Tuesday, September 07, 2010
Guage Of Support
Without a script to copy and paste from, I'm going to start this post with some paraphrasing. Terry Jones, the so-called pastor who plans to burn Korans on September 11, told Terry Moran of ABC News that his receipt of some 200 copies of the book are an indication of the support he enjoys across the country.
With that thought in mind, let's extend the apparently self-proclaimed pastor's logic to its mathematical conclusion. Assuming that the widely-cited figure of 300,000,000 is an accurate count of the population of the United States, we can determine (thanks to this handy calculator) that Jones enjoys the support of 0.00006666666666666667 of the American people. In other words, not even close to 1% of Americans physically support what Jones is planning to do.
I take some comfort in that tiny figure. With all of the media foolishness surrounding the incorrectly labeled "Ground Zero Mosque" having resulted in majorities of polled Americans being against its construction, I was beginning to doubt the character of many of my countrymen. Thankfully, the act of Islamophobia proposed by Jones is a bridge too far for almost all of us.
With that thought in mind, let's extend the apparently self-proclaimed pastor's logic to its mathematical conclusion. Assuming that the widely-cited figure of 300,000,000 is an accurate count of the population of the United States, we can determine (thanks to this handy calculator) that Jones enjoys the support of 0.00006666666666666667 of the American people. In other words, not even close to 1% of Americans physically support what Jones is planning to do.
I take some comfort in that tiny figure. With all of the media foolishness surrounding the incorrectly labeled "Ground Zero Mosque" having resulted in majorities of polled Americans being against its construction, I was beginning to doubt the character of many of my countrymen. Thankfully, the act of Islamophobia proposed by Jones is a bridge too far for almost all of us.
Saturday, September 04, 2010
Thank You
Following my previous criticism of the Hector Uribe campaign, I was quite happy to receive what I did from them yesterday. In an e-mail, the Uribe campaign announced what I would call a major policy position.
In that e-mail, Uribe does an excellent job of laying out the problem and proposes an almost certainly lucrative solution.
I am glad to see the Uribe campaign putting out serious ideas for the serious problems that Jerry Patterson's failures have allowed to fester.
Last month, Uribe proposed to "extend the authority of the Veterans Land Board to issue bonds so that we can either build or purchase an existing hospital right here in the Rio Grande Valley so that we can finally have our veterans’ hospital that has been so long in the making.”
I hope that the Uribe campaign will keep up the good work. I'll try to do a better job of keeping up with them.
In that e-mail, Uribe does an excellent job of laying out the problem and proposes an almost certainly lucrative solution.
"[T]he state has now used up most of the oil and gas on its own lands and the revenue flow which used to gush into the permanent education fund is now a
trickle. Adjusting for inflation, the value of the money from oil and gas leases
on Texas lands in 2010 will have dropped nearly 67% since 1984.
Texas owns the submerged lands stretching 10.3 miles into the Gulf of Mexico along its 376 mile coast. I have proposed that the General Land Office aggressively promote the development of wind farms on our submerged lands to provide a clean and permanently renewable source of energy to our Texas cities. I will ask legislators to support legislation that will require that at least 50 percent of the revenues derived from our state lands be generated from clean, renewable sources such as wind and solar by 2020.
Wind farms over Texas' submerged lands would create a new and permanent source of funding for our Permanent School Fund. Furthermore, the installation of approximately 5000 wind-turbines would generate as much value as generated by our mineral leases back in 1984."
I am glad to see the Uribe campaign putting out serious ideas for the serious problems that Jerry Patterson's failures have allowed to fester.
Last month, Uribe proposed to "extend the authority of the Veterans Land Board to issue bonds so that we can either build or purchase an existing hospital right here in the Rio Grande Valley so that we can finally have our veterans’ hospital that has been so long in the making.”
I hope that the Uribe campaign will keep up the good work. I'll try to do a better job of keeping up with them.
Fox News Is A Terrorist Organization
To be fair, the title of this post is probably over the line. With that said, if I practiced the same kind of propaganda that the folks at Fox News do, it would be well within their standards.
The parent company of Fox News, as it turns out, has a major shareholder that is also a significant benefactor of the imam in charge of the incorrectly labeled "Ground Zero Mosque" that they spend so much time being in a frenzy about at Fox News.
NPR is finally reporting the story long after Jon Stewart first brought it to people's attention.
It would be in order for the rest of the media, especially those in the media who have followed Fox's lead in broadcasting the controversy around the proposed facility from hell to breakfast, would also report these facts. I won't hold my breath, though.
Let me end here with a question of semantics. Since terrorist organizations seek to achieve their political ends by terrorizing people (thus the term), and since Fox News spends most of its time running stories that are intended to scare the shit out of its audience, can't we really justify calling Fox News a terrorist organization?
The parent company of Fox News, as it turns out, has a major shareholder that is also a significant benefactor of the imam in charge of the incorrectly labeled "Ground Zero Mosque" that they spend so much time being in a frenzy about at Fox News.
NPR is finally reporting the story long after Jon Stewart first brought it to people's attention.
"Yet the parent company of Fox News shares a financial backer with the imam who is at the center of the firestorm. The second-largest holder of voting stock in News Corp. is Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, a nephew of the Saudi king. And through his philanthropies, Waleed has given generously to initiatives pursued by the imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf.
But that connection has not been spelled out by Fox to viewers. Fox's intense coverage of the Islamic center, combined with its lack of disclosure about the corporate connection to Waleed, has sparked scorn from some media critics and from liberals — including, repeatedly, from satirist Jon Stewart."
It would be in order for the rest of the media, especially those in the media who have followed Fox's lead in broadcasting the controversy around the proposed facility from hell to breakfast, would also report these facts. I won't hold my breath, though.
Let me end here with a question of semantics. Since terrorist organizations seek to achieve their political ends by terrorizing people (thus the term), and since Fox News spends most of its time running stories that are intended to scare the shit out of its audience, can't we really justify calling Fox News a terrorist organization?
