Culture Wars

Daniel Brown explores the culture wars in a column at QCF. His comments on the Gibson Movie I think are telling of some level of reality:

The Passion of Christ was a mini-sensation in March. This over publicized, over-hyped movie teaches us nothing about why people followed Jesus but much about mob violence and physical abuse. Symbolically, what is important is that it plays into the hands of the religious right, whose values pervades American society and has killed art and culture in Greater Cincinnati. Whether anyone's faith will be enhanced is up for grabs.

Indeed

Alistair Cooke

If have never seen or read it, I suggest catching Alistair Cooke's address to congress from 1974. It was on PBS last night in a tribute to the great BBC journalist. It was remarkable not only in its uniqueness, but in the guts for which it was made. Cooke said more about American Democracy and History than I have ever heard from a natural born citizen. He even addressed the Nixon scandal, which had come to a head only a month before his speech. Check your listings to see when PBS repeats the program.

Dateline is the 'Devil'

Oh great. The television show that helped kill television news is doing a story on tickets by police and they of course chose Cincinnati as a place to study. This AP story pretends to be news, but is really just a press release. Can I start a pool? How many dramatic music themes will NBC producers use for the segment involving Cincinnati? I would bet on 3.

Daily Kos

The controversy surrounding DailyKos is the "hot" news in the Blogosphere. The Blogging of the President has the best summary of what the controversy is all about and the facts surrounding it.

I hope Rob Bernard reads that link and stops stuff like this.

Rob is following the leader into a grass roots McCarthyism. I really would hope that the conservatives don't want to go down the road of death by association. Their laundry smells far worse than a couple of words from Kos.

Bob Edwards - NPR Flap

James King, director for broadcasting for WVXU has written a very telling column on how NPR handled the removal of Bob Edwards from the NPR Morning Edition program.

As a daily listener to Morning Edition I was perplexed by the change. Morning Edition and All Things Considered are the best things on radio today in America. I don't know what changes they could be trying. The only thing that could improve it would be making it more "live." That would change it, and keeping the same atmosphere while being live would be very difficult. If they are going for the same thing, I don't see why they would dump Edwards, unless there was some kind of internal contract or personal conflict.

I hope NPR does not try something stupid, like CNN did with their attempt to compete with the Today Show. If NPR wants to pull Stern's or Imus's audience I think they have gone insane. NPR is for those who like to think. Stern is for those who don't like to think. Imus is for those who can think, but want to pretend they are, without having to do any thinking at all.

Odd Cincinnati Reference

It appears that Tre Arrow, formerly known as Michael Scarpitti, who was wanted for 19 months for firebombing logging and cement trucks in Oregon, has been captured. What does this have to do with Cincinnati? Well, nothing, except for a reference in the article about Mr. Arrow:

Arrow dropped out of college and moved west, first to Cincinnati where he played in a band and fathered a child with his backup singer, and then to Frazier, Colo., where he worked in a whole foods store.

I think this would have been sometime before 1996. If you knew this guy or what band he was in, send me an email.

John Kerry Coming to Cincinnati

Democratic Candidate for President, Senator John Kerry, will be in Cincinnati for a public rally 11:00 AM on Tuesday, at Yeatman's Cove near the Cincinnatus statue.

A local Kerry campaign official states that the event is free and open to the public, but is encouraging people to pick up tickets for preferred seating/standing. Tickets can be picked up at:

225 W. Court Street, Downtown Cincinnati, from 2-5pm on Sunday.

or

1420 Main Street, (Greg Harris' campaign office), from 2-5 pm on Sunday or 3-6pm on Monday.

Kerry's Website and Ohio Page.