Once again, it takes Jon Stewart — the host of a comedy show — to challenge the logic of oppression. Stewart is obviously coming from a perspective opposite Huckabee, but that doesn’t change the fact that his questions fairly and wisely go to the root assumptions behind the anti-gay sentiment and the inherent contradictions and arbitrary applications of freedom, history and tradition and the apparent infallibility of semantics. It’s an illustration of the difference between bias and informed opinion.
Top 31 Rejects of 2008: #20
Some of my best thinking – Dec 11, 2008
from the San Diego Reader
The E.P.A. has granted a third extension for the Point Loma Waste Treatment facility, continuing to exempt it from national Clean Water Act standards. The extension makes it “…the nation’s largest sewage facility that doesn’t meet the federally mandated “secondary” treatment level for removal of solids and other pollutants,” according to the Union-Tribune.
Top 31 Rejects of 2008: #21
I keep trying to make Charles Darwin and his space monkey recurring characters. This was to be their third appearance.
Top 31 Rejects of 2008: #22
Top 31 of 2008: #23
Two for one, with variations on the Chuck Hagel theme:
Cartoon Christmas — one week left!
Don’t forget about Cartoon Christmas!
Hooray for progress – Dec 9, 2008
from the Omaha Reader
World-Herald publisher suspected of plagiarism
Jim Romenesko called out Omaha World-Herald publisher Terry Kroeger for striking similarities between Kroeger’s Sunday column and one from the Kansas City Star publisher late last month.
Are publishers so overwhelmed they’re unable to write original columns?
From World-Herald publisher Terry Kroeger’s Dec. 7 column:
“To be sure, this year has been difficult for newspapers, including your World-Herald. The economic downturn has reduced our advertising revenue, which has forced us to adjust our expenses, including reducing our work force by 51 employees last month.”From Kansas City Star publisher’s Mark Zieman’s November 29 column:
“To be sure, this year has been particularly difficult for newspapers, including your hometown Star. The deep and widening recession has significantly reduced our advertising revenue, which has forced us to slash expenses and lay off valued employees.”
Two bits of information make this especially ironic:
• Kroeger’s parroting came in a column trumpeting his paper’s value as a source for unique content.
• And as a friend pointed out, Kroeger’s column, which spoke of the World-Herald’s desire to be Omaha’s news source of the future (“a newsy newspaper for busy people”), appears opposite a staff editorial entitled “Our old, ever-changing friend” — a nostalgic look at rotary-dial telephones.
UPDATE!! Kroeger responded to Romenesko. In a nutshell: “I had permission,” though I wonder if Mark Zieman knew Kroeger was going to use his exact words and sentence structure when he asked to use his “ideas.”
As one of the visitors commented, “If you’ve got such a proud history, and if you’re so bullish on your future, I’d hope you could write 1,000 — original — words telling us so.”