A maligned hero passes on

Richard Jewell was found dead at his home today. He was the man who discovered Eric Rudolph's knapsack bomb at the 1996 Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta. He alerted police and helped evacuate the area before the bomb went off. His actions saved the lives of countless people. It's unfortunate that the media blew the leak that he as a suspect way out of proportion and maligned his name. Jewell was eventually cleared by the FBI, but the damage had been done from the FBI and the media picking apart his life and spewing it all over the newspapers and evening news.

Despite his lawsuits against a few news organizations, Jewell showed that he actually had a sense of humor about the entire debacle when he appeared on Saturday Night Live as himself. In a sketch, he decked Janet Reno (a re-occuring and unforgettable role played by Will Farrell) and participated in a Weekend Update interview to Norm Macdonald (video below).

Thank you for your quick-thinking and heroism, Mr. Jewell, and good-bye.

Liberal bias in the media? What liberal bias?

Via John Sexton and NewsBusters:

Bush Motorcade Kills Cop

Judging from the headline (which is the most important part of the story as it is the first thing people read), you'd think that the policeman was struck and killed by the motorcade.

Hardly:

A police officer in President Bush's motorcade crashed his motorcycle and died Monday

It was a one-vehicle accident. Neither President Bush nor any other vehicle in the motorcade had anything to do with the accident. Time's headline is grossly distorted, biased and meant to invoke a negative image of President Bush. No surprise there. Time is, after all, a part of the anti-Bush left-stream media.

Compare and contrast this story to the left-stream media ignoring Hillary Clinton's motorcade actually being directly responsible for an accident that injured a policeman in 2001:

Differing Media Outrage: Hillary’s 2001 Car Accident Was Totally Ignored

Do you think that if Hillary had been president now (perish the thought!) and this tragic accident had happened, Time would've reported that incident as "Clinton Motorcade Kills Cop?" If you do, I've got a bridge in New York City to sell you.

Video trashing the left-stream media's latest fauxtography attempt

Found this via Risawn:

Like a suppository, only a bit stronger

I laughed so hard, I had tears in my eyes and my asthma acted up.

Arizona school narrowly averts another Columbine

Arizona School Suspends 13-Year-Old Boy for Drawing Gun

MESA, Arizona — Officials at an Arizona school suspended a 13-year-old boy for sketching what looked like a gun, saying the action posed a threat to his classmates.

The boy's parents said the drawing was a harmless doodle and school officials overreacted.

...

Chandler district spokesman Terry Locke said the crude sketch was "absolutely considered a threat," and that threatening words or pictures are punishable.

Thank goodness this school cracked down on this rogue doodler. Why, the paper-cut carnage could've been horrific!

Best "dramatic prairie dog" video ever

Hilarious!

What a Wonderfull World with shadow puppets

Cool and sweet.

LB:EF - More falsehoods spread in the media

Recently, Operation Straight Up - an evangelical organization that provides various forms of entertainment to the military - was to provide "Eternal Forces" in care packages to soldiers in Iraq. However, the packages were canceled by the DoD and the games removed by OSU after the Nation posted this smear-filled hit piece by Max Blumenthal, which included falsehoods such as:

Kill Or Convert, Brought To You By the Pentagon

...

Left Behind players wage a violent war against United Nations-like peacekeepers

...

Each time a Left Behind player kills a UN soldier, their virtual character exclaims, "Praise the Lord!" To win the game, players must kill or convert all the non-believers left behind after the rapture.

It's rather sad how many people fell for those false statements without questioning the claims in the slightest. There is no "kill or convert" in the game, nor is there any "violent war against United Nations-like peacekeepers," there most certainly are no exclamations of "Praise the Lord!" if an enemy is killed, and winning the game is not hinged upon killing or converting all the non-Christian characters. Blumenthal obviously has not played the full game and probably not even the demo (this is true about most if not all critics of the game). Nevertheless, ABC News uncritically ran with the hit piece (and didn't even get the organization's name right) and asked the Department of Defense about it. Subsequently, plans to include the game in the care packages were halted. Others - from bloggers to news outlets - also picked up on Blumenthal's falsehoods and reported them as fact. One person in particular, Zay Smith of the Chicago Sun-Times, pretty much plagiarized Blumenthal's description of the game. Zay and I had an extended email exchange in which he admitted he had played the demo, but when asked, completely failed to point out exactly where in the demo he had seen anything amounting to "convert or kill" or where the shouts of "Praise the Lord!" happened when a non-Christian was killed. (He also would not admit to plagiarizing Blumenthal even when the proof was spelled out to him in detail.) In fact, I've never seen one critic anywhere who could point out exactly where in the game any of their claims occurred.

Previous posts:

LB:EF - More response to criticisms
LB:EF - Mission 17
LB:EF - Mission 16
LB:EF - Missions 13, 14, and 15
LB:EF - Mission 12
LB:EF - Missions 9, 10 and 11
LB:EF - Addressing an opening animation criticism
LB:EF - Easter egg?
LB:EF - Email from the game's senior producer!
LB:EF - Missions 6, 7 and 8
LB:EF - The first few missions
LB:EF - Tutorial
LB:EF - the manual
New S&B series: "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" in detail
The left's lies about "Left Behind: Eternal Forces"

MDE baby watch

Minnesota Democrats Exposed blogger Michael Brodkorb is live-blogging his wife giving birth to twins. Having gone through the wait myself when my wife was induced with our first child, I probably know what he's going through. Hopefully his wife won't have to go through what my wife did: hours of labor and finally a c-section.

All our thoughts and prayers are with you, your wife and your twins, Michael! Man. Twin girls. That's a mix of scary and exciting right there. And as happy as I was when I got to hold my children after they were born, I simply cannot fathom the happiness they will feel holding two newborn daughters at the same time. Very cool.

UPDATE: The twin bundles of joy have arrived! Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Brodkorb!

Comment moderation off

I've decided to turn off comment moderation for a while to see what happens. I originally turned it on to weed out trolls, spammers and vulgar comments (mostly from WitchVox users and PZ Myers' groupies). None of those seem to be a problem right now.

UPDATE: I don't know if it was someone idea of a joke, but within hours of me turning off moderation, I got a spam comment (just one). *grumble*

CBS' Plante makes a complete ass of himself on live television

If you don't catch it, as President Bush and Karl Rove turn to leave, Plante yells, "If he's so smart, how come you lost Congress?"

Liberal bias in the media? What liberal bias in the media?

Mattel expands toy recall

Previous post.

Here's Mattel's latest press release about the recall:

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., August 14, 2007 – Mattel, Inc. announced today that the company has voluntarily recalled one toy from the "CARS" die-cast vehicle line ("Sarge" character), manufactured between May 2007 and July 2007, containing impermissible levels of lead. The recalled vehicles include 436,000 total toys, including 253,000 in the U.S. and 183,000 outside of the U.S.

The recall of the Sarge toy results from Mattel's increased investigation and ongoing testing procedures following the recall of select Fisher-Price toys on August 1, 2007. The toy was produced by Early Light Industrial Co., Ltd (Early Light), one of Mattel's contract manufacturing facilities in China, which subcontracted the painting of parts of the toy to another vendor, Hong Li Da (HLD), also in China. While the painting subcontractor, HLD, was required to utilize paint supplied directly from Early Light, it instead violated Mattel's standards and utilized paint from a non-authorized third-party supplier.

...

Additionally, Mattel announced the voluntary recall of magnetic toys manufactured between January 2002 and January 31, 2007, including certain dolls, figures, play sets and accessories that may release small, powerful magnets. The recall expands upon Mattel's voluntary recall of eight toys in November 2006 and is based on a thorough internal review of all Mattel's brands. Mattel is recalling 18.2 million magnetic toys globally (9.5 million in the U.S.); however, the majority of the toys are no longer at retail. Beginning in January 2007, Mattel implemented enhanced magnet retention systems in its toys across all brands.

You can find Mattel's full recall list (since 1998) here:

Mattel Consumer Relations Answer Center - Recall Information

The website is sluggish for me. Probably due to the heavy traffic.

As it turns out, my kids have the "Cars" Sarge toy that is part of the recall. Not good. We'll have to get their lead levels tested at their next Well Child checkup before school starts.

Mattel is supplying pre-paid mailing labels via email so you can return the toys and get replacement vouchers.

In related news, the boss at the Chinese factory that is behind the recall sadly has committed suicide.

No LB:EF posts

Or any others, really. I've been falling behind on playing the game and posting other stuff here because my time is being taken up by another project right now. I should be able to get back to everything once that's done, which should be soon.

Why does Google like me so much?

For some reason, S&B seems to end up as the top search result on Google more often than one would expect. I don't think S&B is particularly noteworthy, but Google's algorithms do. Check out this recent search for "duggar family." Scroll to the bottom:

Blog posts about duggar family
Duggar family welcomes 17th bundle of joy - Democrat Underground ... - Shock & Blog - Aug 3, 2007 by Jason

Zoinks! (Sorry. Saw a little of the old "Scooby Doo" cartoon today.) I don't even have the most recent blog post about the Duggars as this search shows. (Well, of course, NOW I do because of this post, though it's not specifically about the Duggars.)

I'm not complaining about any of this, but I am quite mystified.

Mattel toy recall

IMPORTANT 8/14 UPDATE: The recall has been expanded.

Shannon reminded me of this in the comments for another post:

I know this is off-topic but I'm contacting everyone I know who has small children with the complete Fisher Price recall list. They've posted images to make identifying the toys easier:

http://www.service.mattel.com/us/recall/39054_IVR.asp?prod=

We had some of them and have spoken with our pediatrician. Just giving you a heads-up so you can do the same for your little ones if necessary.

Thanks, Shannon! I had heard about that yesterday and did check the list. My kids did have one or two Dora toys that matched the appearance of the ones on the list, but the model number and time-frame didn't fit (we bought them last year), so I think we're okay.

Hey, if you [readers in general, not just Shannon] have pets, you might want to have them checked out by a vet, too. Pets are even smaller than kids and can be affected far more severely by the same amount of lead. I think, though, that the time frame would not be long enough to result in any serious and/or permanent harm to either kids or pets.

Duggar family welcomes 17th bundle of joy - Democrat Underground whinges to no end

I think this is awesome:

Arkansas couple welcomes 17th child

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - It's a girl — again — for the Duggars. Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar welcomed their 17th child, and seventh daughter, into the world Thursday.

Jennifer Danielle was born at 10:01 a.m. at Saint Mary's Hospital in Rogers, Ark., the Duggars said in an interview. Jennifer weighed 8 pounds, 8 ounces and arrived five days after Michelle's due date.

The Duggars obviously love their children and are capable of supporting such a large family. I say God bless them!

Of course, such a large family of faith and love draws the ire of the far left loons on Democrat Underground. Here's an edited sampling from this thread:

Beaverhausen Donating Member (1000+ posts)
Thu Aug-02-07 06:34 PM
Response to Original message
1. Oh good- another season on TLC.
a******s. If you love children why not ADOPT!!!



OrangeCountyDemocrat (1000+ posts)
Thu Aug-02-07 06:35 PM
Response to Original message
2. Freaks!
Let's see how fast we can overpopulate this planet.
I think it's a frickin' game for these people.



laylah Donating Member (1000+ posts)
Thu Aug-02-07 06:36 PM
Response to Original message
3. With all due respect...
:puke: WTF is wrong with these people! It is not like we live in the late 19th/early 20th century before the freaking Industrial Revolution! They need to wrap that rascal or put a helmet on the soldier, for god/dess' sake!



DS1 Donating Member (1000+ posts)
Thu Aug-02-07 06:43 PM
Response to Original message
19. will someone cut that selfish m**********r's b***s off?
as if we needed more people



HughBeaumont Donating Member (1000+ posts)
Thu Aug-02-07 06:45 PM
Response to Reply #19
24. Snowflake # 18 will be created this week.
Seems ol' Jim Bob doesn't even wait for the cord to be cut . .

That's just a small sampling of the hate on display in that thread. There's a handful of voices of sanity like this:

tammywammy Donating Member (1000+ posts)
Thu Aug-02-07 06:44 PM
Response to Original message
22. Well, good for them
I hope their baby is happy and healthy.
If this is what they want to do, then more power to them.




tammywammy Donating Member (1000+ posts)
Thu Aug-02-07 08:15 PM
Response to Reply #65
70. I mean I don't want to have a bunch of kids
but, if they do, more power to them. :shrug:
I'm pro-choice. And it seems like they are able to support that big of a family financially.

But they are quickly drowned out by the overwhelming cacophony of baby-hating. See, when the far left says that they support "choice," what they really mean is that they support the choice of abortion and having as many abortions as you want. They don't support the choice of having children and having as many children as you want. Pathetic.

UPDATE: Another DU thread. Second verse same as the first:

LynneSin Donating Member (1000+ posts)
Fri Aug-03-07 02:52 PM
Response to Original message
1. Why are these people celebrated for overbreeding



Seashell Eyes (290 posts)
Fri Aug-03-07 03:01 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. because they are white and Christian
Edited on Fri Aug-03-07 03:02 PM by Seashell Eyes
They say they are letting god dictate how many children they have. "We are so grateful to God for another gift from him." That's what really irritates me.They don't believe in personal responsibility. F*****g creates babies. Not god.



John Kerry VonErich (147 posts)
Fri Aug-03-07 04:30 PM
Response to Reply #2
6. What do you mean "personal responsibility"?
They're not bothering anyone, nor there are any signs of abuse from within.

Hrm... Low post count... Opposing view to the majority... DU typically identifies such posters as "freeper trolls" and deletes their posts and accounts.

grace0418 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Fri Aug-03-07 04:41 PM
Response to Reply #6
7. They are overtaxing the planet, that bothers me. And abuse doesn't have to be physical.

Lack of one-on-one parental attention can have negative effects. I should know, I'm the youngest of 11. There is no physical way for two human beings to provide enough personal attention to 17 children. There simply aren't enough hours in the day. I guarantee that the older kids are getting stuck with a lot of the responsibility, unless they have an army of nannies and maids. That's not fair to the older kids or the younger ones.

People used to have large families for survival reasons. There was a lot of manual labor involved in everyday existence, and a lot of hands were needed to take care of everything. With high infant mortality rates, disease and accidents, people had to make sure that there were enough kids to survive until adulthood.

But what is the possible reason for it in today's world, where our planet is overburdened and there are millions of starving children with no families? If these people want so many kids, can't they at least adopt a few? Wouldn't that be the Christian thing?

Maybe the kids will turn out fine, but I still think it's irresponsible and selfish.

But if this woman had had her 17th abortion, that would've been responsible and selfless. Riiiiiiight.

The bridge collapse blame game doesn't get any more stupid than this

A comment left on PZ Myers' blog:

Cynically speaking, if the US wasn't quite so full of rapture-obsessed Christians, it might be politically possible to put enough investment into public infrastructure to make sure that this kind of thing doesn't happen.

As things stand, however, the christonuts would much rather divert public money into fanning the fires of the middle east in the hopes of bringing jeezus back rather than spending on such evil atheistic things as bridges and roads.

Posted by: BLOB[11] | August 2, 2007 03:57 AM

Yes, folks, the blame for the collapse falls on the Christians who believe in the Rapture.

Oy.