Mixing up Analogies

Peter Bronson needs to revisit the story of Mutiny on Bounty in his column called: "Mutiny on the Butler County Republican Bounty." Pete illustrated his column by telling a tale of Capt. Horatio Hornblower. The problem is that Hornblower was not on the Bounty. He was not even a real person. Captain Bligh and Fletcher Christian were the duo that made the story's antagonist and protagonist. I would surmise that Pete knows this, but chose to mix up his analogies simply because of the alliteration of Horatio Hornblower. He is taking license with literature, but I don't think that is what people expect in a column. It was nice to see Pete expose the conflict in Bulter County Republican Party and in the entire column he did not blame Bill Clinton or a liberal. He did correctly refer to Democrats as a Moby Dick type creature. This characterization is valid because Bronson and most hard-core Republican pundits do come across as Captain Ahab most of the time.

School Prayer Gets a Midday Update?

An annual event gets a midday update? Why is this story being pumped up? Who is the Enquirer trying to impress (or piss off)? This story is a puff piece that is fit for inside the paper, it is not breaking news worth knowing about before tomorrow, if then at all.

Beyond its inclusion as part of the updated paper, usually reserved for "breaking" type news, there is the balance problem. This is written as a human-interest story, where it gives no alternate views. It is reasonable to write such story if it is meant for the Temp section. If this ends up in the Metro section, then it should at least included some counter viewpoint. Now what are those viewpoints? Well there are responses to comments like this one from the article

"I think it is just wonderful we have a society today that accepts this,'' said Herring of Colerain Township. "So many are against allowing God and prayer anywhere.''

This statement is false. There are not "many" against allowing prayer or "God" "anywhere." There are people who wish to maintain the separation of Church and State. It is legal for kids to pray in school, as long as they do so on their own time, or silently without causing any disruption. Why was there no counter argument to this viewpoint? If this is a puff piece, then why include such a harsh and false statement (albeit debatable by some fundamentalists)?

Now this statement is not legally an issue:

"I'm not ashamed,'' Johnson said after the 25-minute program of song and prayer. "Let our community know we have Christ in our school.''

It is a concern of the attitudes of those who seek to indoctrinate children with religion at schools. Most of those who want to put religion back in schools, want to put Christianity back into schools. This is fact. The savvy politicos will try and make it monotheistic, but that still fails the legality test. I wonder if Peter Bronson will question the lack of balance is this story and at that school, as much as he did Miami University's choice of Convocation speaker. I kind of think he will be giddy as a boy burning ants with a magnifying glass over this article.

UPDATE: Matt Weiler comments(rants) on this as well.

Vigilancia Politica 20030917
Another shorter one. We are in the doldrums of the campaign. Things have not quite gotten into full schmooze mode yet. Next month will be when things start getting nutty. This week the highlight, or lowlight, is my spiffy picture. I need a new camera, mostly because I want a better quality digital, but this one will have to do for now.

Enquirer's New Weekly Rag

Steve Novotni, XRay Magazine Editor, has the lastest scoop on the Enquirer's up and coming weekly newspaper. By the sound of things this is going to be a waste of space. It sounds like überffluff. If there is any original news, and I mean hard news, I will be shocked. If you find “Betty Crocker” receipes in “Cin” (or Barge), I would not be surprised. They might be trendy recipies for Jello-shots circa 1993, but hey, we are in Cincinnati after all.

No word yet if “Cin” will have any kind of website. I doubt my idea will be used. I wonder if CityBeat will take up the group blog idea? I doubt it. I don’t think either CityBeat or the Enquirer could stand for “unedited” content and for people linking to other publications.

More Grandstanding from the Queen

The Queen of City Hall and her one women show of grandstanding was out in full force today:

"We can't be prepared for terrorists if we don't have simple security measures in place right here at our own City Hall," Reece said. "We're trying to send a message to people when they come to City Hall that we're trying to make it safe for you."

Yes, Alicia, the terrorists are surely targeting Cincinnati. Maybe we will get attacked in 10 years. 2013 should be about when the terrorists find Cincinnati on a map.

More on Clear Channel

The Enquirer has belatedly gotten a story online. The Business Courier had the scoop and since this hit on the weekend, no one was available for comment. This article included comments from Mike Kenney, regional vice president for Clear Channel, that seem much more disingenuous than Saturday's article.

"We looked at McFarland and Third streets. We looked out on West Third Street. We looked at other buildings downtown. In fact, I spent almost all my time looking at buildings downtown," Kenney said. "It just didn't work out."

Riiiiiight. Almost all of your time. The issue is money. They got it cheap. It is simple as that. Cheap and they have no need for to be downtown when they do nothing downtown (oh except the reds and bengals which is a big nothing for the rest of the city). It would be nice if the WDBZ picked up the slack by starting a real newsroom. I will not be holding my breath for that, but someone has to cover city hall, and they will be right across the street after all.

The Buzz Board

1230thebuzz.com has moved into the internet interactive mode with the addition of a message board. I applaud the move. There are currently no other major media outlets with a well structured forum. I encourage everyone to register and post away. I most also inform Nate: I have all ready registered cincyblog as my ID, so he can't pretend he is me on the Buzz's boards.