American Madness

I am not a big Bill O’Reilly fan… Well, technically I guess that is not true. Every now and then when nothing else is on TV I like to flip to his show to get a good laugh about some ridiculous belief he has about how people in this country actually are or his take on the evil left.

Anyway, last week when O’Reilly made some comments while dining at Sylvia’s in Harlem (”It was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun,”) I was ready to jump all over it, then I decided to wait a bit, analyze the fallout from what he said, see if a media storm started brewing the likes of which we haven’t seen since Don Imus (I guess that was only like March, wasn’t it?). So I waited…

I heard occasion tidbits about it on the news, newspapers touched on it and then we had a weekend and it has pretty much disappeared. WTF?!?!

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Okay, the other day I complained about the New York Times with their “Times Select” Feature that they slap onto popular articles so you actually have to pay to read them, well they did it again with another article I was planning on writing about here. Almost came to be that you wouldn’t be able to read it, fortunately, I discovered a work around to this solution. Let’s say I retyped the entire article here and it is available to read after the post (with proper credit to the author and the NY Times of course).

Anyway, we are back to my favorite topic to write about: Water.

We’ve previously noted that drinking water is on the rise, over taking soft drinks, coffee, milk, and encroaching on beers territory. We’ve also noted that NY has begun to campaign to get people to drink more tap water instead of fancy bottled waters. Now we have an article from the New York Times (posted after the jump since yo can no longer access it online) titled “A Battle Between the Bottle and the Faucet” which briefly touches on the uphill battle tap water is going to need to fight to prevail over bottled water. Multiple government agencies are getting involved with this one as well: “The city Health Department, mindful of high obesity rates, says water is more healthful than many other, sugar-filled drinks. The city’s Department of Environmental Protection touts its low environmental impact. Both note that it’s practically free.”

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So, last night I was watching The Daily Show and Michael Moore was on to plug his movie Sicko about the health care industry. He was a little annoyed actually, not about being on The Daily Show, not about the flight that he took that almost didn’t make it in on time, but about the fact that he was suppose to have an hour long slot on Larry King Live that evening but had been bumped for Paris Hilton.

Now, if I was Michael Moore, I’d have been pissed, in fact if I was a regular Larry King Live viewer I think I would have been pissed if I tuned in to watch Michael Moore and had to deal with the whining of Paris Hilton.

The New York Times had a piece today that did a nice job commenting on the absurdity of the entire thing, including the biding war between NBC and ABC for that first interview. I think Barbra Walters was correct in saying “The whole thing somehow was beneath me.” Maybe Larry King should have taken that route too. For the most part I have avoided taking much note of any of this, it wasn’t blog worthy to post about her incarceration, her first release, her re-incarceration or even her second release. When the news tries to turn her first interview into a media event it becomes ridiculous.

No wonder other countries have such low opinions about us. Tonight Larry King has Colin Powell as a guest (who I am sure is thrilled to be going on the night after Paris) and Friday night Michael Moore will finally get his shot… Well, after a special re-airing of last nights episode with Paris (seriously).

Though it looks like this day is going to be slightly busier then I expected there are a few things I can write about really quickly just to toss out there:
Kilmer Middle School, in Vienna, VA, has instituted a ban on all physical contact in school between students. A high-5 in the hallway between friends could lead to detention, especially after a warning has been given. Too many hugs with your girlfriend can lead to in school detention if you aren’t careful.

The rule was enacted (I believe) at the beginning of this year as a measure to prevent smaller students being accidentally injured by bigger students and to prevent fights that might occur in the overcrowded school by a misunderstood touch. The rule is also meant to protect those who feel uncomfortable being hugged or touched and are too shy to say anything.

On my flight home, returning to the real world, I saw a Headline News interview (about halfway down the page) with Glenn Beck and the PTA President at Kilmer Middle School. The PTA President, Laurie Baker, ends up looking like a bit of an ignorant fool living somewhere outside of the real world. She just keeps repeating that this ban is common sense and practical, but never really defines how. Beck points out to her at multiple points how idiotic a touching ban is: (the interview, after the jump)

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Apparently it has become a food day around here, which works out just fine by me as I love to cook, eat and look at pictures of food. And on that last note, Time Magazine currently has a good Photo Essay called “What Makes Us Eat More” and a great Photo Essay up called “What the World Eats.”

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Each year (okay, well, this year and last year, at least) Crumpler has run a promotion where instead of going into their store with money or a credit card in hand to buy one of their bags, you bring in some beer.

No, they don’t want your Bud Tall Boy, they have some specific requests for some specific bags. You can check out the trade conversion on their table here. They also have a pretty neat website so it is worth checking out on that front to. Their bags are nice as well if you like a nicely designed messenger bag (or, if you are short of seating at your house for 2 cases of Negro Modelo, 1 bag of Limes and a bottle of Hot Sauce you can get an 8-Ball bean bag chair). The fun starts June 9th.

Here is an article CNNMoney did on this promotion last year.