I had no idea he owns a diamond mine and a race horse. In and of themselves, neither is a bad thing. Unless, of course, you preach that the love of money is the root of all evil and gambling is a sin...

Those two giblets came from the TV news last night. I'm going to follow up on them. If true, they further advance the theory that the persons most concerned with how I spend my money, where I put my willy and with whom I spend my evenings (they do it in the name of helping Jesus, of course), are usually morally shady themselves.

Anyway, I'm through mentioning his name here. He doesn't need the publicity anyway.

Posted by Bill Turner at 7:42 AM EDT

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I don't mind differing opinions, really. I HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE PUT OPINIONS IN NEWS STORIES:

Story title - "Area guardsmen killed in Iraq are laid to rest"

Line placed prominently in middle of the story - "When news of Straub's death first spread a week ago through Port Richmond, where he lived on the 1800 block of East Cornwall Street, at least a few neighbors expressed some unease about the Iraq war."

Quotes in story supporting that line - "" (none)

Quotes calling soldier a hero - "He fought for a purpose, a purpose very important to him and his dream," Leyland said.

"He died doing something noble, something righteous, something everyone of us will be proud to have done," said the Rev. Joseph diGregorio, a retired army chaplain who conducted the service.

"He would want to make things right for the world," said Kathy Tunney, a neighbor and longtime friend. "He would want to make things better."

Final thought from blogger - The sentence about unease reads like a reporter's opinion.

Full article.

Posted by Bill Turner at 7:40 AM EDT

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Dear Readers:

The Philadelphia Inquirer is running an interesting snippet today. Read the story

I was wondering if any of you "know someone who knows someone who knows somebody else who grows pot." If so - could you ask them how much space would be required to grow $130,000 worth of the stuff? You can post the estimates in my comments, or send an anonymous email. I'm just curious.

Posted by Bill Turner at 10:59 AM EDT

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I wish I could say I don't believe this. Desafortunadamente, no es posible. You have to read it to believe it.

"Corzine and Katz: Not about the money
Scotia W. MacRae is the former opinion page editor of the Times of Trenton

In this post-navy-blue-

dress world, you gotta give Sen. Jon Corzine credit. He had a relationship with Carla Katz, an age-appropriate, power-appropriate woman of accomplishment, not a fling with a sweet young thing in the office. No end-of-the-affair nastiness presents itself to the prying eye. Far from it; he forgave her a substantial loan and paid the gift tax at the appropriate time, just before filing his 2004 taxes.

The only unfortunate part is the timing. During the relationship with Katz, Corzine was a U.S. senator and therefore had no direct influence on negotiations between the state and the largest union representing state workers, Local 1034 of Communications Workers of America, of which she is president. But now he's running for governor, and the press and Republicans are up in arms.

There's absolutely no comparison with the McGreevey case, where the sitting governor installed his lover in an important job for which the lover had no qualifications. There's no nepotism, corruption or misuse of public funds. And it's not about the money. To Jon Corzine, $470,000 is equivalent to $470 for many of us. Would anyone, including Republicans, be outraged if he had given Katz a gift of $500?" Read the full opinion piece

What the hell can you say to a person who denies that a half-million dollars is a bunch of money?

Posted by Bill Turner at 7:31 AM EDT

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Just a quick shot at a dead horse and I'll move along. Yesterday I was bemoaning news coverage becoming more and more tabloidesque. I mentioned that we had big problems in America with missing persons and that Fox was pounding the Arubans for essentially the same things that happen here.

This just in: Three children died in the trunk of their parents' car in Camden, New Jersey. From the Philadelphia Inquirer, August 3-

"Police or relatives of three boys who died in the trunk of a Camden car in June checked the vehicle five times in two days.

Authorities shone flashlights into the window. They bent down and peered under the car. One officer even banged on the trunk and loudly called out to the boys.

But not only did they neglect to check inside the trunk, no one opened the one unlocked door of the Toyota Camry - where, inside, they would have found the three pairs of shoes the boys had left behind before they pushed down the backseat and climbed into the trunk."

Read the full Story

The full Report of the Review Panel, PDF DOCUMENT

Where is Fox on this one?

Posted by Bill Turner at 10:39 AM EDT

Updated: August 3, 2005 10:44 AM EDT

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If anyone knows who is running the show over at the Fox News website, would you please get me his or her telephone number? For Pete's sake, enough with the Natalie Holloway and glitzy sex scandals already, Fox. But I do smell a rotten egg.

Read the Fox coverage. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,164481,00.html

I did a google search for "teacher accused of rape" and got 343,000 pages. Hello? Assume that each accusation drew 20 stories. That still leaves 17,150 rapes to report. Translation: It isn't some abberation.

So why the heck would fox headline it and run it front and center on the same day that a new terror scare happened in London, the President signed CAFTA and 7 Marines were killed in Iraq? No disrespect to the teacher, but she isn't a supermodel and has a frightening scowl in the picture Fox provides, so a sexy covershot isn't the reason.

I could just be having a delayed Natalie Holloway reaction, but the machine just seems to be grinding. And while we are at it, Fox has gone out of it's way to make the Aruban investigators look like stooges, but we have our own home grown problems with missing persons. See for yourself at: http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/kidnap/kidmiss.htm. Philadelphians will recognize the top left photo.

I'm concerned with extremes. Tabloid journalism mixed up with the daily grind is extreme. How is it tabloid? Boy am I glad you asked. Start with the headline: "Sex Lessons?" Now give an elbow nudge to your neighbor and wink.

There's more. The closing paragraph: "For example, one student went online in March to pant, "down boy down — get what I'm saying guys." Another, last November, declared her "much more" than "just a pretty face." Another, in February, called her an "amazing writer." Funny, I thought the rape charge more or less got the point across.

There is a place for a serious discussion about this. Making it tabloid smear is not setting that idea in motion. I really hate ratings sometimes. Down, Bill, down.

Posted by Bill Turner at 4:06 PM EDT

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