Frankly Speaking

Neil Cavuto debating Bill O'Reilly on gas prices and the current financial crisis.



O'Reilly tries his typical tactic of getting loud when his guest doesn't agree with him, but Cavuto gives it right back.

Imagine that, two of the big names on Fox News disagreeing with each other. And I thought they were all goose-stepping, right wing fascists. Someone didn't get the memo.

Labels: media, nanny state, unbridled capitalism

I constantly point out that the evening news is not the best place to receive information about what is really going on in Iraq. Now I'm going to give you a few sources you should be checking if you want to know what is really happening.

The above briefing is by BG Kevin Bergner, Multi-National Force-Iraq Spokesperson, speaking with reporters in Iraq, providing an operational update. If you've never checked it out, you can see this and more like it on The Pentagon Channel.

The United States Central Command, aka CENTCOM. - More news straight from the horses mouth.

Multi-National Force Iraq - Just what the name implies.

Michael Yon Online - independent journalist imbeded with forces currently fighting in Iraq. His dispatches are carried by several major media outlets, but he is supported by donation.


I think that's enough to keep you busy all weekend.

Labels: Iraq, media, war

Harry Reid pwned by Dennis Miller.

Ouch. Very ouch.

Labels: media

For all those ready to go off the deep end about America's gun culture, allow me to give you a brief lesson in history. This was America's worst school shooting, but not the worst massacre.

The Bath School disaster is the name given to three bombings in Bath Township, Michigan, USA, on May 18, 1927, which killed 45 people and injured 58. Most of the victims were children in second to sixth grades attending the Bath Consolidated School. Their deaths constitute the deadliest act of mass murder in a school in U.S. history.

In this case, a disgruntled school board member, Andrew Kehoe, blamed the fact that he lost his farm on an increase in school taxes. To retaliate, over several months he packed dynamite and pyrotol into the school, hiding it throughout the basement. On the morning of May 18, he first killed his wife, then set his farm on fire. While the fire department was at his home, putting out the fires, he detonated the first set of explosives at the school, killing all the children in that wing of the building. He then drove up to the school building while rescue workers were gathering and detonated the explosives in his truck, which was packed full of shrapnel, killing himself and the school superintendent, and inuring several others.

If you will notice one thing about this story, not a single gun was used during this massacre. He killed his wife using blunt force trauma to the head with an unknown object, and bombs to kill everyone else.

The lesson to be learned here? When a person is bent on destruction, the weapon doesn't matter. Whether it be a gun, a bomb, a knife, of the nearest heavy object, (s)he will do what it takes to kill.

One more note. The mayor of Nagasaki was killed yesterday, shot twice in the back by a gangster who wasn't happy with him. Japan has some of the strictest gun control laws in the world, including a near ban on handguns. Those gun laws didn't do Mayor Iccho Ito much good, did they?

Labels: general rants, gun control, media

If you don't read anything else today, read this column by Jason Whitlock in the Kansas City Star

Martin Luther King Jr. spoke for eight minutes in 1963 at the March on Washington. At the time, black people could be lynched and denied fundamental rights with little thought. With the comments of a talk-show host most of her players had never heard of before last week serving as her excuse, Vivian Stringer rambled on for 30 minutes about the amazing season her team had.

Somehow, we’re supposed to believe that the comments of a man with virtually no connection to the sports world ruined Rutgers’ wonderful season. Had a broadcaster with credibility and a platform in the sports world uttered the words Imus did, I could understand a level of outrage.

But an hour long press conference over a man who has already apologized, already been suspended and is already insignificant is just plain intellectually dishonest. This is opportunism. This is a distraction.

Seriously. Forgo whatever else you had planned for the next half hour and read the entire thing. Then remind yourself that the columnist is black.

I'll have more on my take on race in this country later tonight or possibly tomorrow. In the mean time, read. the. column.

Labels: media, race relations, required reading

I love when you say one thing but people here something else. It's especially funny with song lyrics, but it's fun in normal conversations as well. I play on words like this all the time at work. Instead of saying someone irritated me, I always say they "irrigated" me, "ex-squeeze me" instead of "excuse me" and "spank you" instead of "thank you". The fun is endless. Yeah, I'm a dork.

It's especially fun when a news source does this.

Correction: In the original version of this report, NEWSWEEK misquoted Falwell as referring to "assault ministry." In fact, Falwell was referring to "a salt ministry"—a reference to Matthew 5:13, where Jesus says "Ye are the salt of the earth." We regret the error.

I was all set to write about how Liberty University is ranked higher than Harvard in national debate, and that Harvard lost to them in their last match-up, until I saw that last paragraph. Falwell (who I'm pretty sure is nuts) was speaking about the students as "a salt ministry", but Susannah Meadows heard "assault ministry". I guess we hear what we want to hear, but that is really hilarious. I think I'll start using that phrase from here on out.

"We're taking this food down to the soup kitchen as a part of our assault ministry."

Labels: media