Outrage.com: March 2003

Opening Day is one of my favorite days of the year - the true start of spring, despite the fact it will be about 20 degrees at Shea Stadium tonight. Not that that matters since I will be warm at home and Shea Stadium might as well be in Siberia. I am married to a Yankees fan who enjoys watching the Mets lose almost as much as he enjoys watching the Yanks win. And don't get me started about the Red Sox.

So why does the New York Times think the BoSox have a chance this year? What an outrageous thought on opening day. (registration required)

So Peter Arnett was fired this morning. According to reports, it's because of what he said on Iraqi television. I am one of those who could only think to myself, 'what the hell was he thinking?'

But to me the REAL firing offense would put a lot of reporters out of work. The problem here is not just what he said. The problem is that he has been interviewed so often that he figured another one wouldn't matter. And in doing so, Arnett became the story - for which he should be fired. It seems to me this happens whenever a reporter is interviewed by another reporter - regardless of the subject matter or the program. Responsible news organizations should make it harder for reporters to interview reporters - and responsible journalists should just say no when asked.

UPDATE: Slate's Jack Shafer sums this up quite nicely.

Women still make 76 cents for every $1 men make. And this is still news to anyone?

Only in New York. I am thankful that the traffic nightmare caused by the Three Stooges this morning didn't slow me down me in anyway. My condolences to the thousands who were affected. And if New York needs a new motto, I'm voting for Mayor Mike's "How Stupid Can You Be?" I find myself asking that question several times a day.

If I had to choose my ultimate hero - it would be between SpongeBob and Buffy. I have no idea what I'd do. Let's just hope I never have to choose. And thank God for syndication.

I'm thinking of converting to the Church of SpongeBob SquarePants. So if I disappear for a little while, I think there's some sort of initiation required. And damn Viacom for not having a sense of humor. Good gawd - what harm can come from sharing a few graphics? And I just want to go on the record: LATimes called it a "show catering to children." Hah! Almost two million viewers were ages 18-49 - of which I was one.

I love this sort of news. With all that's going on in the world, television viewers have their priorities straight - at least in cable land. Fox News, CNN and MSNBC post gains in viewership, according to the LATimes. But Nickelodeon bumped MSNBC out of the top three with a brilliant programming move (one they employ frequently by the way) to run two hours of SpongeBob SquarePants on a Friday night. And 7 million people tune in. I love America.

It appears that Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) is outraged over the contract award to Kellogg, Brown and Root (a Halliburton subsidiary) to assess and extinguish oil well fires in Iraq - without bid.

During college, I worked for the Naval Supply Systems Command for the U.S. Department of the Navy. I thought nothing got done without a bid process. Kellogg is a leader in its field - but they shouldn't be handed a dime without some checks and balances. How about a protest at Halliburton headquarters worldwide?

So Jack McFarland on Will & Grace is based on a real person. Now the world knows. Jack Dreamer's lawsuit has been settled - but I can't figure out if he sued because he didn't like the portrayal or because he didn't get the house and car he was promised.

Another of my life rules: keep your sense of humor no matter what. It's good to know Saddam's blogging now too. Sort of the Iraqi version of outrage.com. And to discover he and I share a love of Buffy - who da thunk it?

It's one thing to watch or listen to the news. I can't imagine living it.

I'm not doing much writing about the war on Iraq. It doesn't mean I'm not outraged by what's going on. It just means I'm not quite sure where I stand from day to day. So until I'm sure, I'm going to continue to read and watch.

That said, there are two things I'm certain of. I don't want to watch war in real time. Call me crazy. And second, Gen. Tommy Franks should not be allowed to use adjectives like "wonderful" and "terrific" when talking to the press. There should be a law.

For some reason, a scene from the Andy Griffith Show keeps playing over and over again in my head. It's the one where Barney Fife and Gomer get into it over a citizen's arrest. And Jim Nabors keeps repeating "Citizen's Arrest! Citizen's Arrest" in that accent of his. This morning, I keep hearing Jim Nabors voice but I see GWBush in Iraq, going door-to-door looking for Saddam. Because that's what the CIA told him to do. I hope God is up there and she's listening.

So the tractor man from North Carolina gave up peacefully. But not before relieving himself in the Constitution Gardens pond. That is the problem with the world today. Men run the world - and they view the entire planet as their own personal toilet.

CBS-FM Morning Mayor Harry Harrison gave one of his signature lines for the last time on 101 this morning. The line? "Unwrap each day like a precious gift." After 44 years in radio, I hope he lands somewhere nearby soon. My morning drive won't be the same.

Funny thing - (I know, I know - when I'm away for so long, a lot of stuff gets bottled up so bear with me.) I have a cable modem account with my local cable provider. They recently introduced a feature called SpamAway. Despite this handy dandy new feature, my husband and I still receive upwards of 30 spams a day. I just assumed that SpamAway wasn't enabled. Lo and behold, I discovered it is up and running. But still doesn't stop obvious spam messages. Why is that? How does something called SpamAway NOT send spam away? They should call it something else, don't you think?

Has anyone told Saddam that in order to shut down our nation's capital, all he has to do is rent a tractor and drive it onto the Mall? Simple, yet effective.

Is it wrong to care about a college basketball tournament when World War III is about to break? I hope not.

I'm one of those people who believe St. Patrick's Day should be a weeklong celebration - or in my case a 4-day celebration. Irish music, parades, Baileys, corned beef and amber ale - no better way to spend a long weekend. Even with all that's going on in the world, the Dubliner and John McGrath were able to make me forget about it for just a little while. Who could ask for anything more?

just to balance it (and to include an opinion column more in line with my view of things), Misreading Power by William Raspberry mentions the unilateralism that has gotten us to this point in history. I'm sick of hearing people talk about the war being over in a few days, or week, or even years. Once it starts, this new type of warfare will NEVER be over. And while I don't completely agree with the Russian/French position, at least they're willing to talk about that reality.

I'll be the first to admit it - I am unable to keep up with everything that's being said or written about Iraq. But when I heard this morning about the "moral victory" Bush is hoping to achieve, I lose all sense of time and space. While I don't agree with him fully, Charles Krauthammer's Walk Away column today makes sense to me. Strictly from a logical, political and emotional point of view.

So I keep asking myself - didn't he say less than week ago that we need no one's permission? If that's his position - what is really going on here? How did we go from that to nine votes being a moral victory?

Married by America - it's too annoying to get outraged over. Almost. I take some small satisfaction from the news that the ratings are less than stellar.

One of my life mottos is "In the end, only kindness matters." And yes, I have no problem with the fact that Jewel supplied one of my life mottos. But it came to mind as I was considering why reality television so offends me. TV critic Glenn Garvin agrees that reality TV rots and may have helped me figure it out.

Here's what Bush said last night. Let the experts dissect it. I don't advocate "peace at any cost." But I don't think we should go to war because we can't trust Saddam to tell the truth. Hell, think of the war we could have right here at home. And I think Bush truly believes he's on a mission from God. So I'm not sure lately what scares me more. And I drive over NYC bridges every day.

Just way too much to be outraged about today. Apparently child safety seat instructions are written for a 10th grade audience - and that's too complicated for the majority of Americans. What is wrong with this picture? Did anyone consider that just plain impatience -- or worse yet, laziness -- is the root cause? I can believe that a majority of Americans can't be bothered. Now that's a survey result that seems legit.

War protests in the nude are apparently all the rage - unfortunately none are happening in my neck of the woods (New York). Given that it's about -9 degrees (wind chill factor) I guess that's not surprising. As my aunt from Minnesota once told me "40 below keeps out the riff raff." Where are tie-dyed shirts and hallucinogenics when you need 'em?

What does nudity have to do with protesting a war? (this is for my friend Stewie who hasn't heard me say this since college) Why don't they just "put some pants on?"

Alert the media. Chris Dodd WON'T seek the Democratic nomination for President. I didn't even know he was invited. Who knew?

I take it all back. Tickets in Section 112, Giants Stadium, July 17. Beautiful.

I don't know why but I thought I'd have an outside chance at buying Springsteen tickets online. The Ticketmaster site went down within 60 seconds of the tickets going on sale. "Bad Gateway: The proxy server received an invalid response from an upstream server" is all I got. I'll give you a bad gateway. Why don't sites anticipate their own usage and prepare for it? This really isn't rocket science, despite what your IT department tells you.

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