More Proof That Truth Doesn't Matter to Fox

The people at Fox News have never cared much for the truth as it clearly gets in the way of their message. Bill O'Reilly, John Gibson and others there continually openly refer to Media Matters as a George Soros entity.

It doesn't matter that Soros has never given any money to Media Matters and that no tie has been offered up by any of these talking heads. Why? Because they know they're preaching to the converted and the faithful. Just tell them it's so and they'll be on their way parroting those comments verbatim.

I know this because it's happened in countless conversations I've had with staunch Fox News watchers. I've come to view anyone who tells me they prefer Fox News as lacking in some core way. Sorry. Unless the reason for watching is entertainment value then there's something not right in that choice. To choose a news organization that continually makes things up and reports it as fact just isn't right. That some people continue to view this source as credible calls into question their capacity to rationally think. It's just that black-and-white. I have to believe that core supporters just like Fox News because they tell them what it is they want to hear and not the way things are. That's fine with me as long as this is admitted when questioned on it.

Stupidity Isn't Helped By Going On The Attack

Some of you may have heard (and I'd be surprised if it isn't most people) that Bill O'Reilly is in the news again for making comments about how similar a black restaurant was to the experience of dining in a white restaurant.

I'm certainly no fan of Bill O'Reilly's. Like most personalities on Fox News, after about 5 minutes of listening to him, my B.S. meter goes off-the-chart. He's got a long, long history of fabricating information and stories and outright lying about elements of different topics including his own past. He also often sounds elitist to me. Much as Rush Limbaugh does. By the way, just yesterday, I heard Rush say in surprise, "How can you even have a 2,400 square foot house in an upscale neighborhood?" Typical comment from someone so stuck in their own world that they shouldn't be commenting about the rest of it. Bill is the same way. He's continually amazed to find out things the rest of us knew all along, like that dining in an upscale restaurant is similar no matter what race of people frequent it.

What always gets me with people like Mr. O'Reilly is their continual need to go on the attack after these silly comments are made. It's clear to me that Bill O'Reilly was attempting to say something nice in his comments. The fact of the matter is that he chose his words poorly. It was a stupid mistake to go phrasing it the way he did and it's no one else's fault that he said it that way. I'm tired of this guy's rants (and others) against outlets like Media Matters that post his comments verbatim. I want to know how people like Bill O'Reilly can claim that Media Matters took his comments out-of-context when they posted them verbatim? Bill does this all the time. It's never his fault.

I understand his problem. If he apologized for every mistake he made in his comments most of his shows would be dominated by corrective statements of past mistakes. The problem is that you look ridiculous trying to attack everyone else for your own stupid comments. Bill O'Reilly is a typical, every day kind of person who managed to work hard and make a name for himself in this world. The problem is that he's also typical in that he cannot easily admit to mistakes and also has the propensity to lie or exaggerate when pushed on something. That combination is a continual tinder box of activity. It means we're going to have an endless array of things to talk about for as long as he is in the public eye. It's the reason I tune into his show from time-to-time. You never know when he's going to say the next stupid thing.

Clinton/Clark Ticket?

Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton got the endorsement of former General and presidential hopeful Wesley Clark today. That got me thinking about the endorsement a bit and then a thought struck me that a Clinton-Clark ticket would be pretty interesting. Talk about being able to make a strong case for having the right solution to the Iraq problem. A top General as the Vice President? This also adds a lot of credibility and strength to anything to be done on the ongoing war on terror.

I keep wondering if Clinton would reach out to John Edwards as a running mate but to what end? Edwards just reminds people of the failed 2004 run and while he has a southern heritage, so does Hillary.

Wesley Clark brings a lot of positives with him along with not having a lot of political baggage for the opposition to use against him. He's a rather compelling running mate if for nothing else but that. Remember how Karl Rove took Edwards apart in 2004 by twisting his various votes to use against him and then the big Dick Cheney lie about having never even run into him before as head of the Senate.

It also comes across and unpatriotic to attack Clark on some fronts. Not too shabby a choice if you ask me.

Don't Buy Steam Products

What a joke....

If you're not familiar with Steam, it's the download-based service that is pretty much forced on you any time you purchase a Valve product like the game "Half-Life 2", which I purchased some time ago.

I already don't like the service due to this underhanded type of distribution model. I just want to play your game, not be tied to some service I may or may not be interested in.

Anyway, much to my own surprise, about a year ago I purchase a Steam game called, "The Ship". It sounded pretty neat. It's game that takes place on various cruise ships. The idea is that you get information about another shipmate that you need to kill while someone else has that same information about you. Thus you need to be wary of everyone you come in contact with while also trying to track down your own target.

In the end it sounded a LOT better than it actually played and I quickly stopped playing it entirely.

Anyway, now my son wants to play Half-Life 2 but he can't. In order to play you need to re-install Steam and log in with your account information.

I'm a nut for keeping every registration I get via e-mail so I was able to find my account name at Steam. What I couldn't remember was my password. Every attempt to get it has failed. All paths with Steam lead you to send e-mails that are all automated and don't do what they claim to do.

When you load the Steam applet it asks you to log in. There's a typical "I forgot my information" link. I fill that out and I'm told my account is there and an e-mail has been sent with my information. It never arrives. I've tried this now countless times and various different ways. I have no e-mail filters that would kill this though it's possible Comcast is blocking it as spam.

We then tried e-mailing them and got nowhere. I sent an e-mail from my main e-mail address and I'm told that they can't respond because the e-mail I sent it from isn't registered in their service. Okay, so I send the same e-mail from the one that is registered and it sends back an e-mail saying it too isn't part of their service.

I then tried to get on their forums and that doesn't get you very far. First of all, just to register for the forums is a real job. They have the worst verification "captcha" graphic I've ever seen. This is a graphic that shows you jumbled letters and number that you need to enter to prove you're a human and not a bot trying to spam the forum. The problem is I can't read it! I've never seen one this ridiculously hard to read. It's terrible.

I finally did get one to work after many attempts and then find I still can't post as I'm now told my account is in "moderation queue" waiting to be added to the system.

Boy am I glad I spent my money with these people.... I won't do it again and I don't think you should either.

Bin Laden Doing To Much Opium

In his latest video, the first in 3 years, Osama bin Laden says there are two ways to end the war--"The first is from our side, and it is to continue to escalate the killing and fighting against you." The second is to eliminate the American democratic system of government.

Uh, yeah, that's about as likely as these suicide bombers dying and finding 72 virgins on the other side waiting for them. As I was reading the news I really thought he'd say the second was to drive our citizens into demanding our withdrawal. I suspect he sees that as more of the first way but they're not the same thing.

What's amazing is just how far out some of these comments from the radical sects can get. Clearly these people must realize that their argument that the "United States is unjust" doesn't do anything to given them credibility in attacking innocent civilians. There's a fundamental difference between what our government does and what these crackpots espouse. They'll tell you we kill all kinds of civilians. Well, there's truth in that but I don't believe anyone on our side purposely sets out to kill them. The enemy is all about bragging about killing our innocent people and therein lies the key reason why most of the world doesn't side with their actions.