Some random observations from recent news:
Will Donald Trump jump on this birther controversy? I know I have ridiculed all the speculation on the 2016 Presidential election, but this item caught my eye. There is a “question” about whether Tea Party favorite Senator Ted Cruz is eligible to run for President because he was not born in the United States, but in Canada to an American woman married to a Cuban citizen. Other candidates for President about whom there were questions concerning their citizenship include Barry Goldwater, George Romney and John McCain, none of whom were born in the United States of America. Interestingly, all were Republicans, but none were black with a strange name.
What kind of science is discussed in the Science Committee of the House of Representatives? Last week brought the news that yet another Congressional Republican believes that a woman being raped can somehow prevent a pregnancy. This time it was Representative Phil Gingrey of Georgia who one time served on the Science Committee (as did Todd Akin) and is not only an OB/GYN, but chairs the House’s Doctors’ caucus. (There is a Doctors’ caucus?) According to Benjy Sarlin of TalkingPointsMemo, Gingrey joins other illustrious Science Committee members who believe that man walked the earth with the Tyrannosaurus Rex and another who thinks climate change is a hoax perpetrated by scientists looking for federal grant money. Yet a third member suggested that global warming is caused by “dinosaur flatulence.” Incidentally, Sarlin reports that a 1996 study by the American Journal of Obstetricians and Gynecologists concluded that 32,000 pregnancies result from a rape each year.
Is this winter deja vu all over again? Speaking of global warming, isn’t this winter eerily bringing back memories of last winter? When you can comfortably be outside in Saratoga Springs on January 13 without a jacket and the little snow that had fallen is disappearing, isn’t something wrong?
Was Fox News too quick to jump on Al Gore? The news that Al Gore was selling his television network to Al Jazeera English brought the predictable outrage from the Fox bloviators. While some may have thought that Fox would be a vigorous supporter of laissez faire capitalism no matter how laissez faire it is, their commentators pointed out correctly that the Al Jazeera broadcast in Arabic is a cesspool of virulent anti-Semitism. But as Jon Stewart demonstrated on Thursday night, an equally odious Arabic network is owned in part by none other than Rupert Murdoch.
Brent Musburger said something newsworthy? I guess I just had to observe that Brent Musburger has never had anything useful to say when he goes and creates some controversy while broadcasting the Alabama – Notre Dame game. I had the sound turned off to avoid having to listen to the mindless prattle of Musburger and his sidekick Herbie, so I did not actually hear the discussion between the pair that sparked the flare-up. I did not miss, however, the frequent shots of the girlfriend of the Alabama quarterback who, it turns out, is the 2102 Miss Alabama. When I later heard Musburger’s comments about the beauty of the woman, he sounded like nothing more than a pathetic old fool. So even when he actually does say something that generates a discussion, it is the blatantly obvious.
Well, I am going to go and see if the crocus are coming up.
Tom Noonan 