The JackB

"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'." Groucho Marx

Archives for October 2007

One More Reason Why The MSM Is Failing

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I used to get irritated listening to the many critics of the MSM rail on about how bad it was. Mostly it was because I didn’t buy into many of their complaints. Truth is I still don’t. Call me a snob but I am unimpressed with the logic and critical reasoning that is displayed by many.

But I have noticed in recent times that I have become increasingly frustrated with the MSM. My blog friend The Misanthrope has rightly suggested that I express my concerns in a letter writing campaign. In some cases I have, but due to anonymity concerns I haven’t made those letters public here.

Today I find myself shaking my head again at the fine MSM and their fawning coverage over one Andrew Meyer, the Taser boy. In a society that lives and breathes news about Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton and who Britney Spears is sleeping with it really should be surprising. Still, I find myself wondering why the Today show has provided him with his own bully pulpit.

He makes all sorts of statements and accusations about politics, politicians and his view of the world. I don’t have a problem with that. I do the very same thing here. But what I want to know is what makes his POV so newsworthy, or at least deserving of so much time and space.

According to at least one recent study the media is failing to present balanced coverage of the presidential election. It has become clear to me that bloggers are going to be the people to fill in the gaps. We can find and provide information in a much timelier fashion than the MSM can.

This is not to say that the MSM doesn’t have some very fine journalists among its ranks. There are many. But the blogosphere has made it much easier to point out the shortcomings and inadequacies. In short, the playing field is being leveled.

Hitler’s Gas Problem

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Drexel University’s publication The Smart Set is running a story today that says that Hitler had a major problem with flatulence. It is too bad that this wasn’t a terminal disease.

“Guests at the Berghof, Hitler’s private chalet in the Bavarian Alps, must have endured some unpleasant odors in the otherwise healthful mountain air.

It may sound like a Woody Allen scenario, but medical historians are unanimous that Adolf was the victim of uncontrollable flatulence. Spasmodic stomach cramps, constipation and diarrhea, possibly the result of nervous tension, had been Hitler’s curse since childhood and only grew more severe as he aged. As a stressed-out dictator, the agonizing digestive attacks would occur after most meals: Albert Speer recalled that the Führer, ashen-faced, would leap up from the dinner table and disappear to his room.

This was an embarrassing problem for a ruthless leader of the Third Reich. With uncharacteristic concern for his fellow human beings, Hitler had first tried to cure himself when he was a rising politician in 1929 by poring over medical manuals, coming to the conclusion that a largely veg diet would calm his turbulent digestion as well as make his farts less offensive to the nose. A rabid hypochondriac, he would also examine his own feces on a regular basis and administer himself camomile enemas. Hitler decided to swear off meat completely in 1931, when his niece (and presumed romantic interest) Geli Raubel committed suicide: When presented with a plate of breakfast ham the next morning, he pushed it away muttering, “It’s like eating a corpse.” From that squeamish moment on, great piles of vegetables, raw or pulped into a baby mulch, were Hitler’s daily staple. (All cooked foods, he decided, were carcinogenic). He showed a particular fondness, culinary historians assure us, for oatmeal with linseed oil, cauliflower, cottage cheese, boiled apples, artichoke hearts and asparagus tips in white sauce. Strangely, Hitler was unfazed by the fact that this high-fiber diet was having the opposite effect on his digestion than what he had intended: His private physician, Dr. Theo Morell, recorded in his diary that after Hitler downed a typical vegetable platter, “constipation and colossal flatulence occurred on a scale I have seldom encountered before.”

For the full story please click here.

Urban Legend Come to Life

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Stories like this usually fall under the urban legend category. Anyway you slice it, necrophilia is disgusting but since Halloween is just around the corner I’ll share this story with you.

TEANECK — A part-time lab technician at Holy Name Hospital was caught having sex with the body of a 92-year-old woman in the hospital’s morgue, authorities said Monday.

Authorities said Anthony Merino, 24, of West 185th Street in Manhattan was working a shift as a histology lab technician on Sunday morning when he asked a security guard for access to a refrigerated area adjacent to the morgue where human tissue samples are stored. The guard complied and then wandered away for several minutes, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said.”When he came back, he observed Mr. Merino violating the deceased victim” on a gurney, Molinelli said. “He immediately notified Teaneck police.”

Merino was arrested at the hospital later Sunday morning. He was charged with sexual penetration upon deceased human remains, a second-degree crime that carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine.

Recognizing Opportunity

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My friend Robert Avrech wrote a scathing response to an opinion piece that Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky wrote for The Jewish Journal. It is called Kanefsky: Rabbi to Fatah and it is the inspiration if you will for this post.

I disagree with Kanefsky for a variety of reasons, but I don’t want that to be the focus of this post. This ties in far better with a conversation that I have had with my son and business partners.

It is about recognizing opportunity. Each day we have the chance to do something with our lives. At just short of seven I try to make it an easy lesson. I talk about trying to take advantage of the chance to learn something in school. To quote him “He get’s it.”

As Robert points out pieces like Kanefsky are swallowed whole and regurgitated for propaganda purposes by terrorists. They see an opportunity to use Kanefsky’s words against Israel. I too see an opportunity. In this case we can use Kanefsky’s piece as a tool for education. We can and should take the time to deconstruct it and point out the flaws.

It is part of the beauty of blogging. In past years the general public’s ability to try and push a message to the masses was quite limited. But those days are past. Now we can respond. Now we can use our blogs as a platform to present our message and to correct inaccuracies that are presented as fact.

It is just a matter of recognizing the opportunity.