiple attempts, as if BP is just acting by the seat of the pants. I myself have been critical of BP's clueless public relations, but we have to keep in mind that BP has been attempting solutions to similar incidents under different conditions, e.g., the top kill. The physical pressure (not to mention the very cold temperature) of fixing a spill a mile under the Gulf surface confounds certain approaches which work on land or in shallower waters; BP's robots are enabling approaches to solutions which otherwise would be nearly impossible. Keep in mind the failed attempts provide specific data that can be used to address future spill incidents (of course, we hope that doesn't happen).
But we don't really help the cause of energy self-sufficiency by overgeneralizing from any one accident. Eliminate deepwater rigs because of this one accident? Here's a question I haven't seen most new media discuss during this crisis--how many deepwater rigs are currently producing oil? Deepwater refers to depths between 1000 feet to a mile under water; ultra-deepwater refers to even deeper depths; in 2008, deepwater rigs accounted for 9% of offshore oil, and some 130 deepwater rigs were in production. I'm not going to argue the Deepwater Horizon tragedy is trivial, but when you have at least 130 prior rigs which have not resulted in a similar catastrophe, we do not want to argue deepwater drilling is intrinsically unsafe. Land-based industrial accidents regrettably occur all the time. We don't hear Chicken Little's popping up demanding the shutdown of all power plants, e.g., after the Three Island incident. We always need to use the feedback of human and mechanical failure to devise more failsafe, effective technology and industrial operations.
It's not simply a case of, say, Shep playing a role of devil's advocate: It's also a matter of tone, temperament, and body language. It's a failure to fulfill Fox News' own tagline of "fair and balanced". Shep has crossed the line between news and analysis/interpretation, without any attempt to distinguish what is news from his personal point of view. In fact, Shep is guilty of the same kind of bias that we conservatives have been criticizing the increasingly irrelevant mainstream media of exhibiting. If Fox News isn't going to fire Shep Smith, at the very least, they should restructure his shows in a manner similar to the panel segment in Special Report or Cavuto's short commentary at the end of his news hour, where Shep uses that time (subtitled "commentary") to express his personal opinions. But what has to stop is his blending ad libbed sarcasm or personal opinions in the process of reporting the news or conducting interviews. When he does this, he's not reporting news--he's making news. It's unprofessional and unacceptable.
Political Cartoon
Ken Catalino wants to remind liberal Dems we are NOT questioning their patriotism. We do know they display a flood of union-label flags each and every time there's a camera in sight. GI's: just because the liberal Dems oppose your missions, what you do for a living, they really respect your career choice (which is why they want to restrict ROTC or military recruitment on campus) and your professional skills in doing the wrong thing. They don't blame you; they blame [insert Bush bashing here]. They also want you to know they will spare no expense (on your grandchildren's behalf) in trying to
Quote of the Day
Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.
Henry Van Dyke
Musical Interlude: The AFI Music Top 100 (continued)
#65. "I Will Always Love You"
#66. "Suicide is Painless" (Theme from MASH)
#67. "Nobody Does It Better"
#68. "Streets of Philadelphia"
