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Andy Rooney - Let's vote

Yes, I understand this has nothing to do with Bill, but it is politics, so I thought I'd put it here.

I got a little chuckle tonight while watching 60 Minutes. It was one of those chuckles where you can't really believe that you just heard what you heard. Andy was talking about how we live in a democracy, but we really don't vote on everything. Wouldn't it be different if we all voted on everything. I got the following quote from the 60 Minutes website.

"For example, we didn’t vote to go to war in Iraq. We elected our leader, George W. Bush, and he and his advisers decided that was the right thing to do. If it had been put to a vote, we probably wouldn’t be there now."

What a horrible distortion of the truth and an irresponsible assumption. If my memory serves me [which it might not because I just started getting into politics around that time], it wasn't just the "crazy President" and his "evil cohorts" that decided to go to war. Most of Congress and most of America was behind the President all the way. I bet if we did vote at that time we would have went too.

What a looney far-left-wing thing of him to say.

Unfair to Victor

Last thing tonight. Bill read this email:

"O'Reilly, you made little sense in the Jessica's Law debate. Mandatory sentences are unjust to many people like older teenagers." Victor Zill, Parkersburg, WV

Bill retorted that he should wise up because Jessica's law is intended for children 12 and under.

What I believe Victor was referring to is older teenagers that date younger teenagers. While their relationship would technically fall under Jessica's Law, but a 14 year old dating a 13 year old hardly seems as bad as what the law was intended to prevent.

The Internet and your local library

Bill is interviewing a defense attorney named Geoffrey Nathan right now about an El Paso library without any limitations on adult content. Bill mentions the Children's Internet Protection Act which requires schools and libraries that receive federal funding through the E-Rate program block content that is obscene. The debate here is not whether all libraries should block such content, because that is obviously true, but it's the way Mr. Nathan argues his point.

Mr. Nathan had two arguments to defend not blocking the content. Argument one: "So what?" So what if they [children] see it. It's everywhere. If they don't see it there, they will see it at their friend's house, or anywhere else. It's all over the internet. This of course is ridiculous because my kids don't have access to just any computer. I apply content filters at home. And so do my friends for their kids. So it's not just any computer.

Argument two: "If we block this, where will it end." Not having a finite list of items to block should not stop us from blocking the items we know our kids should not see. Obscene images are easy to find, easy to display and easy for young eyes to catch while walking by. It should be an easy decision to block it for their safety.

So unless the library is going to start providing private viewing booths for the internet, let's just call it a day and block the content. We have much more important things to worry about.

For more information on the Children's Internet Protection Act, visit the CIPA website.

This will be an articulate posting

I have two things to say about this Barack Obama, articulate thing.

First off, Bill is right on when he says that we [yes, I'm a white guy] are afraid to say anything now. I'm not sure this is a new thing, but it sure seems more poignant when the subject comes up. Can I get a little pamphlet as to what will be found offensive if I say it?

Second, my wife came up with a very good point. The people coming out of the woodwork to be offended by this should not be black people, but Harvard Grads and senators. Shouldn't they be offended that President Bush and Sen. Biden assume a Havard Law graduate or a senator would be anything less that articulate.

The whole thing is hogwash.

Cost of war

Another hard thing to piece together from information on the internet is the total cost of the war. There are numbers everyone. Estimations. Proclamations. Hyperbolations. I made that last one up. In Bill's montage of his producer's interviews, Sean Penn blurted out that we're "spending over a billion dollars a day on this war." That sounds like a great deal of money. Well, the truth is, the number is closer to $200M a day. Now don't get me wrong, that is a great deal of money too, but it's way off. By now, you've done the math and realize that Mr. Penn's estimate was 5 times the real amount. But what's more important is that the subconscious response to the word "billion" is much stronger than when the word "million" is used. By throwing down the B word he's able to get you excited about the situation much faster than by using accurate figures.

Nada

Nothing really hit me tonight. Kind of a bland show for me. See you tomorrow.