Doug's Views – Page 151 – Ocassional Thoughts of an Independent Progressive Atheistic Humanist

September 11, 2006April 18, 2020

9/11 still powerful after 5 years

The media has begun their observances of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This weekend I watched some of the documentaries on some of the channels like PBS and CBS and the images and feelings are still very powerful.

I still vividly remember what I was doing that morning in 2001 when the first reports came in, I was noodling on the computer. I had just come home from my night job and I had the “Today” show on in the background while I decompressed before going to bed. After seeing the 2nd plane hit the tower I didn’t go to bed until around Midnight the next day.

I wrote my thoughts into an essay posted on my iHumanism website.

September 11: A Humanist Response

I read on some website that non-theists didn’t speak up when the event happened, giving the impression that they didn’t care about the tragic event. That is just a myth. We just don’t put out press releases about how we feel. Even if we did we couldn’t afford to have it published.

The only real thing that I am still upset about is our present government officials are fear mongers. President Bush took the opportunity to give a speech the other day about “our” fight against terrorism. In one speech he claimed we were “safer” but faced increased threat of terrorism and that the war on terrorism includes Iraq (even though before we invaded in 2003 Iraq was not part of 9/11 or the war on terrorism).

The Vice President Dick Cheney appeared on the Sunday morning talk shows and claimed the administration was doing “a hell of job” on security.

“I think we’ve done a pretty good job of securing the nation against terrorists. You know, we’re here on the fifth anniversary (of the 9/11 attacks). And there has not been another attack on the United States. And that’s not an accident, because we’ve done a hell of a job here at home,” Cheney said in the broadcast interview. “I don’t know how much better you can do than no, no attacks for the past five years.”
Cheney Defends Hardline White House Role

But he and the administration have not been questioned as to why the leader of the group that attacked the World Trade Center is still at large 5 years later. Or why a military solution has not defeated al-Qaida either abroad or closer to home.

Besides we’ve heard it before. Remember, Brownie was doing a great job as head of FEMA after Katrina and we know how that turned out.

September 4, 2006April 18, 2020

Good Luck Katie

On Tuesday, September 5th, Katie Couric will begin as a sole anchor of the CBS Evening News.

Couric spent 15 years on the fluff news show “Today” on NBC so some have complained that she won’t succeed on a “hard” news show. Some have said she wouldn’t because of being on “Today” while others say it because she is a woman – they still think a woman can’t deliver the news.

Yes, the Today show is mostly fluff but when there was hard news to cover Couric did well. I remember watching her on Today during the beginning of the 9/11 attacks. I think she know when to be serious and when to be light. Besides Tom Brokaw, the former anchor of NBC news, worked for several years on Today in the late 70’s and he did okay moving to the anchor chair.

The critics says she hasn’t had enough hard news experience. My view is she is just reading the news – she doesn’t have to find it. That is what the staff does. She paid her dues as a local reporter and as a correspondent.

As to those who complain that she won’t do a good job because she is a woman – all I have to say is look at Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC. They have a large number of women anchors of their various newscasts and no seems to complain about them. Couric will be doing the same thing those women do only she will be on CBS.

The only thing I hope Couric does do different is not throw softballs at anyone she interviews like a political leader.

Other than that I wish her good luck. I know I will watch at least once.

August 31, 2006April 18, 2020

Cowtown Qube

In an earlier post on the history of MTV I mentioned that the idea evolved from a successful music video program on the Qube network in the late 70’s.

Qube was the first try at interactive television and debuted in Columbus in 1977. It was a demonstration project from Warner Cable (now Time-Warner Cable).

The subscriber used a large remote box that plugged into their set-top cable box and allowed them to pick from the 30 channels available and it included 5 buttons for the interactive part. Programs on Qube could ask poll questions and users would pick their answer and the results would be collected then displayed during the program.

Qube had a live local component that originated from a studio in Columbus. I remember that local TV personality Flippo the Clown had a show on Qube. When Qube was installed in other cities (like Dallas and Cincinnati) there were shows that were shown nationally like Sight and Sound (the prototype of MTV) and Pinwheel, a children’s program that evolved into the Nickelodeon channel.

For a more geeky version of the history of Qube check out the following link:

When CableWent Qubist

August 25, 2006April 18, 2020

Welcome readers of HCPU

I decided to merge the topic of Hancock County Politics Unfiltered, a blog I started 3 years ago, to comment on issues and events happening in my hometown of Findlay and Hancock County, into Doug’s Views as of today.

I don’t live there any more and I found it extremely hard to create posts on a regular basis. In fact the last post before today was about the Super Bowl back in February.

Posts related to Findlay or Hancock county will be found under those categories and tags. Past posts won’t be merged into this blog as of now. I need to find an easy way to do that. Until then you can find them on the old blog at

http://www.wideopenwest.com/~diggbyrow/findlay/index.html

August 23, 2006April 18, 2020

Madigan says we should be lucky to have Wal-Mart

Charles M. Madigan wrote an op/ed piece in the Chicago Tribune Tuesday complaining about Democrats deciding to take on retailer Wal-Mart. He starts out telling us about a couple of jobs he had that paid little for the amount work he did and the other negatives that came with it. Of course he makes the tired claim:

It paid a pittance, created an immense amount of sweat and made the drinking man thirsty.
The strange thing about these jobs is that I was happy to have them at the time. They put money (and at the fast-food place, stolen pieces of fried chicken for the walk home) in my pocket.
Also, those were the jobs available.
Up against the Wal! (-Mart)

Then Madigan tries to give us an unemotional lecture on retail economics. He writes:

Work is honorable. I would love to see people make more money. I would like them to have comfortable lives, nice homes and, most of all, relief from money troubles.
Wal-Mart probably does too, so they would have more to spend.
The problem is that has nothing to do with the retail business.
The company is in a strong position in most of its locations because, I am sure, it is the only show in town for lots of people who are eager to work. It has crushed its challengers.
That spells relatively low wages.
Is that right or wrong?
The marketplace doesn’t make decisions like that. No one got rich working in a mom-and-pop corner store, either, so we should shed the notion that something noble has passed. Low-wage jobs are still what they have always been, low-wage jobs. The nation runs on these realities. Go read up on coal mining. People risked their lives for a couple of bucks a day, if they were lucky enough to get work.

Madigan is right. The desire to have people make more money and have unfettered lives has nothing to do with the system of retail business. It is just that – a system. It doesn’t control our lives, we control it. There is the human factor.

The humans who run Wal-Mart make the decision to move into a small town, undercut the local businesses in prices, and become the only game in town. That is their business plan. They manipulate the consumer and the system for their own ends.

The profits go to the owners – the shareholders. They spend money from their advertising budget to pretend they care about the community. The Wal-Marts of the world only care about the bottom line. Period.

I would have more respect for Wal-Mart if it played on a level playing field. The last time it did was back in the 1950’s when Sam and his wife Helen were “mom and pop” store owners in Arkansas and a large discount chain moved in. It seems they became rich….