Bill O’Reilly Watch: Episode One

I’ve been tuning into the O’Reilly Factor lately. Why? I dont know why, I guess Im curious to examine in detail where we are in terms of treatment for hypertension. I have to tell you, this guy doesnt just raise my blood pressure, he scares the bejesus out of me. If there are people out there who believe half of the garbage this divisive, hate-monger is spewing, then America is in deep trouble. Not only does he look you right in the eye and lie, but he also distorts what few facts he chooses to incorporate into his info-tainment broadcast. "No spin zone" my back-end. C'Mon!
Lets just begin by dissecting his talking points from October the 13th. The words in bold are Bill's

A new FOX News poll out today says 50 percent of Americans will vote Democrat, 41 percent Republican, in the congressional elections next month. President Bush's approval rating is 40 percent, 56 percent disapprove. So the smart money believes that Democrats will make solid gains in the upcoming vote, but here is something interesting.
If the Dems win the House, Nancy Pelosi will become speaker. However, according to the FOX poll, 43 percent of Americans have never heard of Congresswoman Pelosi. They know nothing about her. So the country is facing a possible big change, and almost half of us have no idea what the change might be.

So? Round up 100 people in each of the “red states” and see if they know the name of the current Speaker of the House. Want to put some money on it??? Oh wait, they may know it now because Dennis Hastert knew about Mark Foley’s predilection for young boys and didn’t do anything about it. Big change? You mean we might have an official who doesnt condone the molestation of boys? Lets pray: please Jesus dont let this happen. Internet predators need our forgiveness, not condemnation...Amen. (this is continued below)

Nancy Pelosi is a committed secular progressive who embraces San Francisco values. Those are: a massive federal government that dispenses entitlements paid for primarily by affluent Americans. That is called income redistribution, or the shorthand: "tax the rich." San Francisco values also seek to exclude spirituality from the public square but embrace displays like the Bay City's gay pride parade, where Christianity is often mocked and demeaned.

Wha???? I’m having trouble finding out what a secular progressive is outside of the “OReilly Factor", but O’Reilly spews the word out with a lot of vitriol. I think it’s a new buzzword for “liberal” meant to be used with disdain and scorn. Not a lot different than Mel Gibson uses the word “jew”. Be careful when people start making up new terms in attempts to classify people, it’s an attempt to dehumanize the opponent and create a culture of "us vs them". It’s a debate topic used by lazy sub-intellectuals to move their sheep from one side of the field to another with little or no mental power required. We are well beyond McCarthy’s communist scare as it is…the next step will be to build “re-education camps” run by that crazy Christian-camp lady. Oh, and “San Francisco Values” are apparently when you believe homosexuals have the right to exist. Why can’t they have a parade for crying out loud. What does it matter to you?
Define entitlements Bill. Im sure we agree that some are not needed, but dont lump all of our social programs into one basket to toss out with the garbage. We NEED some of those programs. (If you're cheeing me on at this point, dont. I actually happen to be fed up with the Democratic policy of writing in new laws and government assistance programs so they can tell the constituents they've "saved children's lives" at election time. Give me a break)

This one bears reprinting in case you missed it the first time: where Christianity is often mocked and demeaned.


…..just give that a moment will you……


....let it really sink in.....


You mean to tell me…..


....that there are groups out there…..


....organized groups….(rolls eyes)….

who get together at gay pride parades….to MOCK Christianity??? (palm slaps forehead). Where do you get this stuff from? Do you think people spend their time figuring out how to best demean Christianity? Are there anti-bible study groups? C'Mon!

You know what he really means don’t you? That the church groups who come out from Texas to protest the San Francisco and New York gay pride parades are “talked back to” when they threaten homosexual attendees with an eternity of brimstone (and on a more serious note, physical threats are often made against the lives of those attending these lawful gatherings.)
Anyone who hauls their children across the country to set them in front of a gay pride parade wearing a placard stating "you gays will burn in hell" should be arrested and medicated. They deserve to mocked Bill. C'Mon!

On the subject of taxes, we need to start "gettin-real". People, we are going to have to raise taxes. GET OVER IT NOW. (I could say “Read My Lips” but that would just be too ironic wouldn’t it?) The war in Iraq is running into the Trillions of dollars and will put us into an unrecoverable state of debt. This is not a wacky Clinton campaign theory. It is reality. Taxes are going to be raised by someone, probably the next administration. That's life.
Do you know what the really sad thing is? No matter what political beliefs you have about government run healthcare (and Im essentially opposed to it), the cost of this war would have paid for complete coverage for every American citizen twice over.

Now, I'm not saying Congresswoman Pelosi is on board with that,

Isn’t that exactly what he is saying? Did I miss something?

but I am saying her district wants to ban military recruiting while setting up city-wide pot shops,

Who is running on a campaign of establishing city-wide pot shops? Why haven’t I heard about this? And quit waving the flag on the subject of military recruiting. Both sides are wrong on this one. Recruiting practices need to be completely dismantled and rebuilt to rectify the gross deceptions the institution currently employs; but stopping them from speaking at high schools is wrong also. You begin to impinge on freedom of speech issues. If the kids want to join, they are going to join. Guess you should have raised them differently if you didnt want them to join.

and that San Francisco is now perhaps the most far-left city the United States has ever seen.


Oh, you THINK? My god when did that happen? I turn my back for one second and San Francisco goes left on me! The next thing you know the queer-virus will leak over into Texas and a Dallas Cowboy is going to be coming out of the closet. (Troy Aikmen is gay you know, if you cant put the pieces together, you’re not smart enough to bag groceries).

On the other side, 44 percent of Americans have never heard of Speaker Dennis Hastert. And those who have overwhelming believe he was not proactive in the Foley scandal.

Didn’t I just talk about this? That’s the same percentage of people who hadn’t heard of the woman who ISN’T the Speaker of the House. Are you brain-dead?

Define “proactive” Bill. You mean he didn’t download porn? Covering up the scandal, which he did, isn’t necessarily “proactive”. This is an example of sophistry being used to mislead. He isn’t “wrong” but Bill is far from “right” (hee hee, pun intended!)

Add to that the Iraq mess. More than 60 percent of Americans believe the war is not going well. And you have a very difficult choice this November: Should Americans vote for San Francisco values or for perceived failure overseas?

Ummmm…err….which is the one that doesn’t cost trillions of dollars and American lives? I’ll take that one!

Perceived? PERCEIVED? You have to be kidding me. C'Mon!

Now, at this point, the FOX News poll indicates that many folks feel change is necessary, and that's good news for the Democrats. Remember, not every Dem is a hyper-partisan S.P. like Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean. But any increase in their power is troubling if you are a traditionalist.

Troubling? Why? What the hell is a “traditionalist?” A tradition of what? What’s troubling is a nation in debt, that the U.S. is in an unwinnable conflict we cant extricate ourselves from, being unable to defend ourselves because our military is over-stretched, and our civil liberties being taken away from us on a daily basis. Oh, by the way, the hunt for Osama has been over for two years. Did you know that?

Talking Points believes the left is more energized right now, and therefore the Dems

There he goes again.

have a big advantage. The illegal immigration mess, big spending by the Bush administration, Foley — all have angered conservatives and many indicate they'll stay home on Election Day.
So that's the current picture. It could change, but with Iran and North Korea doing everything they can to make Mr. Bush look weak,

um...thats PRESIDENT BUSH you flag-waving, war-loving, bible thumper. Respect the position if not the man, that's what I was taught.

the GOP is really up against it. We may indeed be saying "hello" to San Francisco values.

And that's The Memo.

Just a thought I had: What would you think of someone who shot someone by accident while hunting. Isn’t that the definition of a moron? Im picturing a lot of tobacco-spit-stained camouflaged overalls.

Oh, just in case you were wondering, I blame Bill Clinton for this. Enough people hated him so much that we ended up electing a coke-snorting, silver spoon-having, ass-smacking, good ol boy who gets foreign policy advice from speaking to Jesus in the oval office. Just vote Hilary into office and you’ll see just how bad things can really get.

now THAT'S the memo.

MODERATES UNITE!

Ok, this blog thingy here is devoid of emoticons as far as I can tell, so I want to test out some downloaded from elsewhere.




Oh, by the way, check out this wine: Alice White, Lexia. Ill be doing a full write up on it soon, but if you like Rieslings or fruity wines youll love this. Its cheap, smooth & clean with a nice fruity, refreshing taste.
Yeah, I dont know what "Lexia" is either, but it must be some kind of grape. Ill find out .... gotta love that Google.

A Shadow In Summer - a review

A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham.

This was another book I picked up because it was recommended by my favorite author, George R.R. Martin. Once again, George didn’t steer me wrong.

A Shadow in Summer (aSiS) is book one of The Long Price Quartet. The remaining three novels are forthcoming (great, another series! I think I promised myself after the Robert Jordan fiasco that I wouldn’t start a series again until all the books were out, but that cursed GRRM ruined that pledge now didn’t he?).
Although this is his first novel, he has quite a few published short stories. His experience prepared him well for this endeavor.

As first novels go, this one is a phenomenal accomplishment. To be honest, the prospect of writing out my thoughts and opinions of a work that was so wonderfully crafted leaves me feeling a tad unprepared and reticent to begin. Because I wish to promote this novel as best I can, Ill continue and leave it up to you to see through my awkward style to glean the truth beneath. I’m know myself well enough to know that I have neither the patience or skill to summarize the details of other’s works very well, so what I prefer to write are my impressions and overall feelings.

To begin with, categorizing the novel as “fantasy” is a bit of a disservice to it. I intend absolutely no disrespect to the genre, but aSiS could easily be classified and shelved in the “literature” section of your bookstore. No, I’m not talking about Terry Goodkind’s definition of fantasy and literature either, which is an entire subject in and of itself. Here I am speaking about the crafting of the characters, the realism of the story, the universal nature of the struggles with which the protagonists wrestle, the advanced degree of skill Abraham shows in his prose and the character driven nature of the story.

At its heart, aSiS is about the characters. I find in most “fantasy novels” the story is centered around great wars against evil, creatively crafted worlds and races, unique “magic systems”, or simply the adventures of a band of heroes setting out to travel the world to accomplish some goal ( and usually being chased by something ). There are no evil sorcerers named Darkmore Blackheart, or immortal beings of pure good named Galandifal Silverheart nor much of any of the usual trappings that are typical of the genre. Instead, Abraham has created a unique but realistic world in which his characters wander. There is a magic system in place, and in fact the nature of magic in aSiS is central to the story, but its nature is subtle, complex and to be honest, quite original and beautiful. The characters suffer and struggle because of influences they cannot control and circumstances that arise because of the nature of power and politics in this world, but they do so in a manner so realistic they seem to leap off the page. You can really see the sweat on a character’s brow, the white of clenched knuckles, the light in the eyes from a smile or the pleasant look they get when savoring food or beverage well prepared.

Like GRRM, Abraham’s characters are not beings of pure good or pure evil, they are each different shades of grey. Each carries within him or herself an interpretation of surrounding, ongoing events that is utilized to make decisions that are the best possible for each individual’s goals or ideals. Some are motivated by love, others by duty and a sense of nationalism, while yet another is motivated by self-discovery. There is even an interesting contrast between two characters, one motivated by greed while the other is propelled by a sense of doing what’s “right”. The reader can see each character clearly and each is unique, just like life.

The world is magnificent also. Although the story takes place almost entirely in one city, you get hints and suggestions as to a wide variety of flavors that we might get to sample in later novels. The main city, Saraykhet, is seasoned heavily with elements of an oriental feudal society. As you read, you feel truly transported to another time and place as you share the sensations and experiences of the characters as they go about their lives in this magnificent fantastical capital city. I can still recall the time I spent at the Poet’s house by the pond, drinking late at night with Maati and Itani at a teahouse or in the brothel in which so many of the novel’s most poignant scenes take place. This novel is a truly unique experience for the reader. To be honest, its one you should discover for yourself and not have it spoiled by me or any other reviewer’s summary.

So, do I recommend this book to you? Yes, tentatively. Why such a caveat? Because this novel is not for everyone. You will find no great swordsmen fighting duels here, nor withered necromancers hurling spells from a dark tower. There are no orcs, trollocs, trolls, ogres, goblins or any similar such beings pushed around the story as pawns for some great evil presence. No gods, demi-gods or nigh-immortal beings show up at any point to wreck havoc with the protagonists. No, this is a real story about people, decisions, consequences and emotions. Dragonlance and Steven Erikson fans need not apply. There is simply not enough “action” for most fantasy readers.

Readers that will enjoy this work are those who yearn for something real, yet new, Something written by someone with an amazing talent for prose and whose writing style doesn’t take you “out of the moment” due to awkwardness, inexperience or poor editing.

My final verdict? Overall score: solid A. Recommendation, one thumb up. Hopefully that makes sense to you, its to keep you from coming back and crying to me that it was boring. I’m talking to you Goodkind!