On The Battlefield

Some thoughts on the death of Osama bin Laden.
He was not assassinated. He was killed on the battlefield. This time that battlefield was in Pakistan. It is true the United States has not declared war on Pakistan. In fact, the U.S. considers Pakistan an ally. We are at war with terrorism. The first act of that war came on September 11, 2001 when Al Queda terrorists used airliners as weapons and killed more than three thousand Americans on our soil.
Bin Laden vowed not to be taken alive. Mission accomplished.
Our military, acting with surgical precision, took out the enemy. It did so without the loss of an American life.
President Obama, in announcing bin Laden's death, paid tribute to the courageous men who carried out the attack and in the best speech of his presidency, tipped his hat to President George W. Bush and even called the former Commander-in-Chief.
I watched with some interest the pictures of celebrations in New York and Washington. I understand it. Still I was bothered by how much it resembled those third world demonstrations against the USA.
This is a war that sadly will never end.
For now, we have taken the war to our enemies.
Our enemies killed innocents.
We killed their leader.

Trumped

I cannot believe that President Barack Obama took the bait and released his long form birth certificate, hoping to bury once and for all suggestions that he wasn't born in the United States and therefore ineligible to serve as President.
Mr. Obama had been under attack for two weeks by Donald Trump. Trump, who says he is a Republican, is said to be considering a run for the presidency.
As soon as the announcement was made at the White House, Trump, in New Hampshire, told reporters he was, "proud of himself" for having forced the President to release the document.
And just as quickly, Trump seemed to move on. Now he's questioning the President's college transcripts. He wants to know how Mr. Obama went from Occidental to Columbia to Harvard.
Trump may actually have scored some points with the public on the birth certificate issue. But he'll lose credibility if he keeps advancing the causes of the "conspiracy" crowd.
I think the Donald has been "trumped."

Haley Barbour

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour said today he will not run for President because he doesn't have the. "fire in the belly."
OK
Let's face it, Barbour is a white Republican, A white Republican from Mississippi.
Mississippi is a state that consistently finishes at the bottom of the list of states, unless the list is: name the worst state.
And Barbour's got a southern drawl that's thicker than molasses.
An old White Southern governor running against a young black incumbent President.
Yeah, that's a formula for victory.

Cable TV

I don't have cable television. I'm not home enough to make it economically feasible. Which is just a fancy way of saying, it's just too darned expensive.
But the advent of digital television transmission got me thinking; what if the most watched cable channels were available over the air.
WNEP offers Antenna TV on 16.2. I find myself watching it often.  But what if ABC affiliates were able to transmit other ABC properties like ESPN on its sub-channels. What if WYOU, a CBS affiliate could offer CNN. WBRE, the local NBC affiliate could offer MSNBC. Fox 56 could offer FOX News.
WVIA offers CreateTV on channel 44.3. It's a network dedicated to cooking, travel and how-to shows. It's not bad.With Congress threatening funding for PBS, why couldn't WVIA offer a popular cable channel on one of its sub-channels. Sell the local commercial availabilities and that could help pay the bills.
Why couldn't a local entrepreneur put a station on the air that simply ran popular channels that are currently only available on cable or satellite franchises.
There's plenty of space on the broadcast spectrum. It's time that some of it gets used to offer programming free of a cable or a dish.

Bath Salts

Rev. Terry Jones

Muammar Gaddafi

Punxsutawney Phil

 

Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness

(circa 2007, Courtesy:The Mountaintop Eagle)

The Diocese of Scranton has removed Rev. Mark Honhart from active ministry. The priest was named as a defendant in a child sex abuse civil suit in Kansas City, Missouri after a credible allegation.
The Diocese made the announcement on its website on February 8th. It did so in a news release announcing clergy appointments and indicated Honhart was granted a Leave of Absence for reasons of health. Here's the link:
http://www.dioceseofscranton.org/2011/02/08/bishop-bambera-announces-clergy-appointments/
A month later, the diocese issued a statement on its website concerning Honhart in which it acknowledged, the allegation and seemingly grandstanded its swift action. Here's the link:
http://www.dioceseofscranton.org/2011/03/08/statement-regarding-fr-mark-honhart/
The diocesan statement came only after the story broke in Kansas City.
Here's the problem. Must the faithful now assume that all priests granted a leave of absence are suspected child molesters? The answer of course is, "no." But by failing to deal accurately with this priest's removal, the Diocese has only created confusion and suspicion.
According to the Bishop Accountability Project, nineteen priests in the Diocese of Scranton have been accused of sexual molestation.
In fairness, Father Honhart is accused civilly, not criminally charged and innocent until proven guilty.
It seems the accused (and yes they are only accused) are protected by a quickly closing circle of collegiality. This is destroying any credibility the Diocese of Scranton has left in dealing with a most egregious sin.

The News Business

When I awoke this morning, I checked my Facebook page and noticed a post, "Charlie Sheen Dead!"
It turned out to be not true. It was a virus.
But also today I saw (on legitimate news sites) that 13 people were killed in a bus crash in New York.
On almost any other day, this would be the top story in the world.
But not today.
Today we are still watching the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. There is also a threat of nuclear meltdown at a Japanese nuclear power plant.
Hundreds, if not thousands, are dead. The potential nuclear disaster threatens not only Japan, but the world.
But it got me to thinking.
If Charlie Sheen really did die, where would the story be placed in the daily news budget?
I fear I know the answer.
And so do you.