Thought Quotient

‘Big Media’ loves scandal…

Ok, if we can have ‘Big Business’ and ‘Big Oil’, why not ‘Big Media?’ Anyway, just a thought. Normally we think of ‘Big Media’ as loving controversy and scandal. After all, for the past few weeks, you would think the Michael Jackson case ranked up there with the Cuban missile crisis or something the way it’s been covered lately. So keeping that in mind, I ran across this AP story that first broke on the internet on Friday 2/13. There was not a trace of it on any news sites (Reuters, AP, CNN, you name it). I found it odd that not a word of it was on any news site for 3 to 4 days after it first appeared on the DrudgeReport website. Many British newspapers covered it in that time period. Currently, the Associated Press is still the only major news outlet to touch it. Now the rule of thumb on how this stuff has been covered traditionally by the Big Media is that the seriousness of the story outweighs the credibility of the story. I have to give credit to Rush Limbaugh for first stating this (to my knowledge) but I feel it is a keen observation. Knowing this is their modus operandi, why did they choose to squelch this story? Is it that they have changed their ways and are now operating very cautiously…checking and double-checking every story before they run with it. Or are they making editorial decisions on what to cover and what not to cover? I hope they are doing the former, but I am not so naive as to doubt it is the latter….just because I have observed the nature of the ‘Big Media’ over the years and until I see a change in that, I will not be inclined to change my opinion. That’s fair.

San Francisco Officials Marry Gay Couple

A quick thought on this story…

“city authorities officiated” … “and said they will issue more”

I can’t help but contrast this to the judge Roy Moore case from last summer. He was told that he had to deny his faith…he didn’t…he lost his job. The explanation: we must respect ‘the law.’

These city officials were not prompted to do this, yet they boldly challenged the law. What will the result of this be? We’ll see.

Liberals and human nature…

Political liberalism is humanism and humanism is godlessness. So we shouldn’t be surprised when liberal activists and politicians support and fight for positions that are a complete contradiction to the Christian worldview of the Bible. In a nutshell, liberals feel human nature is basically good and if only given a chance, all of the wars would cease….but of course that would mean that America would have to stop stirring up hatred around the world. Case in point this article quotes Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia as saying this about Al-Qaida now being in Iraq…

“Obviously, they’re there. The president invited them in and said, ‘We can take you on,’” said Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. He was referring to Bush’s “Bring them on” challenge to U.S. enemies in July.

Are we to infer that Al-Qaida was just minding their own business until George Bush said “Bring it on”…What did Bush say to bring on 9/11?

There is no logic behind this kind of thinking. Al-Qaida is a terrorist organization. They want to strike us wherever they can. It’s better that they are fighting our soldiers over in Iraq where our men have weapons to strike them down as opposed to them attacking civilians working at their desk on a weekday in some U.S. city. After all, these terrorists want to die, why not let them be ‘martyrs’ on the battlefield?

Kerry Romps in South; Clark Dropping Out

Kerry is feeling pretty good these days and beginning to sound off on the campaign trail…

“George Bush, who speaks of strength, has made America weaker - weaker economically, weaker in our health care, weaker in education. And the truth is that he has made us weaker militarily by overextending the armed forces of the United States,” Kerry said.

Note that he doesn’t say how Bush has ‘overextended the military’…would it be that we are in a war right now against terrorism? We are at war to protect the people of the United States. Liberals have already forgotten that 19 men killed 3000 Americans in an hour and a half. Instead, we are supposed to focus on our paychecks, health care and yes, ‘the children.’ Meanwhile the war goes on and Kerry wants to hand off most of that responsibility to the UN who couldn’t enforce their very only resolutions against Iraq?

I’m anticipating President Bush using the bully pulpit to remind Americans that we are still in a war, a war that allows us the freedom and protection to yes, think about economics, health care, and education. If we were coping with more 9/11 type attacks, I dare say we wouldn’t have that luxury.

What is an Oligarchy?

Webster defines it…

I’ll try to apply it…
Seeing how our courts over the last 50 years or so have started to become more activist in their rulings, many are saying that our democratic republic initiated by our founding fathers is turning into one. What does that mean? By sheer observation of the news, I see that it is a way to pass a law without public approval or going through the legislative process (remember the ruling that the pledge of allegience was unconstitutional?) This is a trend that many simply call judicial tyranny and are saying enough is enough.

This possibility was not new to the founders and they had this to say…

George Washington February 7, 1788
Read more here

“To consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions [is] a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. Our judges are as honest as other men and not more so. They have with others the same passions for party, for power, and the privilege of their corps. Their maxim is boni judicis est ampliare jurisdictionem [good justice is broad jurisdiction], and their power the more dangerous as they are in office for life and not responsible, as the other functionaries are, to the elective control. The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal, knowing that to whatever hands confided, with the corruptions of time and party, its members would become despots. It has more wisely made all the departments co-equal and co-sovereign within themselves.” –Thomas Jefferson to William C. Jarvis, 1820. ME 15:277
Read more here

What the?, I stopped watching the cable news channels and the ‘big three’ networks because of the way they teased me with stories just to keep me hanging on through the next commercial break only to find out finally towards the end of the program that the story was an overhyped commercial just to get me to sit through the whole thing until the end. I know the mainstream media has a liberal bias and that goes without saying so I’m not going to touch that one. Besides, anyone who is fair minded can see that anymore so more and more people are getting their eyes opened. But it’s becoming painfully obvious that 24 hour news stations are having a hard time filling up all of that time with ‘news.’ So what’s the result? The news broadcasts are looking more like ‘entertainment tonight’ or tabloid shows. I’ve been getting my news lately from the internet because I can avoid that junk and go right to the stories that I really want to read…but that appears to be falling prey to the same trouble. Case in point - the CNN homepage this morning had approximately 35 stories linked on their front page, with the following stories listed among the 10 most important…

� Woman marries dead boyfriend

� Swimmer drives for help with shark attached to leg

� Sea lion leaves ocean for 65-mile trip inland

Is this CNN or the ‘weekly world news’ at the checkout aisle of my local grocery store? Tomorrow I expect to see that Elvis is going to be running this year as a 2004 Democratic Presidential candidate.