60 Minutes' Kroft (rightfully) slammed for playing interview-footsie with Obama

I didn't see this 60 Minutes interview with Obama, but after reading this eloquent take-down on The Atlantic's website, I'm glad I didn't bother. It sounds like its journalistic quality might have tempted me to bash whatever electronic device I used to digest it with a very heavy rock. We could debate Obama's merits/deficiencies for hours. But it's not about Obama, it's about Steve Kroft.

The style of Kroft, an award-winning broadcast journalist, has always seemed to be designed, well, to make it clear that he's a hard-hitting journalist. Yet he puts on the kid gloves with Obama, allowing himself to be played like a fiddle. The only question: whether he's too addicted to his access to ruffle the president's feathers, so enamored with Obama that he cannot see flaws, or too stupid/high on himself to realize he's a pawn. In any case, not a good sign for presidential accountability.

Why the ridiculous Tim Tebow narrative is kinda like the story Congress feeds us

There is an internet meme out there where you put pretty much anything before "> Tim Tebow." Misinterpreted by many as slanderous towards Tim Tebow and his amateurish passes, it's really a shot at a media that has chosen a lazy narrative to glorify Tebow for his work ethic, faith, and "grit" while often willfully ignoring or excusing the fact that he is a fullback who happens to be a remarkably below-average passer.

Go figure, Tebow is 4-1 as a starter this year. Much praising ensues. The narrative carries the day because, well, Suddenly Metaphorically Tiny Tim-vs.-world is just too compelling. He can't even throw, but look at him just WILLING his team to victory. It's this kind of simplification that the public is force-fed in the deficit debate, both from politicians and media. No one, meanwhile, is talking about Denver's defense.

Super-committee: we are not so super

So let me get this straight: this group of elite Congress people could not do any better of a job doing what the rest of Congress has also been proven to be terrible at: compromise in the face of obvious need of it. In short, the Dems in Congress won't cut payments on crap we can't afford, and the GOP won't let us collect money to pay for the stuff we already bought. Lovely. And that was just an attempt to cut $1.2 trillion over the next decade....which still wouldn't even get us NEAR a balanced budget. They couldn't even agree how to slow the hemorrhaging.

Not surprising as ideological everyone's become, starting with the Republicans. This guy sure isn't helping. He explicitly wants us to go back to the early 1900s when the government was below 10 percent of GDP. By the way, life expectancy was also below 50, industrial jobs were brutal jobs with slave wages and hours, kids left school to go to work at around 13, blacks weren't people, politics were rife with corruption, and the gap between rich and poor was astronomical as most Americans lived much harsher lives than any do today. So perhaps he's over romanticized this glorious era free of big government. If someone could name a modern, comfortable, first world country with that little government I'd love to hear about it.

The World Series ends tonight, and I lose my excuse to ignore my blog

Unless of course I die of a heart attack because another game like last night might kill me.

Can't beat October baseball. But the best sports month has a darker side: emaciated productivity levels. Just look at the history: the Great Depression started on October 29, according to a fact I found on the interwebs. And there has never been an economic recovery that began in the month of October, according to a study I made up to fit my narrative. Wait, what was I talking about again?

Anyway, I'll get back to writing in the blog soon. In the meantime, go Cardinals.

Occupy Wall Street: high-minded revolution or ignorant, aimless gathering of hippies?

Some would have you believe this is the U.S. version of Arab Spring, a glorious revolt against a minority in power that, through equally devious devices -- if less blunt and draconian while being more complex and nebulous -- control a vast share of a nation's wealth.

Some would also have you believe that these are nothing but worthless dregs of society, people whose lack of knowledge on the topic can only be topped by their inability to contribute anything meaningful to society.

In other words, business as usual in discussion of American politics. So pick one and prepare to be vilified.

This is just too stupid to leave alone: Propogandist Glenn Beck targets children

I don't really have too many words beyond what's in the article here. But...wow. So, professional propagandist and semi-professional idiot Glenn Beck, champion of freedom and liberty -- and some would say predator of fear of anyone on the American Right with intellectual insecurity melded with self-righteousness -- is now trying to get to the children. Because your kids social studies teachers are obviously filling their students' heads with Marxist sympathies and anti-American garble.

I supposed this is because even stupid adults have wised to his shenanigans in great enough numbers that he couldn't get enough ad revenue to pay the rent on the home he's using after he sold this one. Not that being rich and having a huge home makes you a bad person. Being rich and having a huge home because you spout willful ignorance and/or lie to entertain/scare people under the guise of news comentary, and use your gibberish make your audience hateful of fellow citizens over mere disagreements, THAT makes you a bad person.

If someone tries to tell you the world is getting more violent, show them this

This posting includes a graph outlaying the number of battle deaths in the last seven decades. Obviously WWII stands out. But so do the 2000s...even in relation to the 1990s. Some combination of improved political structures and diplomatic relations, information technology, and a growing ability to grapple with simple common sense seem to have shoved violence down dramatically on a per-capita basis.

This does not substitute for judgement approving or disapproving of actions in any particular conflict. Nor does it suggest that the only measure for quality of life on earth is the number of deaths from various types of war. But it has to be a somewhat important one. And any alarmist out there trying to argue that humanity is getting more violent will have a hard time refuting this data. We got 99 problems but a rising propensity for killing each other in massive numbers ain't one. Even if the news seems to tell us so.

Frum: though never perfect, parties weren't always quite such punks to each other

Did parties always treat each other like the step-brother each never wanted? Of course they did. In an exercise early in my journalism program, we listened to a taped speech from then-President Harry Truman to Congress, and the similarity of his words to the rhetoric of today was haunting. But as David Frum points out in an interesting sampling of historical anecdotes, they managed to form a quasi-functional relationship despite similar procedural rules.

Now, after a few decades had given us enough prosperity to give everyone what they wanted, we have a system where nothing is out of bounds. The fact about only a quarter of people living in counties that were landslides in the 1976 election whereas half lived in landslides in 2008 struck me as particularly telling. He doesn't have an answer for what, but he's right to say SOMETHING drastic needs to change what is now a completely dysfunctional culture.

Journos ripping guy that ripped Palin get ripped for not doing their job, ripping Palin

Why some form of "rip?" Because "slam," "blast" and "viciously shred into tiny metaphorical pieces" were too long to fit in a two-line head and I'm anal like that.

In any case, the point Andrew Sullivan makes here remains valid. Anyone in the media ripping the new tell-all book about Palin for its anonymous sources and salaciousness (many without reading it) needs to take a close look in a mirror, and wonder why they've never appropriately vetted such an obviously phony, unqualified person that the GOP put Ohio and a heart attack away from being PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Perhaps the lesson could be applied to Rick Perry, who was immediately anointed as a frontrunner for the GOP nomination. He has some odd ideas, his claim to fame -- job creation -- is questionable at best using tactics unlikely to be scalable nationally, and he slashed education to balance a budget. Seems like people are at least occasionally starting to get the idea.

NCAA's illegal cartel ripped in must-read; Kyle finds a new low in shameless plugs

If you read one sports article all year, it should be this one. Taylor Branch writes a thoughtful, well-researched, provoking article on why brazenly taking away college athletes' ability to earn anything besides a scholarship is both morally and legally indefensible. You will not find a better history or summation of the legal battles surrounding the hypocrisy of the NCAA. Long read, but worth every minute if you care about college sports or civic rights. Basically, the NCAA and to a large extent the universities have an athletic cartel that in the cases of football and basketball is insanely profitable and has no real labor costs.

Also, if you quickly Ctrl+f and type my name on the article, in the comments you'll find that my response to a silly person's assertion that college athletes have a choice, which at this point 145 people have "liked." So there's that. Comment below if you with your thoughts. Or just go "like" my comment because I DESPERATELY SEEK APPROVAL OF OTHER ANONYMOUS INTERNET USERS.