"So-Called" Should Be on Next Year's LSSU Banished Words List

In commemoration of my 1,000th posting here, I thought I would go after one of my pet peeves.

"So-called" this. "So-called" that.

So-called sucks.

I've nominated "so-called" for consideration to Lake Superior State University's Banned Words listing. It's the most overused phrase in the news media today and projects something in a negative light that the media itself dislikes. It's also a way for them to insert their opinions into a supposed "neutral" story.

"So-called Star Wars" is already on the banished list, but that doesn't go far enough. "So-called" itself has to go.

Some recent examples of how this phrase is used as an attack adjective:

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune--headline reads: "Our so-called stimulus plan: Help where it's needed least."

From MacDailyNews.com--headline reads: "So-called ‘analyst’ finds his ‘missing’ iPhones"

From the UK's Daily Mail--headline reads: "So-called 'friendly' bacteria may be dangerous, according to new research - so which should you be taking?"

From the Bankok Post--article on "Another government, another war on drugs": "The first war on drugs declared by the government of Mr Thaksin from Feb 1 to April 30, 2003 resulted in the deaths of over 2500 so-called drug suspects..."

From the Manila Standard Today--article on the government of the Philippines taking steps to declaring one of the nation's airports the primary gateway to the country: "That was the big news yesterday. But while EO 500-B effectively abolishes restrictions on budget airlines operating in Clark and Subic, the so-called “Open Skies” policy still has restrictions on Ninoy Aquino International Airport."

There are hundreds of articles online with this phrase. Do a Google search on so-called under the news tab; you'll see exactly what I mean.

Many uses of the phrase were in editorials, but more than a few were in news stories and on blogs. I've used the phrase a few times myself but have gone to great lengths to not use it; even to the point of altering entire articles to make use of other more descriptive terms other than "so-called."

If it's a neutral news story, "so-called" has no place in it. The phrase conveys bias under cover of neutrality. That's my opinion on the matter.

Giuliani Leaving the GOP Race is a Step in the Right Direction: He Was Too Socially Liberal

Rudy Giuliani dropped out of the GOP race. This is a positive development and not a negative one, in my opinion.

His liberal views on social issues made my voting for him impossible. I also objected to his calling himself a Reagan Conservative, when he definitely was not. We haven't seen the last of him, though. Odds are that if McCain wins the nomination, Rudy will be his running mate.

McCain's a pretend conservative too. He's not a conservative, and he's in the wrong party.

What a strange situation. Not one of the GOP contenders are who they claim to be. Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama have them beat in terms of stating who they are and what they stand for.

The GOP candidates have to shift gears, FAST.

Bush Goes After Congressional Earmarks: FINALLY!

President Bush is set to sign an Executive Order, directing federal agencies to ignore funding projects that have not been debated or voted on by the Congress.

This is a step in the right direction. Congressional irresponsibility on funding is a major problem that was long overdue for a fix. Promises made by Congress to reign in pork barrel spending have been broken, and the time is right to force the issue.

In addition, President Bush has promised to veto any funding bills that do not reduce under-the-radar additions by half. I suspect that if he holds his ground, there will be some bills being volleyed back and forth between Capitol Hill and the White House.

We'll see if this plan holds water or not. I do wish he had started this at the beginning of his second term, not the end.

This Should be Required Viewing for All Professional Wrestlers

This should be required viewing for ALL professional wrestlers.

It's an interview with longtime wrestling manager Jim Cornette on the downfall of the Von Erich wrestling family and the Texas-based World Class Championship Wresting (WCCW) organization, which the Von Erich family owned.




You may have to turn up the volume to hear the questions.

For those who do not know the story of the Von Erichs, they were a dynasty in the wrestling world through the late 1950s (when Fritz Von Erich got into wrestling) until 1993. Fritz had five wrestling sons: David, Kevin, Kerry, Mike and Chris Von Erich. Their popularity in the Dallas/Fort Worth area was even higher than that of Hulk Hogan in those days.

Things started happening in 1984, when David died at age 25 under highly suspicious circumstances while wrestling in Japan. Wrestler Ric Flair said that it was an accidental drug overdose. Then Mike committed suicide via drug overdose at age 33 in 1987. Chris killed himself at age 21 in 1991. Then Kerry, age 33, the most well known of the Von Erichs, killed himself in 1993 after being busted for drug possession. Four of the five sons were dead; Fritz's wife blamed him for not doing more to save his family (many fans agreed with her) and left him; he died in 1997. Kevin retired from wrestling and never returned to it.

WCCW collapsed in 1990, which was the main point of this interview with Jim Cornette.

The deaths of the Von Erich brothers is considered a turning point in "wrestling world" history and the starting point of all the premature wrestler deaths due to drugs, though there were other deaths prior to the downfall of the Von Erichs. But due to their popularity and the impact this had on the wrestling world, it is widely considered to be the start of the drug problem of wrestling.

You'll notice that many in the media start their wrestler death counts in 1984, when David Von Erich died.

According to Cornette, WCCW died because the Von Erichs were considered superheroes; when their personal issues and drug abuse problems made headlines, people began deserting the organization. When Kerry Von Erich beat Ric Flair in Texas Stadium in 1985 for the NWA world title, some 40,000 fans packed the stadium. Shortly before it went under in 1990, it was drawing under 500 people to some venues.

Cornette gives some great advice to wrestlers of today.

Some Aspects of Heath Ledger's Death Are Very Troubling: Why Was 911 Fifth on the Call List and Not First?

More aspects of how Heath Ledger died have emerged in the last couple of days, and some of the details are deeply disturbing.

According to the police, the masseuse kept trying to call one of the actor's friends at least four times after she discovered Ledger unconscious. 911 was the fifth call made. Of all the idiotic STUPID blunders!

What does one do after determining that a victim is unconscious?

CALL 911!! Not Mary-Kate Olson. DUH!!

We teach that to fifth graders; surely a mature responsible adult knows how to dial 9-1-1. Someone needs to scream at the masseuse. And the housekeeper.

He may have been already dead; he may have been warm and dead, or in a deep coma. We'll never know.

One friggin' disaster after another.

If McCain and Clinton are to be the Choices in November, How Much Change Can We Realistically Expect?

Little to none. It'll be business as usual except that there will either be a pure liberal living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, or a liberal-minded "conservative" there.

That's why I think that one of the people running from outside Washington would be a better agent of change, if the candidates are serious about changing the tone of politics there. Insiders like McCain and Clinton are too involved there to be effective at changing the nasty tone in Washington.

And since both are the preferred choices of the liberal news media, that's another major reason to be concerned about this hypothetical John McCain vs. Hillary Clinton match-up.

I don't like the idea at all.

Fred Thompson Drops Out of GOP Race: Ho Hum

Fred Thompson ended his half-campaign for the Republican nomination for President.

I don't think he ever started a real campaign. He slept through most of it, and seemed to expect victory to be handed to him. It didn't happen. It couldn't.

All of the other campaigns are campaigning full-time and are making major inroads with voters. Against that type of effort, a part-time campaign has virtually no chance of success.

I wanted to support him at first, but he became unsupportable due to his lack of a viable campaign. Five minute speeches won't cut it in a Presidential campaign. A Boy Scout doing a five minute speech to complete a merit badge would make the grade, but someone outlining his vision of the future as the next President of the United States definitely doesn't.

I also think people saw that Thompson the political candidate didn't live up to his various on-screen personas. People couldn't separate Thompson from his awesome presidential characters, which was something that Thompson really didn't try to combat. And to make matters worse, his relaxed approach to waging a campaign made people think he wasn't serious about running for President. The media pounced on that perception to great effect.

I wish that Thompson had waged an all-out aggressive campaign for core conservative values. If he had, he would have been a viable candidate who could have really gone after closet liberals McCain and Giuliani for their wrong stands. He also could have challenged Huckabee and Romney on their actual records and accomplishments while serving as governors of their respective states. At the moment, both are making claims that are overinflated and need to be poked full of holes to bring the Romney and Huckabee hype under control.

Thompson's withdrawal is more than a lost opportunity for him; it means that this dangerous cycle that has taken root in the remaining campaigns will continue to flourish unchallenged. I'm disappointed that he didn't take the other contenders to task more than he did.

Heath Ledger Dies at Age 28: Coverage of Death is Vastly Different Than Coverage of Last Week's Death of Brad Renfro

Actor Heath Ledger was found dead in his apartment yesterday.

And I couldn't help but notice the difference in coverage between his death and the death of Brad Renfro last week. All of the news networks devoted a great deal of time to Ledger's death--often simultaneously. They've largely ignored the Renfro story.

But both stories pale in comparison to the death one year ago of Anna Nicole Smith and the subsequent legal proceedings pertaining to Smith's baby daughter and the courtroom antics of the crybaby judge.

It's hard to predict how/how much the media's going to cover the loss of celebrities.

If Someone Like Edwards is Elected President, Will U.S. Military Be Able to Pull Troops and Equipment Out in First Year of New Administration?

Democrat John Edwards has promised to pull the U.S. military completely out of Iraq in the first year of his Presidency as part of his campaign platform. A question: if an anti-war candidate like Edwards is elected in November, can the military fulfill that wish in one year, assuming that the current administration keeps troop levels around 130,000?

The answer is: probably not. It's simple physics and logistics. The military brass say that they can move one combat brigade out of Iraq per month. There are between nineteen and twenty combat and support brigades and their equipment currently deployed. That's a minimum of twenty months, if all the ships and transport aircraft stay available and don't have maintenance issues.

The military pace is more realistic than the political pace.

The only way that a promise like Edwards' can be fulfilled is if President Bush starts withdrawing troops on a large scale in 2008, which is doubtful.

Edwards and the others shouldn't make promises that they can't keep. A more realistic promise is to withdraw troops by the end of their first term. The politicians are really going to mess things up if they have their way.

Michigan's Primary May be Over, But the Fight Between Michigan and Both National Committees Sure Isn't

Michigan's primary--such as it was--is said and done, but there's still major trouble between Michigan and both national committees. This primary (and Florida's) will throw some big wrenches into the works if the Presidential Election in November turns out to be close.

I am of the opinion that the Republican and Democratic National Committees (dis-respectfully) needs new leadership. That's aimed more at the DNC more than the RNC. The RNC only docked half of Michigan's delegates and voting power, while the DNC completely stripped Michigan's represenatition at the Democratic National Convention. The Democrats even canceled hotel reservations for the Michigan delegation.

Further, the RNC punished every state that has a primary before Super Tuesday. That was, in my opinion, a more measured response than the Democratic one.

Under the current leadership, the DNC disenfranchised seven million registered voters in Michigan and ten million registered voters in Florida. They whined and bitched about thousands of disenfranchised Florida voters in 2000, and fought for every vote. Yet now, they deliberately did to their own voters what they accused election officials and the Republican Party of doing in 2000. Is this a violation of the same equal protection clause cited by the Supreme Court in 2000 in Gore vs. Bush?

The replacement for Howard Dean should be from Michigan or Florida, and there should be no one on the DNC who favors keeping the current primary system. The system is so rife with favoritism toward particular states that it should be scrapped if it isn't changed.

I also think that the RNC needs a housecleaning too. They need to back off of the current system as well. It's broken and needs to be fixed. They should get with the program, or get out of the way and have more open-minded people take their places.

Shame on both committees, and double shame on the DNC.

Nomination for TIME Magazine's Person of the Year

I would like to make a nomination for the editors of TIME Magazine's Person of the Year.

"Uncommitted."

Though losing to Hillary Clinton in Michigan's useless Democratic primary election, "Uncommitted" spells big trouble for Senator Clinton in Michigan if she wins the Democratic nomination.

That's noteworthy all by itself.

Selling Cloned Red Meat is a Bad Idea: More Research Needs to be Done

The FDA is claiming that meat from cloned cows is safe to eat. I think they're being way too hasty in even talking about it right now. They have to do much more research.

It's bad enough that they've allowed bio-engineered products into the U.S. food markets. I disagreed with that decision too. How do we know that those products aren't contributing to the obesity epidemic that has been underway?

They rushed that decision too, without taking the time to fully research what happens to people who eat these products compared to what happens to people who don't.

I will go vegetarian before I eat cloned animal meat.

Actor Brad Renfro Dead at Age 25: Another Life Cut Short by Drugs and Alcohol

Actor Brad Renfro was found dead in his home yesterday. He was 25 and had been on the rebound from his drug addictions.

He'd been in trouble with the law for years; his acting career was on hold after he was busted on Skid Row for attempting to buy heroin in 2006. He was ordered by the judge to go through extensive rehab as a condition of his probation, which he did.

I have no doubt that drugs or the consequences of doing them were involved in his death. The kinds of drugs he admitted to using cause major damage to vital organs and can cause problems years later--even after the person using the drugs has stopped.

Sad story.

Romney Wins Michigan Primary, Hillary Beats Nobody

Well, Michigan's not-primary is over and Mitt Romney carried the state. And Hillary Clinton managed to beat someone called "Uncommitted." I'm not sure that's anything to brag about.

I could beat nobody too. So could you.

I also couldn't help but notice how quickly McCain and the other candidates who did not fare as well quickly dismissed Romney's victory as Michigan voting for it's native son. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Michigan has rejected other members of the Romney family in other elections in the past; Mitt won because of his business credentials and his coming here and addressing Michigan's economy head-on. In Michigan, the economy was the #1 concern of voters. And Mitt was more positive about rebuilding Michigan's reeling economy than all of the others.

McCain's pessimism about putting Michigan's work force back to work cost him the election. That's why Romney won, not because he's a native son.

Britney Spears Shows Up at Mercedes-Benz Dealer Wearing a....Wedding Dress (??!) and Looking to Replace Her Car

Stranger and stranger.

Britney Spears showed up at an LA-area Mercedes-Benz dealer wearing a partial wedding dress that she wore in 2004. Strange way to celebrate losing her kids.

Republicans Finally Spend Some Time in Michigan: Election is Tomorrow

Republican presidential hopefuls are spending a great deal of time in Michigan, courting voters for their half-powered votes ahead of tomorrow's primary vote.

It's nice to see, but I see that they're ignoring the U.P. again. There was little to no mention of the primary in U.P. news web sites today.

I hope that the eventual winner of the GOP nomination pushes the Democrats to hold at least one of the debates in Michigan. And if the Democratic nomination turns out to be anyone other than Kucinich, then they should pack the hall with P.O.'ed (and disenfranchised) voters to ask "Where were you during the primary season? And why should we vote for you now?"

It'd be fun to watch the candidate squirm.

I mentioned Kucinich because he alone campaigned in the state on the Democratic side. Good for him.

Britney Spears Abandons Her $150,000 Car on California Highway, Leaving it to be Impounded: What Was She Thinking?

If you had hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank, and were the proud owner of a $150,000 Mercedes, you'd probably be very protective of your investment, taking care of it, and making sure it would be safe from car thieves and other unsavory characters, right?

Not if your name is Britney Spears, apparently.

After the authorities let her go from the hospital (a very bad decision) a few days ago, she quickly returned to the party scene and driving without a license. She took her Mercedes (which was already on it's spare tire) and headed out. Somewhere along the line, she got up on a road and blew out another tire.

She then asked for a lift from one of the paparazzo trailing her and got a ride home. She borrowed a run-down Toyota and headed to her parties, leaving the police to impound her car.

Considering she doesn't have a drivers license, and spends money like it grows on trees, one would think she'd take the time to send her assistant to get new tires put on her luxury car. DUH!!

If I had that kind of money and that kind of expensive car, I would have said "screw the parties, I'm dealing with my car situation right now." And a tow truck would have been called, and that car would not have been let out of my sight. This would be the attitude of most.

Not Britney. She had to go to her parties, at any cost.

ANY cost.

By letting her go, the powers that be are allowing this young woman's self-destruction to continue on. What's it going to take to get her some help? Britney ramming into a school bus full of kids in her $150,000 car? Her overdosing or hanging herself?

Letting her out of that hospital was a HUGE blunder. She's clearly not well and not thinking straight.

When Pollsters Are Wrong, Dems Scream About Voter Fraud: Yet When They Get Democratic Primary in NH Wrong, Dems are Silent

Limbaugh made some good points about Hillary's "comeback" in New Hampshire on his radio show today, saying that in recent elections, whenever the pollsters really get their data screwed up and the election results are opposite of what their polling data shows, the Democratic Party starts screaming about voter fraud and stolen elections. Rush noted the pollsters had it about as wrong as humanly possibly and wondered aloud when the screaming would begin.

It won't.

The polls are an excuse for the Democrats to protest when they've lost an election. The New Hampshire primary election results prove it. If this was a Democrat vs. Republican election, there would have been screaming before the polls closed and a court case. But since it's a Democrat vs. Democrat election, they remain silent. Hypocrites.

The next time the Democrats lose an election AND the pollsters get their results wrong again, I don't want to hear ANYTHING about voter fraud or stolen elections.

Hillary Clinton Looks Poised to Lose New Hampshire Tomorrow: Her Campaign is in Trouble

If polling data coming out of New Hampshire is accurate, Hillary Clinton may lose the Democratic primary election there tomorrow.

Her campaign is already in a tailspin from her disastrous third-place finish in Iowa last week; another high profile loss before Super Tuesday may be a portent of how her campaign will finish up. Look for a radically different race on the "Wednesday after Super Tuesday."

I'm enjoying this, in spite of my continued anger over Michigan's disenfranchisement by the Democrats and Michigan's GOP delegate problem.

Polling starts in some New Hampshire communities beginning at midnight tonight.

Government Investigating Rampant Fraud in Carbon Offset Market: Man-Made Nonsense Market Preys on Those with a Guilty Conscience

A blind man could have seen this one coming from miles away.

A while back I railed against carbon "credits" and the emerging market as being under the control of unknown persons or corporations--some of whom are sworn enemies of the global warming crowd. It's now called the "carbon offset market" and did about $100 million in business last year. This market is expected to become a lot bigger in coming years.

Here's how it works in the simplest terms. The actual way that this works is much more complex, which is part of the problem. There is also a huge difference in the way that this is done between nations, between corporations, and between people (which I am focusing on).

A standard is established by law, or by some other means. Say for a person, it's a 50, which represents an "ideal" level for someone to minimize their "carbon footprint" (another piece of nonsense, but I digress).

Johnny Citizen discovers his number is a 65, and feels terrible about how he's contributing to global warming, and arranges to purchase 15 carbon credits from someone who has achieved a lower number than he has. In this way, Johnny achieves parity with the benchmark and the person who is doing a good job with minimizing their carbon footprint (%$@!) is rewarded monetarily.

See the problem?

Dishonest persons have managed to enter the market to engage in fraud and are now preying on those who have a guilty conscience. It's reached a level that the government is investigating the entire mess.

Because of lax verification of whether a trader is actually doing as well as he/she says they are, they can come in, and say "I scored a 35; I'll sell my available credits for, oh, say, $1,000 each." And people are paying at the rate that is proposed by the trader. Johnny would be better off taking his money and investing in solar panels, or a fuel-efficient hybrid car, or doing his stupid light bulb thing or planting trees to ease his impact on the environment and his guilty conscience. Or all of the above.

A man-made solution to a man-made problem that may or may not not exist. Sounds like trouble to me. And now the government is wasting more money investigating the entire thing to see if this unregulated market needs to be regulated.

If someone is bound and determined to use this market to accomplish their goal, then they have a responsibility to protect their own investment--by verifying that the trader they're doing business with isn't a flim-flam man or a Johnny-Come-Lately looking to make money and then depart the scene with someone else's money.

Stupid is as stupid does.

CIA Plays It Safe With Intelligence Estimate of Iran's Nuclear Program: They Didn't Want War Hawks in White House to Get Us Into Another War

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) recently released a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran's nuclear program and concluded that the Iranians had stopped their nuclear weapons program in the fall of 2003 under international pressure.

This effectively took several options off the table for the Bush Administration, left the Israelis fuming, had the European Union both cheering and shaking their heads in confusion, and the Iranians crowing "See, we told you so." And Iran's neighbors are now very nervous too.

I think the CIA didn't want another statement coming out of its ranks that would be seized by the war hawks in Washington as George Tenet's "slam dunk" comment was in 2003, with regards to Saddam Hussein's possessing banned biochem weapons in the lead-up to the Iraq War. CIA definitely didn't want this Administration to launch another war based on incomplete or faulty information.

That's already happened once; and CIA was roasted alive. Now they're playing it safe when they should be aggressively pushing to get more people on the ground inside Iran. "We're kind of sure" WON'T cut it.

More Reaction to the Iowa Caucus: Ho Hum

"Stunner" and "shocker" were two adjectives used to describe Iowa's caucus results in the news media. I couldn't disagree more. It was mostly a ho-hum event.

Mostly. Clinton coming in 3rd place did make my day, but the knowledge that an inexperienced "new" liberal beat her makes it a break-even event at most. That's too bad. I'd normally be celebrating something like Hillary Clinton coming in 3rd place.

I don't have anything to say about the GOP race, other than to say that it's nice to see that money doesn't always buy an election successfully; even in the GOP.

Paparazzi Conduct in Britany Spears Business Last Night was DISGRACEFUL: Story is Bad Enough Without Them Making It Worse

Britney Spears melted down last night at her home in Beverly Hills, refusing to turn her kids over to her ex-husband's bodyguard as ordered by the court. The police were summoned, and things went from bad to worse. She ended up being handcuffed to a gurney and being loaded into an ambulance, where the paparazzi pounced.

"Pounced" doesn't give the description of their reaction justice. It was DISGRACEFUL. They momentarily blocked the ambulance, hopped up onto the back fender and were trying to take Britney's photo through the ambulance window. If they could have they would have pried the back doors open. Were any laws broken by the paparazzi?



Britney's meltdown appears to be complete. She's being given a mental evaluation; if drastic action is not taken by her family or the court, I don't see her living for much longer. That's a terrible thing to say, and I hope she straightens her life out, but she's self-destructing right before our very eyes.

She's clearly not up to taking care of two very young children; she can't even take care of herself. She keeps leaving her children at home or at a hotel while she goes out and parties, also in violation of court orders.

The system has to do SOMETHING to save her life.

Last Night Was a Good Night; Hillary Finished 3rd

I may not be too happy with the current primary system and the fact that Michigan is being screwed by both National Committees, but one good thing that happened was that Hillary Clinton finished in 3rd place. That's worth throwing a party over, all by itself.

I'm still thinking things through.

Congressional Earmarks Continue to be a Major Problem: It's Going to Bankrupt the Nation

Time to fasten our seat belts; Congress is taking us on another pork ride.

The new omnibus bill that President Bush has just signed contains close to 9,800 earmarks, which add up to about $10 billion. Add the earmarks from the recently passed defense bill, and that number jumps up to 12,000 earmarks. It's being said that it took six hours to print out the omnibus bill, and when finished stood two feet high.

Super-massive omnibus spending bills have to be ended, and the bill broken into it's constituent parts. The smaller the spending bills in terms of what's being funded, the greater chance we'll have to see the pork that has been slipped into the various parts.

$10 billion more to the piggies!!