The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    Richard Day's picture

    MARGARET & HELLEN: GHOSTBUSTERS

    By Richard Day on Mon, 08/03/2009 - 9:36pm |

    I was kind of lost today. But you know I am not the only one to have focus problems:

    The fearless Clark Hoyt, public editor of The New York Times, casts a rather disapproving eye against his own paper this weekend, drawing attention to the numerous mistakes warranting correction in a July 22 article hailing Walter Cronkite. Alessandra Stanley wrote the error-ridden appraisal of the newsman, who, ironically, was stringent in his own methods of reporting, and the piece contained seven mistakes, including the claim that Cronkite stormed the beaches on D-Day (he was actually in a B-17 bomber) and the wrong dates of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s death and the moon landing. Because a "television critic with a history of errors wrote hastily and failed to double-check her work, and editors who should have been vigilant were not" the "authority of a newspaper" was undermined, writes Hoyt. Meanwhile, Stanley, who was writing another article under deadline at the time and didn't fact-check her piece, says, "This is my fault," and, "There are no excuses." Read it at The New York Times

    And I thought there were no good times, no bad times...just the New York Times.

     

    See obits are 'canned' most of the time. The real dead files you might say. Bios of important people are sitting in files ready to be pulled out, polished and published once the most dearly depart.

     

    I was speaking with my friend Seashell about this and it turns out, she actually wrote obits from time to time and they have been published in the NYT, the LA Times and many other papers.  (I llove this place, don't you? I mean you find out things about your friends here. So many have published books and articles all over the place. You find out great people that they knew well. Where else are you going to go where out of 300 people you find so much talent as part of a big blog site that gets 1.5 million hits?)

     

    Seashell laughed like hell when she heard about this. Simple facts, available to anyone on line, and the NYT gets it wrong through a writer and at least two editors who phoned in the death of the single most important media personality in the 20th century.  I know there was H L.Mencken and Art Buchwald....

    But my god, all the oldies like me grew up with Black and White TV and WWII propaganda films and no matter what there was Cronkite. What did our 21st century media do with this.....Well on cable we had a month on a mentally ill singer who liked little boys. So its not just the age of misinformation, it is the new age of missed priorities.


    Chris is still yelling at Pat over birth certificates.

    Repubs are on all day today yelling about socialist medicine.Right wing groups are paying people to show up a Democratic rallies screaming and then yelling the Pledge of Allegiance:

     

    An angry crowd also exploded at Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. The Philadelphia Daily News reports, "They wore bumper stickers on their foreheads. They carried signs. They shouted insults at notable American figures -- and each other. Loudly   http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/03/doggett-health-care/


    So we have circuses...no bread, just circuses. BUMPER STICKERS ON THEIR FORHEADS!!!!!!!!!

    There's something happenin here

    And it just aint exactly clear...

    Singin songs and they're carryin signs

    Mostly say hurray for our side


    But it worked, I mean these idiots got airtime.

    This was the best line I read over the week-end:


    Joked The Washington Post's Lisa de Moraes: it "explains their upcoming documentary: `The World: Flat. We Report - You Decide."'  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/02/lou-dobbs-a-publicity-nig_n_249466.html

    I know the line because I have put this very line in several of my blogs or  reasonable facsimiles thereof, I suppose.

    Oh there is important news. The Health insurance issue will boil for at least another month, probably three.  This clunker legislation is selling, 250,000 cars have been purchased. Senator Boxer is telling me right now that they should get more financing for this program this week.

    But over all....

    So who can help us out of our crisis?  How can we best get on track again?

    Something strange goin on
    Something's wrong
    Nothin but doom and gloom
    Outside is the storm
    All alone in the crib
    Watchin the fathead

    Birthers, Birchers, Besmirchers

    Who you gonna call?

    Margaret and Helen

    That's who you're gonna call!!!!

    I was directed to these two wonderful octogenarians by more than one friend here. These two seniors run a blog called Margaret and Helen and they rock. http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com/

    I say stop in and see my friend TheraP when you first awaken from your all too short slumber at her blog: http://wisdom4nothing.blogspot.com/ . This will give you some prayer and meditation to start your day.

    But then run over to Margaret and Helen. Ha. Here are some titles for their posts:

     

    I mean come on, Life's a bitch and so is Cheney. Hahahahahhaa

    Today they shake their fingers at the President for speaking on this Professor Gates mess and then get down to the real issues:

    A police officer mistakenly arrested a Harvard professor for breaking into his own home.  It doesn't matter the skin color of anyone involved.  That was stupid.

    A President who wasn't there decided to talk about it at a press conference on healthcare reform instead of staying focused on the issue thereby allowing the media to once again take our eye off the ball.  Again, it doesn't matter the skin color of that President.  That was stupid.

    Sarah Palin quit her day job.  Now that was really stupid.

    Rush Limbaugh called the President a racist.  Now come on folks.  That's not just stupid,  that's... well that's... uhhh... well that is... hmmm... that has become pretty typical for 'ole Rush.  And when stupid becomes typical you can't really use the word stupid anymore.  It's not politically correct.  Instead you have to call him mentally challenged which seems like an insult to all those who came by it naturally like Miss California and most of the mayors in New Jersey.  But I digress...

    When two elderly ladies write a blog called: SHIT HAPPENS, you cannot go wrong.