This Boy Elroy

Hindsight

Looks like everyone, even Katie Couric, all of a sudden has decided to have a spine and has begun to ask questions about the war....five years too late.

Couric's Interview with McClellan

Couric: While you were press secretary, you were famous for denying access to reporters who asked tough questions. And now you're criticizing the press for not being tough enough. So isn't that the height of hypocrisy.

McClellan: Well in the buildup to the war, and … in the national press corps as a whole, there could have been more done to ask the tough questions. What happened, this is again, how the press becomes complicit enablers in this permanent campaign culture by focusing on the march to war rather than the necessity of war, that's where the emphasis and focus was and I think the emphasis and focus should have been more on finding out the truth. And, you know, I talk a lot about that in the book.

Katie Couric: Weren't you the ultimate complicit enabler, though? I asked a tough question before the Iraq War and you personally called an executive at NBC News and you threatened to deny access to us.

McClellan: I did?

Couric: Yes, you did, once the war began.

McClellan: Me personally? I don't, I don't remember that.

Couric: But did you strong-arm people into not questioning the administration?

McClellan: My style usually wasn't that way.

Couric: Well, it was you who made the call.

Okay for Katie this is pretty good so I'll give her some credit for it. HOWEVER! I'd like to ask Katie this question:

Why wasn't McClellan's threat to deny you access after you asked a tough question about the war a news story itself? There had been plenty of talk about the administration muzzling the press but why didn't the press make a story about it? Weren't you, and other members of the press who didn't speak out about the muzzling, as much an "ultimate complicit enabler" as McClellan?

Nerds, Salute!

The inspirational value of the space program is probably of far greater importance to education than any input of dollars... A whole generation is growing up which has been attracted to the hard disciplines of science and engineering by the romance of space.

-Arthur C. Clarke

Arthur C. Clarke, futurist, author, and inventor, died March 19, 2008. Most know of him from his novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was brought to the screen by director Stanely Kubrick.

His biggest impact was his promotion of the once fantastical idea of geostationary satellites for telecommunications, laying the groundwork for modern telecommunication. His proposal was first published in 1945 in Wireless World magazine and was considered nonsense. As of March 11, 2008 there are 359 satellites in what is now known as the Clarke Orbit (list of geostationary satellites). How's that for being vindicated.

What is wrong with people!?

Brad and I were just watching our local nightly news. The preview for the sports segment started with talk of the Cowboys game on Thursday, quickly followed by news of the Mavericks comeback at tonight's game. They cut to scenes of the crowd cheering on the Mavs and showed someone holding a sign.

The sign read: "Dirk will lead the 4th Reich!"

My jaw dropped.

Dirk Nowitzki, the forward for the Mavs, is German.

What. The. Fuck. Is. Wrong. With. PEOPLE!!???

Straight Couple "Terrorized" By Gays

A couple from Frisco, Texas allegedly felt terrorized by a a group of gays that were on the same Carnival cruise as them.  Claiming sexual harassment, they are entertaining the idea of suing Carnival for a refund. 

You can watch the video of the news report from CBS 11.

Despite the numerous attempts of the couple to disclaim themselves as homophobic my perception is that they are just that, homophobic.  They claim to have gay friends that don't conduct themselves in the manner that they witnessed on the cruise.  That shows that they don't realize many gay people live dichotomous lives, a life as they truly are and another life as others want them to be.  I'm sorry but if you only like gays when they act like "straight" people (or when they are wind-up eunuchs) then I  cannot believe that you're not homophobic.  What I can believe is that you're a bigot and I say to you that I refuse to live my life straddling the threshold of the closet. 

If I met this couple I'd put it to them like this.  A white couple goes on a cruise and says, "There was a group of black people on this cruise and they were just acting too black for us.  We have black friends and they don't behave like that."  It's the same thing. 

Also, I couldn't help but laugh out loud when they reported being the brunt of a drag queen's joke.  That's what drag queens do, they bust your balls, get over it.  I'm not typically a proponent of an eye for an eye, but their level of discomfort is how many gay people feel living in the de facto "straight" world so I'm glad they got that experience.  I only hope that they reflect on it and change their perceptions.

Philanthropist

I found a link to an interview with Warren Buffett yesterday through the Huffington Post yesterday.  I am absolutely in awe of this man. 

From Maclean''s: Interview with Warren Buffett, Talking about the joys of making billions and giving it all away -- and why the kids shouldn't get it.

You decided you didn't want to leave it all to your kids. You have a line about that?
Yeah, I want to leave them enough so they can do anything but not enough so they can do nothing.

Right, a wonderful line, but what brought you to that determination? Was it your observation of what happened to other people's children?
I don't believe it's right for society. I also don't think it's a good thing for the kids. But that's a secondary thing. I mean, I've been ungodly blessed, you know, I just happened to be born at the right time in the right place. I tell people if I'd been born a few thousand years ago I would have been some animal's lunch, because I can't run very fast or jump very high. Or if I'd been born in Bangladesh or some place things would have been different for me. So what I've acquired has been, to an enormous degree, the product of a society that's a huge capitalist society, and I was born into it at the right time, and I get these disproportionate material rewards in respect to my contribution. There's all kinds of people who are just as good citizens as I am, they go over and serve in Iraq, they help in their communities, but I happen to be in something that just pays off like crazy and I get everything I want in life, and the idea that that money shouldn't go back to society but instead should go to a few people based on the fact that they came from the right womb strikes me as crazy. I mean, I do not believe in the divine right of the womb!

You favour inheritance taxes?
Yeah, I definitely do. If you believe in a meritocracy you have to, otherwise you've got a dynasty of wealth, and generally speaking we thought dynasties based on royal blood or something are a crazy idea in the U.S., and I think a dynasty based on wombs is kind of silly too.

When asked if the realm of philanthropy is one that is only available to the mega rich Buffett has this to say:

"...I think it's true that the big numbers get splashed around, and they can make more of an impact on things that really require a focus of money -- like medical research or something of the sort -- but the average American is pretty philanthropic, and I would say that if you really measured in terms of what people are giving up, the Forbes 400 are probably the least philanthropic."

Remarkable words from a remarkable man.

For those of you that don't know in 2006 Warren Buffett announced that he'll be giving away 85% of his $50 Billion fortune, most of it going to the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation in annual installments that Buffett insists be disbursed in the year the are received.

Texas Priorities

I look out my office window and there's a giant plume of black smoke coming from downtown. A coworker tells me that when she was driving to work she could see the smoke coming from behind the skyscrapers. Naturally, I go to my computer to check the news so see what's up. So, I go to the website for Dallas' largest, and ONLY newspaper, The Dallas Morning News. Here's a screen capture:

News of explosion: Some red border to catch your eye and a broken link to a video.

Football News: EVERYWHERE!

Apparently, Tony Romo's, the quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, riding in a Ford Expedition to training camp deserves more space than information, also known as NEWS, about the explosion in downtown. The top videos are also about football.

So, when it comes to priorities in Texas, remember this: even when your city is burning to the ground you must always think of your football team first!

UPDATE: I found out from the local Fox news affiliate website that the explosions are from gas tanks at a welding supply company just south of downtown.