All posts by Steve Stern

The NYT and Fox on the same story: no wonder we don’t understand each other

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My Google Homepage referenced Fox and the New York Times on a story.

From Fox Nine suspects tied to a militia in the Midwest are charged with
conspiring to kill police officers, then attack a funeral in the hopes
of killing more law enforcement people, federal prosecutors said Monday.

In the entire ten paragraph story, Fox names the group - Hutaree, in paragraph two – and says that they are an extremist group.

From the NYT  Nine members of a Michigan-based Christian militia group have been
indicted on sedition and weapons charges in connection with an alleged
plot to murder law enforcement officers in hopes of setting off an
anti-government uprising.

As I started to read the story in the NYT, I wondered how they knew it was a Christian organization. Then the article referenced their website as saying that they were Christian. If they self identify as Christians, I am willing to agree they should be identified as Christians. I began to wonder if I had overlooked it at Fox. So, I went back and, no reference to Christians in the Fox article.  

Did Fox not think it was important that the group is Christian? – I'll bet they would think it was important if the group were Muslim. – Did they think it was important but we shouldn't know? I have no idea, but the Fox reader and the NYT reader will walk away with different facts, and, probably, different opinions on what happened and why.

I'll stick with the New York Times.

Bob White, RIP: probably the greatest pilot you have never heard of*

Americana, Current Affairs, What's a man?

* with the same caveat that I had for Lynn Hill

Bob White, or – if you like – Robert Michael White, died last Wednesday, March 17 2010. He died peaceably, presumably in his bed, at the age of 85.

Given Bob White's life, that was a pretty unlikely event. When he was twenty, he was flying P51 Mustangs in combat over Germany. He was still only twenty when, after 52 missions, he was shot down and taken prisoner. Then he flew in combat over Korea. Then he became a test pilot, eventually flying the X-15.

X-15 Flying
While flying the X-15, on November 9, 1961, White flew at 4093 mph. That is over 68 miles a minute. That is six times the speed of sound. At one point, the shock waves and vibration did this to his canopy.

X15 Canopy

And White still landed the plane safely and lived to die, peacefully, at 85. I hope we are all so lucky.

It’s the great Nancy Pelosi’s House

Americana, Current Affairs, Obama, Politics

As an aside: Try Goggling images of Nancy Pelosi. Most of them are pretty bad – they are either shot to make her look bad or doctored to make her look bad. I am not sure why; maybe it is because the right just takes up more space – in the same way that a Hummer takes up more space than a Honda Civic – but I could be convinced that we are even more of a sexist nation than we are a racist nation. Either way, or if something else is going on that hasn't occurred to me, Nancy Pelosi doesn't seem to get the same respect that the great Sam Rayburn got, or great Tip O'Neil or, even Thomas Reed. But there is a funny thing about racism or sexism, or homophobia for that matter, once we get to know somebody and they are no longer an archetype; it is much harder to remain a racist or sexist, or homophobe.  End aside.

With all the credit that should go to President Obama – and he has done an extraordinary job of getting the Health Care Bill pushed through – without Nancy Pelosi it wouldn't have happened. Period! 

To quote NEWSER,- a sort of web Reader's Digest for those of us that think three paragraphs is just too long  –

President
Obama may be the one history remembers for pulling off the biggest
domestic policy reform in decades, but Nancy Pelosi "emerges from this
battle as the real powerhouse in Washington," Julian Zelizer writes for CNN.
Wielding both a "clear ideological agenda" and the "pragmatic political
tactics" to round up votes, Pelosi is the clear heir to Ted Kennedy's
legacy, Zelizer writes.
After Scott Brown's election, with
Harry Reid and Rahm Emanuel backing away from comprehensive health
reform, Pelosi "kept the steel in the president’s back," a Democratic
rep tells Politico.
"When Kennedy died, many Democrats wondered who would take his place as
the party's dealmaker," concludes Zelizer. "Now they have their
answer."


Speaker+Nancy+Pelosi