Redesign
You may have noticed over the past few days that there’s been a slight redesign of the site. Let me know how it is. Thanks.
John F. Kerry, Where are your records?
He’s announced that he will not seek the Presidency in 2008, but that doesn’t mean we still wouldn’t be interested in seeing his records…
Two years ago today John Kerry promised Tim Russert that he’d sign his SF-180 to release his military records. On May 20, 2005 John Kerry signed the form, but the papers were released to a couple of friendly news outlets and all we really learned was that George Bush’s undergrad grades were better than those of John Kerry…
Cao has quite a bit more as well as the Blogburst!
Today's Day by Day
Go read Chris Muir’s Day by Day for today, January 28, 2007.
Are Shih Tzus Supposed to Herd?
| Whenever he starts howling out back or the tea kettle starts whistling |  |
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she herds me. She herds me to the stove for the tea kettle and the back door for the Siberian. She’s only 9 inches tall at the shoulder and she pushes me along at mid-calf. |
Don’t forget to visit the Friday Ark #123!
Linked to Mickey’s Musings Carnival of the Dogs!
Airline Poll
Air Tran requested that a misbehaving three-year-old and her parents leave the plane when the parents couldn’t control her and the plane was already 15 minutes late for takeoff.
{democracy:8}
I saw the parents briefly on FNC last night and the mother was saying that they were “humiliated” by being asked to leave the plane.
I’m sorry you feel that way Mrs. Kulesza, but it isn’t the airline that “humiliated” you.
That you can’t control your three-year-old is what humiliated you. If you could have controlled her, you wouldn’t have been asked to leave the plane.
As I noted in the previous post, my children are mostly well behaved in public. When they aren’t, I take them somewhere else. If I’m at the grocery store and a child acts up, I leave the store, cart and all. I will not put other people through my child’s misbehavior or temper tantrums.
It’s more than just airplanes. How many times have you been to a restaurant where the kids are running around and the parents are deep in their own conversation? This goes for a two mom and some kids lunch date as well. Kudos to any restaurant that posts signs and lets parents know that unruly children will not be tolerated.
Parents need to be parents first and not the child’s best friend. It’s okay to be a child’s friend as long as you remember who’s in charge and make sure that parenting takes over from friendship when it’s necessary.
A good resource for parents is 1, 2, 3, Magic by Thomas W. Phelan. It’s a way for parents to get back in control.
Pelosi Against Victory?
It sure seems so. Beldar caught it too.
When President Bush said
Ladies and gentlemen: On this day, at this hour, it is still within our power to shape the outcome of this battle. Let us find our resolve, and turn events toward victory.
Nancy Pelosi remained seated. I noted to my husband that, at the time, she looked as though she remained ‘defiantly‘ seated. She was sitting straight and tall with her hand clasped in her lap.
Lorie has an email from a “milblogger” who was offended by “Blinky”.
Airline Removes Three-Year-Old Terror and Family
Good for AirTran Airways.
The flight from Ft. Myers to Boston was already 15 minutes late taking off when little Elly refused to get in her seat. The flight could not take off without all passengers in their seats and belted. Being three years old, Elly had to have her own seat and be belted into it. According to the airline the child was also hitting her parents and trying to get under the seat.
The airline personnel asked Elly and her parents to leave the plane. Good for them. They said,
The flight was already delayed 15 minutes and in fairness to the other 112 passengers on the plane, the crew made an operational decision to remove the family.
The airline refunded their purchase price and got them on another flight and also offered three round-trip tickets to anywhere AirTran flies. The father said that they would never fly AirTran again.
I’ll fly AirTran anytime they’re going where I’m going from where I am.
I’ve flown with three-year-olds, and babies, and most recently with a five-year-old on his very first flight. I’ve never had a problem getting any child in an airline seat and keeping them there.
On the other hand, I have well behaved (at least in public) children. I set limits and the children mostly abide by them. Children need and want limits. Julie and Gerry Kulesza were inconvenienced by having to leave the plane. The other 112 passengers got to fly to their destination reasonably on time and without having to listen to a screaming three-year-old all the way to Boston.
I hope Elly was a bit better behaved on the flight they actually took.
Vote for Sgt. Hook
The Recession That Never Happened
Neil Cavuto hosted Dan Gainor from the MRC’s Business & Media institute to talk about the recession that never happened.
More at Newsbusters.
Cavuto: Does the media flat out lie about the economy? I want you to meet a guy who says, “yeah, they do.” And what’s more, they do it all the time. Wait ’til you find out why and how. After this.
Well you’ve heard me say it before, my next guest is saying it again, this economy is strong, very strong. You’ll hear the President say it tomorrow night. But if this guy is right, you will never read about it in the papers on Wednesday or any day. This is Dan Gainor, Dan is the director of the Media Research Center’s Business & Media Institute. Why is that? We do have a strong economy, this isn’t a political viewpoint, we do.
Gainor: Well of course we do. But if you look at how the networks covered the economy last year, on average, almost every week they were either comparing or contrasting to a recession or the Great Depression. A couple of the network broadcasts actually used video tape of the Great Depression. You had people in soup lines and shilling newspaper headlines saying the Wall Street collapse. That’s not reflecting what’s going on.
Cavuto: Do you think it’s an agenda Dan?
Gainor: Absolutely. It’s an agenda. As long as there’s a conservative or a Republican in the White House then you’re going to overlook all the good economic new we’ve had. And I mean you can almost just pick whatever good news you want to choose from. We’ve had more than seven million new jobs created since the Bush Recovery in 2003. My Washington Post the other day had a headline on the business section that said, “Inflation at the lowest in 3 years”. You’ve got, despite the housing slowdown recently, in 2001 to 2005 you had more than 50 percent housing growth. You can just you look at people fighting over themselves trying to get PS3’s, iPhones, any sort of, X-Boxes.
Cavuto: Dan, maybe it’s, let’s take the political issue out of it for a second, is there just this cynicism on the part of most journalists to just report the bad? In other words, “If it bleeds, it leads”, that age old journalism axiom that good news doesn’t rate or sell, bad news does?
Gainor: I really wish it was that way. Because then, no matter who ends up in the White House, no matter who ends up in congress, you get the same kind of media coverage. That’s not the case. Going back a few years when Bush ran for re-election, we compared how the media’d covered that time with how they’d covered it when Clinton ran for re-election. Similar economic time periods – that’s Business Week claiming that, not me – and yet the media coverage for Clinton was so overwhelmingly positive.
Cavuto: Do you think that’s because most journalists are Democrat or liberal that they will even not known consciously, they will unconsciously, make these decisions to make it look good for the democrat?
Gainor: I think it’s a combination of both. There’s also a huge amount of economic ignorance in the media. I say this as a career journalist. Journalists do the quick hit, they don’t really understand all the components of a good economy, they don’t understand business. When you’re looking at something as broad as this, your natural biases are going to creep up.
Cavuto: What about the fact that there have been a lot of layoffs in the media industry and that that is what is affecting their view and they’re being parochial about it and taking it out on the rest of us?
Gainor: What did Tip O’Neill say, “all politics is local” and if you feel that your industry is in deep trouble, it’s going to be reflected in your reporting. So of course.
Cavuto: Dan, very interesting stuff, we don’t hear it all the time. Dan Gainor, Business and Media Institute. Good seeing you.
Gainor: Thank you.
Bumper Stickers
Bumper stickers seen on one vehicle in the Super WalMart parking lot: Tree Hugger and Meat = Murder. There were more, but those were the only two I could read without actually going over to the mini-van. WalMart parking lot. Heh™
