Penheaded
Sunday, March 21, 2004
Miraculous Apparition
----- Original Message -----
From: penheaded
To: mzuiderweg@repub.com
Sent: Sunday, March 21, 2004 4:36 PM
Subject: Sunday photo
This concerns the caption and photograph on the front page of the March 21, 2004 Sunday Republican. The photo is of Sandra L. and Andre E. Tessier, parents of a son allegedly sexually abused by a priest. It would be hard to not feel sympathy for all the Tessier's in their suffering. And the Republican should be lauded for the successes it has had in bringing to light the sin and hypocrisy occurring in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, MA.
The caption on the photo states that the Tessier's are sitting at their kitchen table where Mrs. Tessier has written many letters to church leaders. The photo shows three religious statues lined up on the table. The photograph itself has excellent balance and looks quite good. In fact, one might say, incredibly good.
The statues on the table are in staggered, descending order of height starting on the left side of the picture in the foreground and the Tessier's are seated at the table on the right side. Mrs. Tessier has pen and paper in hand. The statues and Tessier's are all aligned looking into the camera. In most homes, the kitchen table is a hub of activity. The accompanying story paints the Tessier's as pious folk. Even so, to maintain such a display on your kitchen table is truly exceptional.
It seems unlikely that even a fortuitous angle and good cropping of the photo by themselves would bring about the balance of all these elements in the picture.
It would also seem that there are two likely classes of explanations for how the contents of this picture were brought together. In the case any of these explanations, the photographer and newspaper are worthy of further notice.
¶ 3/21/2004 04:53:00 PM 0 comments
----- Original Message -----
From: penheaded
To: mzuiderweg@repub.com
Sent: Sunday, March 21, 2004 4:36 PM
Subject: Sunday photo
This concerns the caption and photograph on the front page of the March 21, 2004 Sunday Republican. The photo is of Sandra L. and Andre E. Tessier, parents of a son allegedly sexually abused by a priest. It would be hard to not feel sympathy for all the Tessier's in their suffering. And the Republican should be lauded for the successes it has had in bringing to light the sin and hypocrisy occurring in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, MA.
The caption on the photo states that the Tessier's are sitting at their kitchen table where Mrs. Tessier has written many letters to church leaders. The photo shows three religious statues lined up on the table. The photograph itself has excellent balance and looks quite good. In fact, one might say, incredibly good.
The statues on the table are in staggered, descending order of height starting on the left side of the picture in the foreground and the Tessier's are seated at the table on the right side. Mrs. Tessier has pen and paper in hand. The statues and Tessier's are all aligned looking into the camera. In most homes, the kitchen table is a hub of activity. The accompanying story paints the Tessier's as pious folk. Even so, to maintain such a display on your kitchen table is truly exceptional.
It seems unlikely that even a fortuitous angle and good cropping of the photo by themselves would bring about the balance of all these elements in the picture.
It would also seem that there are two likely classes of explanations for how the contents of this picture were brought together. In the case any of these explanations, the photographer and newspaper are worthy of further notice.
¶ 3/21/2004 04:53:00 PM 0 comments
Saturday, March 20, 2004
Swamped (gas)
The response to the contest has been at such a level as to prevent completion of the judging at this time. Updates later.
¶ 3/20/2004 02:46:00 PM 0 comments
Saturday, March 13, 2004
Instapundit.... Contest!!!???
I am still reading the articles and posts on information spread so I am not prepared to make the tie-in to this particular subject. I am also working on another project soon to debut. Alluded to a previous post, more on this later. I do have to say that one of the reasons why I have focused on Instapundit is because of the relatively high caliber of the discourse. But my reading to date has yet to find a day pass that does not contain a Reynolds made or endorsed posting that was not anything but pure Republican spin with a shaky factual connection. The Republican thing is not a problem, the basis is.
Despite a real affinity for the form, I have always had this nagging, cynical reservation about the blogs. Simply that they would be subject to the same venal, ego-driven forces as other human intellectual endeavors. The loftiest of purposes have not excluded these from occurring in the likes of publishing, arts criticism and academia. Sometimes the linking in blogs is not illuminating, just incestuous.
I was going to go with the tagline at the end of the previous post as the header on this one. Instead, I thought we would have a contest. I thought the "Instapundit runs..." was a halfway decent aping of a NYPost header for the subject. The game here is to come up with the best tabloid-style header for this posting. The prize is an official (wink, nod) Halliburton property tag with a Shrub or Dick Cheney serial number affixed, winner chooses. The contest is open until 12:00 a.m. (EST), Friday, March 19, 2004. The winner will be announced Friday evening. I will email the winner for shipping instructions. Send your entries to:
perpenheaded@hotmail.com
Now, on to this matter. I posted on this back in December and I have to say it is what really made me start to take a more critical look at Instapundit. I thought that his writing on the matter had glaring omissions. My post:
This past week a number of conservative sites linked to the story of a woman arrested in Texas for selling "marital aids". The links would have also educated you to the fact that only three states in the country have the word "dildo" in their penal codes. As it is, those three states are Texas, Kansas and Colorado and all are very conservative, Republican states.
This gets to why I feel the bulk of the current crop of conservatives are a bunch of double-speaking, lying hypocrites. These guys trash big government and the rule of law particularly as it hinders the money/resource/power grabbing abilities of their ideological beneficiaries. And these little stories are supposed to show how even some obscure little (a reference to a similar home party plan has been removed here, the lawyers have enough to do -ed.) party giver can land up in the clutches of big law. Particularly when the wanted woman of widgets decides to enroll her business with the local Chamber of Commerce.
This crop of conservatives has been playing political footsie with the very elements that propagate these kinds of strictures. They are getting what they are really after. What are they complaining about?
There it is. A little bit of vitriol, but it speaks to the hypocrisy I so detest. See you in the winners' circle.
¶ 3/13/2004 09:53:00 PM 0 comments
Despite a real affinity for the form, I have always had this nagging, cynical reservation about the blogs. Simply that they would be subject to the same venal, ego-driven forces as other human intellectual endeavors. The loftiest of purposes have not excluded these from occurring in the likes of publishing, arts criticism and academia. Sometimes the linking in blogs is not illuminating, just incestuous.
I was going to go with the tagline at the end of the previous post as the header on this one. Instead, I thought we would have a contest. I thought the "Instapundit runs..." was a halfway decent aping of a NYPost header for the subject. The game here is to come up with the best tabloid-style header for this posting. The prize is an official (wink, nod) Halliburton property tag with a Shrub or Dick Cheney serial number affixed, winner chooses. The contest is open until 12:00 a.m. (EST), Friday, March 19, 2004. The winner will be announced Friday evening. I will email the winner for shipping instructions. Send your entries to:
perpenheaded@hotmail.com
Now, on to this matter. I posted on this back in December and I have to say it is what really made me start to take a more critical look at Instapundit. I thought that his writing on the matter had glaring omissions. My post:
This past week a number of conservative sites linked to the story of a woman arrested in Texas for selling "marital aids". The links would have also educated you to the fact that only three states in the country have the word "dildo" in their penal codes. As it is, those three states are Texas, Kansas and Colorado and all are very conservative, Republican states.
This gets to why I feel the bulk of the current crop of conservatives are a bunch of double-speaking, lying hypocrites. These guys trash big government and the rule of law particularly as it hinders the money/resource/power grabbing abilities of their ideological beneficiaries. And these little stories are supposed to show how even some obscure little (a reference to a similar home party plan has been removed here, the lawyers have enough to do -ed.) party giver can land up in the clutches of big law. Particularly when the wanted woman of widgets decides to enroll her business with the local Chamber of Commerce.
This crop of conservatives has been playing political footsie with the very elements that propagate these kinds of strictures. They are getting what they are really after. What are they complaining about?
There it is. A little bit of vitriol, but it speaks to the hypocrisy I so detest. See you in the winners' circle.
¶ 3/13/2004 09:53:00 PM 0 comments
Thursday, March 11, 2004
Instapundit runs half-naked, half-baked and half-cocked through the streets
Well, it has come to that time. It must be said. One of the emperors is rather shoddily clothed. The current articles on the spread of information on the web and through weblogs put this point front and center.
I imagine that some will dismiss what I have to say as simply partisan quibbling but I think this goes a little beyond that. I kind of think that the omissions I am about to expose amount to a lack of intellectual honesty.
No quibbling, Glenn Reynolds is a smart man. Which makes this all the more hard and also all the more damning. He has maintained a premier position in the blogging world. To a large extent, “arriving” in the blog world has meant a mention at Instapundit.com.
One of the items ranking high on the blog indices today concerns a posting about Murdoch’s NYPost story on the furor surrounding Bush’s 9/11 ads. You know something is up when he refers to the Post as the mainstream press. And of course as soon as that point is raised the response will be that it is at least as legitimate as Jason Blair and the NYTimes. Well, there is a notable difference between the Times and most of Murdoch’s tabloids. When the writers at those tabloids pick up their checks, everybody (with the possible exception of the readers) knows they have been lying.
So the Post story, that Glenn is quoting, goes on about the “morally detestable” position of some 9/11 victims’ survivors of not wanting to see other families suffer similar losses: perhaps not the right time in history, but quite understandable. These people were deeply wounded, not traitors: for some the pain so heavy they want to reek great vengeance on those even remotely involved, for others the grief so great they wish it for no one. It is just one of those differences that keeps humanity interesting and exciting.
But the Post is on a mission. And Glenn is co-pilot, according to him the blogoshere already knew.
So as proof of their assertions, the Post drags out testimony from the director of the Center for Consumer Freedom about the Tides Foundation before a Republican controlled congressional committee . The CCF maintains that the other group is just a front. Man, lobbyists that live in glass houses… shoo.
The CCF is a shill for a large number of industry and business groups. This is such a hokey example of an expert opinion to trot out that it boggles the mind. The CCF’s relationship to the phrase consumer freedom could only exist in the doublespeak mind of the current crop of conservatives. But Glenn can be excused, in interviews he seems to be in denial about what a big fat public relations vehicle Tech Central Station, his other employer, has been. According to Glenn, the articles in TCS supporting the publisher’s pr clients just happen to be a coincidence. Okay, the opinions and the paycheck are just a coincidence. Right.
More on this tomorrow and also…. THE WANTON WOMAN OF WIDGETS.
¶ 3/11/2004 02:10:00 AM 0 comments
I imagine that some will dismiss what I have to say as simply partisan quibbling but I think this goes a little beyond that. I kind of think that the omissions I am about to expose amount to a lack of intellectual honesty.
No quibbling, Glenn Reynolds is a smart man. Which makes this all the more hard and also all the more damning. He has maintained a premier position in the blogging world. To a large extent, “arriving” in the blog world has meant a mention at Instapundit.com.
One of the items ranking high on the blog indices today concerns a posting about Murdoch’s NYPost story on the furor surrounding Bush’s 9/11 ads. You know something is up when he refers to the Post as the mainstream press. And of course as soon as that point is raised the response will be that it is at least as legitimate as Jason Blair and the NYTimes. Well, there is a notable difference between the Times and most of Murdoch’s tabloids. When the writers at those tabloids pick up their checks, everybody (with the possible exception of the readers) knows they have been lying.
So the Post story, that Glenn is quoting, goes on about the “morally detestable” position of some 9/11 victims’ survivors of not wanting to see other families suffer similar losses: perhaps not the right time in history, but quite understandable. These people were deeply wounded, not traitors: for some the pain so heavy they want to reek great vengeance on those even remotely involved, for others the grief so great they wish it for no one. It is just one of those differences that keeps humanity interesting and exciting.
But the Post is on a mission. And Glenn is co-pilot, according to him the blogoshere already knew.
So as proof of their assertions, the Post drags out testimony from the director of the Center for Consumer Freedom about the Tides Foundation before a Republican controlled congressional committee . The CCF maintains that the other group is just a front. Man, lobbyists that live in glass houses… shoo.
The CCF is a shill for a large number of industry and business groups. This is such a hokey example of an expert opinion to trot out that it boggles the mind. The CCF’s relationship to the phrase consumer freedom could only exist in the doublespeak mind of the current crop of conservatives. But Glenn can be excused, in interviews he seems to be in denial about what a big fat public relations vehicle Tech Central Station, his other employer, has been. According to Glenn, the articles in TCS supporting the publisher’s pr clients just happen to be a coincidence. Okay, the opinions and the paycheck are just a coincidence. Right.
More on this tomorrow and also…. THE WANTON WOMAN OF WIDGETS.
¶ 3/11/2004 02:10:00 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, March 09, 2004
G-2 Report
Message to Reactionary Rangers:
Subject:
Clinton Says He Won't Run
You can stand down, the U.N. troops and black helicopters are not coming this week. Do continue to be on the watch for that Reno broad's pick-up. ¶ 3/09/2004 10:43:00 PM 0 comments
Subject:
Clinton Says He Won't Run
You can stand down, the U.N. troops and black helicopters are not coming this week. Do continue to be on the watch for that Reno broad's pick-up. ¶ 3/09/2004 10:43:00 PM 0 comments
Thursday, March 04, 2004
Bloggers Arise
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/28/national/28PUBL.html?pagewanted=print&position=
The article referenced above is the newest low in the Bush administration's march to absurdity. They wish to limit the flow of information. A lot of attention has been given to the Iranian blogs' democratic spirit by some very high profile blogs. It is kinda tough to stand on the sidelines telling others to jump up on the ramparts. Let's show 'em the why and how in the home of those ideals. I offer my services to this struggle. Enough is enough. ¶ 3/04/2004 11:10:00 PM 0 comments
The article referenced above is the newest low in the Bush administration's march to absurdity. They wish to limit the flow of information. A lot of attention has been given to the Iranian blogs' democratic spirit by some very high profile blogs. It is kinda tough to stand on the sidelines telling others to jump up on the ramparts. Let's show 'em the why and how in the home of those ideals. I offer my services to this struggle. Enough is enough. ¶ 3/04/2004 11:10:00 PM 0 comments
