Posted 5:48 PM by Gene

Some time ago I said I'd write about my battle to buy cables for my stereo system. I may yet get around to it, but in the meantime I'm grappling over which new TV to buy. It'll be a Sony, that's sure -- not out of devotion to the brand, but because practically everyone agrees it makes the best TVs, and three of them just got top-rated by Consumer Reports. The problem is, what kind of TV? I'm close to deciding on HD, but there are quirks -- like the differing ASPECT RATIOS, which leave black bars on the screen no matter what (unless you watch on a wide-screen set which stretches the image like high-tech Silly Putty), and the fact that analog TV (which still makes up practically all our programming) looks rotten in HD. Nor is it too pleasant to contemplate paying $500 or more extra for a boob tube, and because it will BE a tube (no way can I afford plasma or LCD -- not yet), it will be HEAVY, and it will COST to deliver it, and I see ten-thumbed cauliflower-eared truckers smashing my new set to the ground. Plus the newer Sony models lack PIP, presumably because of the differing standards, or perhaps because Sony didn't meet it profit targets. For that reason I haven't entirely given up on analog; there's a discontinued model (the KV-27FV310) which by all accounts has a fine picture. Of course I'll need an outboard box -- all but the most expensive digital sets lack an HD tuner, and cable-ready sets are largely in the realm of sci-fi; plus I'll have to increase my tithe to the ROBERTS BARONS, who I'm sure have a few nasty tricks up their electronic sleeves. At least in the old days when you bought a color set you knew it didn't make your black-and-white clunker obsolete. I wonder if given the crowds fleeing network TV and the fact that until recently people have bought HD to view DVDs we're paying altogether willingly for it. The fact that the over-the-air greedmeisters keep getting their hired hands in CONGRESS to push back the transition date for digital also suggests some reluctance. All I know is, I've got PARALYSIS BY ANALYSIS.

Posted 5:43 PM by Gene

And in real life, "at least" four soldiers have reenlisted despite losing limbs in Iraq, and I'll trade these four soldiers for 100,000 Mlle. Airheads ANY day.

Posted 5:41 PM by Gene

Clubs to Be Named for Socialite Hilton

I think Club Slut and Club Airhead would be good names.

And let us not forget her inspiration, the universe-shaking moron who has made this non-entity inescapable: CLUB RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted 5:29 PM by Gene

The steroids were undetectable but the asterisks may not be.

Posted 1:35 PM by Gene

Ooooooooooooooh, HOLOCAUST THE SECOND!! HARSH TACTICS AT GUANTANAMO! OOOOOOOOOOOOH!!!!!

FIRE RUMMY FOR HARSH TACTICS!!!!!

Posted 1:31 PM by Gene

P. R. MIKE takes up THE NO-SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN ZONE'S chant: DON'T GET MAD, GET A LAWYER!

Two zillionaire losers.

Posted 1:23 PM by Gene

A growing number of people rely solely on cell phones to make and take calls, putting them out of reach of polling organizations trying to get a fix on the American electorate.

Literary Digest redux?

Posted 12:57 PM by Gene

OH oh, despite billions of VIACON dollars and ZILLIONS OF INTERNET ADS, it looks like people may not want to see A CONSERVATIVE MOVIE!!!!!

Or MOST movies.

Are MOVIEGOERS starting to get SLIGHTLY INTELLIGENT?

Posted 9:49 AM by Gene

THIS'LL SHOW A NEW YORK PAPER CAN CHALLENGE PINCH:

Bush for President

PFFH-HH-HH!!!!!

Posted 7:30 PM by Gene

Let's see, P&G (which we hereby rename Poop & Gall) ditches a hair-shampoo campaign involving orgasms for one that involves a totally useless product placement and equally useless downloads from iTunes.

As the company's chairman -- a man named Lafley, A. G. LAFLEY, who probably doesn't know what P&G does without the help of spreadsheets -- would say if he had any brains, "WHY THE HELL DO WE ADVERTISE?!?!?"

Posted 7:11 PM by Gene

Romy posted a prediction that the WaPost will endorse Dubya. Now Romy posts a piece from the NATIONAL EDI-TOR of THE WASHINGTONIAN that while St. Warren's favorite rag will endorse DIP to no effect, Stephen King's long-lost comedian brother and YAHWEH will swing the election.

With blogs like these, who needs blogs?

Posted 5:10 PM by Gene

OH, NO!!!!! ANDY S. GETS ONE RIGHT?!?!?!?!?!?!?

BUCKLEY ON MARY: As usual, impenetrable.

And posted at 6:33.40 PM. Is that EMBT? Eastern Melodrama and Bathos Time?

Posted 5:02 PM by Gene

And speaking of dead AHT forms, The New York Jazz Embalming Society is opening its new venue at Time Warner Center. Who wagers that for as long as the Society's there, not one toe will tap?

Posted 5:00 PM by Gene

This obituary for musicals gives the whole -- show away:

"[A] show that turns its back on the essentials of a good musical - great storytelling with great songs - does so at its peril...The basis for the musical is great songs."

No great songs, no great musicals. WHERE WILL THE GREAT SONGS COME FROM?????

One long tuneless ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh from the thea-TAH biz.

Posted 4:54 PM by Gene

Let's play a new game! I'll call it: "Which Title Goes with the Link?" Okay, here's the link. Now which title goes with it?

COOL CAL

HOW DO YOU REASON WITH THESE PEOPLE?

Posted 4:51 PM by Gene

Close Reading: Slate takes a look at recent fiction.

How about taking a look at yourself?

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Posted 2:13 PM by Gene

Candidates Portray Themselves as Champions of Middle Class

The presidential son of a president and a billionaire's boy toy. Right.

Posted 1:23 PM by Gene

With NEWS HACKS doing their presidential endorsements through their reporting, and with editorial-page endorsements slanting as much as their news, the rare paper that abstains from an endorsement shows courage.

Posted 1:01 PM by Gene

DU and the Freep are something new: the virtual day-care center. Whenever a Republican defeats a Democrat the DUers scream and pout and yell, "KARWL WOVE FIXED DIS EWECTION! I'M TEWWING MY MOMMY! WAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!" When the opposite happens the Freepers scream and pout and yell, "HITWEWY (i.e., "Hitlery," for Sen. Rodham) DID IT! I'M TEWWING MY MOMMY! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!" It doesn't matter what the politics, the DUs and the Freepers always need a diaper change. With A CONSERVATIVE MOVIE we'll see LOTS OF COLIC. I'm sure it's every bit as RIGHT-WING PC as P. R. MIKE's masterwork was LEFT-WING PC. But then turnabout fair-play; the word TREASON has been panting from Freeper overuse. Better stock up on the Pampers AGAIN this weekend!

Posted 10:32 AM by Gene

So, the insurance biz is rife with kickbacks.

Who knew?

Posted 10:13 AM by Gene

[H]is evil is not allowed even in the darkened abyss of his soul.

Does THE PAPER OF RE-CORD have a long lost brother? Or is it Stephen King's?

One thing: in a fight between a Shakespearean comedian and BOB "OH SHUT UP" NOVAK, there is NO WINNER, as they duke it out in a VERY DARK ABYSS.

Posted 9:14 AM by Gene

Bush Camp's Friendly Overtures May Belie Case of Jitters

Actually it's part of A RIGHT-WING PLOT TO TAKE OVER AND DESTROY NEWSPAPERS!

Posted 9:03 AM by Gene

I've been told to keep my big mouth shut

IT'S ABOUT TIME.

Posted 8:45 AM by Gene

[T]here's something about the ethics-obsessed contemporary newsroom that borders on the priggish. Several years ago, an L.A. Times photographer lost his job when it turned out that the prize-winning Malibu fire picture he'd shot of a fireman dousing his head with water had been staged. (The fireman had been dousing his head; the photog had just asked him to do it again.)

I'm convinced the reason NEWS HACKS pay such lip service to "ETHICS" is that they think it allows them to be biased with impunity.

"Whenever you lose a newspaper, I don't care if its good, bad, or whatever, you've lost one hell of a thing."

And when monopolies like OMERTA'S RAG go out of business, no one will mourn -- perhaps because, so heavily influenced by the NEWS HACKS, people will have stopped learning how to read.

Posted 8:27 AM by Gene

Reuters Poll: Bush Opens Four-Point Lead on Kerry

Whoooooooooooooooops!

You don't suppose VICE-PRESIDENT HALLIBURTON'S DAUGHTER had anything to do with it, do you?

Posted 8:12 AM by Gene

You cannot take the hate out of politics.

Posted 6:52 AM by Gene

To that very limited extent we can trust public-opinion polls, we should note who our friends are -- the Russians and the Israelis, the former still emerging from Communism's evil, the latter living everyday with terrorism. The rest of the world seems to be snoozing on its social welfare programs and three-day work weeks.

Posted 6:36 AM by Gene

It appears the IDIOT members of the American Society of Willfully Ignorant Advertisers are starting to realize what their (and OUR) money finances. While in this instance they're pulling money from what the NEWS HACKS assure us is perhaps the greatest show ever not to air on HBO (the same way they tell us DIPPITY-DO! will be one of our GREAT PRESIDENTS), in the end they must realize THEY make it possible for their broadcasting buddies to pay those FINES.

Caveat: this is the REV. WILDMON's group's doing, meaning in time show-biz types will start organizing and financing fake people's lobbies that scream CENSORSHIP. Well, when it comes to CENSORSHIP no one's better than A LIBERAL IN SHOW-BIZ.

P. S. The good news is network TV audiences are down considerably, despite several new masterpieces.

Posted 6:27 AM by Gene

Bush's Cartoon Of Kerry Failed To Show Up

But we can always count on the NEWS HACKS to show up, drawing their self-caricatures on their keyboards.

Posted 5:21 PM by Gene

This SUPERMEGABLOGGER'S SUPERMEGABLOGGING SESSION must have been like the A WWF for RIGHT-WING WONKS.

Posted 5:13 PM by Gene

Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput is disputing a front page story in Tuesday's The New York Times on the church and politics, saying "a lot of what I said in the original interview was simply ignored."

"I was disappointed with the misleading nature of the Times story," Chaput said in an e-mail Wednesday.

I'd say THE PAPER OF RE-CORD is merely honoring THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE.

Posted 5:07 PM by Gene

FROM THE PARALLEL UNIVERSES OF BLAH:

On All Cylinders
Bush does everything you want from a candidate in a debate.
by Fred Barnes

Grand Slam
Kerry crushes Bush in the third debate.
By William Saletan

I'M TIRED OF YOU SIX- AND SEVEN-DIGIT IDIOTS INSULTING MY INTELLIGENCE!

Posted 5:01 PM by Gene

Buffalo Undertakes America's First Ever Frank Lloyd Wright Reconstructions

Does that include the leaky roofs?

Posted 1:44 PM by Gene

Hey Everyone, its over. I am officially the winner of [Last Comic Standing], the best of the best. We taped a half hour episode that will air on Comedy Central Saturday the 16th at 8 and Sunday the 17th at 11. Thank you guys for supporting, voting writing NBC and mostly laughing. I am truly humbled by fan support. This thing hasn't sunk in yet , its sort of surreal to hear you just won 250 grand but its true. Love you guys. By the way, I will get paid NBC's hijinks have nothing to do with that. My agent gets 10% and believe me he's all over it. As for NBC no one knows why they jerked around the show at the final episode. Some say its ratings , others say its Dreamworks, the producers of the animal puppets have lots of clout. Animal puppets, all I can say is somewhere out there is a great salesman. i mean, how do you pitch that show and when did they thinkit might be funny. [General SIC]

Ask MICKEYMOUSE NIXON. Or LUCAS SPIELBERG. Or LITTLE JEFFREY.

Posted 12:31 PM by Gene

PREDICTION OF THE YEAR:

Wemple: WP has virtually no choice but to endorse Bush

PFFH-hh-hh hh hh hh hh hh ha ha ha ha ha ha HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
HA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted 9:08 AM by Gene

A STAR IS BORN! A conservative metal band (!!!!!) gets prominently posted on G000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000GLE NEWS!!!!!!!!!!

What's the difference between a right-wing metal band and a left-wing metal band? I guess it depends on which side you want to lose your HEARING first.

Posted 8:43 AM by Gene

All that greatness, all that genius...the God-created merger of MICKEYMOUSE NIXON and the WHINER BROTHERS...all those OSCARS®! And now, like all good things, it must come to an end. Whatsoever shall we do without all those OUTSTANDING MOVIES?????

Posted 8:15 AM by Gene

Why is it the Iowa Markets and Tradesports and the others making book on the election don't put up this prospect: a majority (or rather, plurality) of the popular vote will not win the election? Here's guessing Dubya wins in the Electoral College.

Posted 8:08 AM by Gene

The good thing about the DIP administration is that there'll be no honeymoon -- especially when the DO! appoints all sorts of the people who got us in trouble on 9/11. A PREDICTION: Strobe Talbott at State. Nice WAS...JOOSH sound. And the loose cannon GEN. McCLELLAN at NSC. Nice, uh, MILITARY sound.

Posted 6:49 AM by Gene

Elsewhere in the LAND of the INFINITE BLAH...

[M]ake no mistake: President Bush mopped up the floor with John Kerry tonight.

Bush Getting Gored: NYT, AP...Gallup Snap Poll: resounding Kerry victory...Olbermann gives Kerry big win....

Some people believe bloggers to be capable of truth. THE FEC KNOWS BETTER.

Posted 6:42 AM by Gene

And STERNO wants MORE DEBATES!!!!!!!!!!, presumably so he can write more 5,000-word posts so he can convince SI to have him write 5,000-word pieces for EVERY NEWHOUSE RAG.

Posted 6:34 AM by Gene

Meantime typists like Andy S., who takes himself seriously, very seriously, EXTREMELY SERIOUSLY, took the debates seriously, very seriously, EXTREMELY SERIOUSLY.

Posted 6:30 AM by Gene

People aren't supposed to think THIS:

Last night George W. Bush and John Kerry stood in front of America and professed their faith in God Almighty. And, I have to say, now that I know I don't have to sit through another one of these trite, not-so-vaguely insulting spectacles, I'm a believer, too. Praise Him who has delivered me from tired soundbites and bland platitudes.

The only thing more galling than the drivel trickling out of the candidates' mouths was how gleefully serious the media coverage was. A Modesto Bee columnist actually called the debates "enormously informative, even riveting," and on MSNBC Tim Russert gushed, "Since the beginning of time people have been drawn to the town square to listen to those who want to lead us. It's inspiring."

Despite having nothing but cave paintings to go on, I can't help but feel an actual debate between folks from "the beginning of time" would have been more "riveting" than the Bush-Kerry debates. At least then we would have gotten down to some basic alpha male skills: You know, starting fires, winning club fights, evolving. That would be more useful to me than watching two, rich spoiled brats, who have never been denied a single thing they wanted, argue airily about who hates poverty more when neither of them understands the first thing about being poor. They're just babbling on, like Howard Dean talking about his good pal Jesus (The Son of God, not the Son of Emilio). You think the folks in the trailer parks are taking either of these guys seriously? Think again.

?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Posted 5:25 PM by Gene

Professional Football Leads Baseball by 2-to-1 as Nation's Favorite Sport

College football, men's pro basketball, auto racing and men's college
basketball also the favorite sports of many people

What happened to golf and pro hockey? Pffh-hh-hh!

Posted 5:22 PM by Gene

The nice thing about the Web is that it gets people to hate politics faster and easier than ever before.

Posted 5:13 PM by Gene

This tracking poll is based on a rolling three-day sample. About 350 likely voters are polled each day.

Don't you feel great that SO MANY PEOPLE can influence an election?

Posted 5:00 PM by Gene

THE NO SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN ZONE SUED SOME BUDDIES FOR EMBEZZLEMENT BECAUSE ONE OF HIS BUDDIES IS NOW SUING HIM FOR SEXUAL HARRASSMENT!!!!!

ROMY is happy (YAY!!!!! We can get back at this guy for his politics without being political! Pffh-hh-hh!); con-SER-va-tives are an-gry (MCCARTHYISM!!!!! they'll no doubt scream, failing to notice liberals like Romy can use that meaningless word too). I'd say Mr. NO SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN has progressed from being a blowhard to a toxic public nuisance. He already lost one embarrassing legal fight with Al O'Franken. It will be interesting to see him lose another.

Posted 4:50 PM by Gene

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved an implantable computer chip that can pass a patient's medical details to doctors.

Sieg heil!

It's the first time the FDA has approved the use of the device, though in Mexico, more than 1,000 scannable chips have been implanted. The chip's serial number pulls up the patients' blood type and other medical information.

With the pinch of a syringe, the microchip is inserted under the skin in a procedure that takes less than 20 minutes and leaves no stitches.

Silently and invisibly, the dormant chip stores a code — similar to the identifying UPC code on products sold in retail stores — that releases patient-specific information when a scanner passes over the chip.

So -- we're just like packaged goods in stores! SIEG HEIL!!!!!

Posted 1:23 PM by Gene

The government helped create the indecency mess; now it's creating a mess fixing the mess.

Posted 1:20 PM by Gene

AAAAAAAAAAANOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEERRRRR
RRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDDDDDDD
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
GGGGGGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOGGGGGGGGGGGGGLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

Posted 11:43 AM by Gene

THE NO-SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN ZONE'S SUING A FEW BUDDIES FOR EXTORTION!!!!!

No-Spin Spin Spin's motto: "DON'T GET MAD, GET A LAWYER!!!!!"

Posted 9:27 AM by Gene

The powers that be haven't given up on putting award-winning eyesores on Ground Zero!

Posted 8:20 AM by Gene

And in more news of editorial excellence, some honorary DUKIES deked out THE PAPER OF RE-CORD's letters editors!

Not so AWESOME, baby!

Posted 8:17 AM by Gene

I understand why Romy may be upset that Gawker "isn't the must-read site it used to be," but was it ever any good? What does it have besides CW and four-letter words? Further, any site hosted by a close friend of STERNO can't be good.

Posted 6:48 AM by Gene

Common sense wins Nobel Prize

Hmmm, with a Commie winning the prize in li-te-rah-teeyure, and the good-intentions-prize winner saying AIDS was a conspiracy, that does not seem especially likely.

Posted 6:17 PM by Gene

PoliPundit devotes 1,630 WORDS to polls.

IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER!

Posted 6:11 PM by Gene

Investigators have conducted their first scientific exhumation of Iraq's "killing fields," discovering hundreds of bodies which they hope will help convict Saddam Hussein of crimes against humanity.

They say nine trenches in a dry, dusty riverbed at the Hatra site in northern Iraq contain at least 300 bodies, and possibly thousands, including unborn babies and toddlers still clutching toys.

"NOT NECESSARILY?"

Posted 3:24 PM by Gene

Stories like these prove why press releases are more truthful than equivalent news stories. The press release has no pretensions of factuality, no yearning for the truth; its bias comes straight from the presenter; it's an honest bias. The news story, on the other hand, is supposed to be better than a press release -- at the very least it should be more truthful, more skeptical, more disinterested -- and it's written by hacks whose salaries allegedly indicate they're better. With these three stories, as with so much of the junk expectorated by scribblers, there is no discerning any difference from a press release, and that's what makes them so mightily offensive: news hacks are pulling the just-relax-and-enjoy-it-while-we-rape-you routine on their readers, and they're spreading the intellectual equivalent of venereal disease.

Posted 8:06 AM by Gene

Sammy Glickman gets off to A GREAT START!!!!!

SHUT UP, St. Warren. You're mad because YOUR SIDE LOST.

Posted 7:53 AM by Gene

OK Howie Hairshirt, what'll it be THIS time?

I think you've given us part of the answer: a couple of guys "in a third-floor office above a former Woolworth's store in Somerville, N.J."

Posted 7:41 AM by Gene

From IWantMedia.com:

Q: Media pundits James Wolcott, Kurt Andersen and Keith Olbermann are launching their own blogs. Are "media establishment" types finally discovering blogging?

A: Michael Wolff, media critic, Vanity Fair: "I distrust everything about blogs. Not least of all the word itself. I'm pretty suspicious of the people who are performing this act, too. Even more suspicious of the Johnnie come latelys to this performance. My idea is that there ought to be more quiet in this world. We should all cultivate silence. That would be quite a revolution. Also, the musician Michael Wolff owns michaelwolff.com, so he can blog for us."

Posted 7:17 AM by Gene

TRANSLATION: Two wrongs make a right -- when the OTHER SIDE is wrong.

P. S. VIACON NETWORK NEWS ran an ATTACKUMENTARY too.

By the way guys, we'll take your advice and "check out www.thenation.com for more investigative reports, timely editorials and incisive columns." Only don't expect us to believe that source any more than we believe YOU -- for obvious reasons.

P. S. Sinclair owns NINE VIACON NETWORKS affiliates.

Posted 7:11 AM by Gene

PAPEROFRE-CORD.com runs an ad from Novartis for blood-pressure medications on its home page -- an appropriate place given all that AWARD-WINNING REPORTING -- and all those POLITICAL ADS.

Posted 7:07 AM by Gene

A Hollywood has-been writes on ancient history.

Do we really NEED to learn again show-biz types are "creeps"?

Posted 6:59 AM by Gene

Congresspoops do bad even when they try to do good. They can't help it.

Credit to OMERTA for a reasonably unbiased story, for once.

Posted 4:16 PM by Gene

Another OMBUDSPOOP has it both ways:

As with any editorial opinion, Rowe says, the decision will have no effect on coverage in the news pages.

But it will affect letters to the editors and guest opinions chosen for publication. Letters supporting Kerry have been outnumbering those backing Bush by a ratio of more than 5-to-1.

So we may assume therefore, Mr. Public Editor Ombudspoop (what is with these fancy-dancy titles?) that your choosing letters by a 5-1 ratio reflects no, I repeat, NO bias in your daily reporting. This is like saying despite twenty inches of rain, the ground is bone dry.

LET THEM EAT ENDORSEMENTS!

Posted 3:51 PM by Gene

Well, now that we can't scratch the Iraqis' backs, MONSIEUR JACQUE-ASS, let's scratch the CHINESE!

Posted 1:05 PM by Gene

OoooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooh, some sales -- ANALYST DOWNGRADED G000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000GLE to a SELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did somebody FINALLY use BLOGGER?

NO.

Posted 11:40 AM by Gene

Afghan Election Concerns Subside
Several Candidates Back Off Assertions Of Voter Fraud

SHUCKS, I guess it worked out after all.

Posted 9:40 AM by Gene

A GOLDEN OLDIE FROM THE PC PC CHURCH (thanks to John Leo):

IMSHAUSEN, Germany — A former leader of the World Council of Churches (WCC) has apologized for the organization’s tepid support of dissident movements in Eastern Europe in the waning days of the Cold War.

The Rev. Konrad Raiser said during a conference here that the WCC should have been more supportive of groups, such as Solidarity in Poland and Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia, that opposed Communist regimes.

“While being aware of the situation and basically sympathetic to their struggle, the WCC gave priority attention to the struggles against racism and for justice and liberation in the southern countries,” Raiser said during the July 16-18 conference on the Christian church and 20th century dictatorships.

“In retrospect, it would appear that the ecumenical organizations have not sufficiently recognized — at least at the official level — the historic legitimacy and the political potential of the dissident movements in the Communist countries,” said Raiser, who retired at the end of 2003.

Organizations such as the WCC and the Conference of European Churches “tried to break through the Iron Curtain and to include the churches in Communist countries in the ecumenical movement,” he said, but “in place of prophetic protest, the ecumenical movement concentrated on bridge-building and cooperation.”

The conference was organized to coincide with the 60th anniversary of an attempt by dissident German army officers to kill Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944.

The ecumenical movement had been able to “make contacts and to keep open lines of communication across the so-called Iron Curtain, when few others could,” said the Rev. John Arnold, of England, a former president of the Conference of European Churches.

For church leaders in Eastern Europe, Arnold said, the ecumenical movement was “a lifeline and oxygen supply combined, and the only means of engaging in public issues other than by simply supporting the ‘peace policies’ of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.”

There is no evidence that the church bodies helped prop up Communist regimes, said Arnold, chair of a committee on East/West relations for the former British Council of Churches. Still, the entry into the WCC of the major Orthodox churches from Eastern Europe after 1961 did “radicallychange the ethos of the (World) Council,” he said.

“Its focus of concern shifted away from Europe to the Third World, and this was skillfully exploited by representatives of the ROC (Russian Orthodox Church) to sideline or at least ‘relativize’ the concern felt in many western European churches for persecuted Christians and dissidents,” he said, adding:

“Official contacts were used to press particular cases, though that could not be made public. ... The lesson we learnt was that effective action is scarcely possible without the active involvement of the local church. At the world level, there was a painful contrast with the churches in the United States and South Africa, which were ready, willing and able to criticize their own governments.”

Arnold concluded, “I prefer to say simply, ‘No, we did not do enough.’”

Well, we're doing something NOW! PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT!!!!!

Posted 9:33 AM by Gene

Toledo Bombarded With Ads

The Ohio city has more political spots than any other market in the country.

Betcha THOSE folks feel like voting!

Posted 9:09 AM by Gene

I only now get to Christopher Reeve because there's little to say -- an unremarkable actor who suffered an awful accident and not only persevered, but nearly conquered it through the brute force of his determination. That he did not win out in the end will never take away from his guts and grit, which could serve us all well.

Posted 9:05 AM by Gene

Today's brat pack has everything but age and modesty [home-page link]

...and talent -- somehow I don't think these vaguely photogenic airheads could croon a song like Blue, or Dino, or Sammy -- hell they don't even have Peter's suavity -- but they do allow us to challenge THE PAPER OF RE-CORD as THE RAG WITH THE MOST UNREADABLE GALL.

Posted 8:54 AM by Gene

And speaking of THE PAPER OF RE-CORD, it is pursuing its constitutional mandate by putting all sorts of cultural status quo on its pages, praising the new WOODY GUTHRIES who believe in their hearts of hearts that Bush DOES equal Hitler, glowing over THE GREATEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME for confirming our hatred of an EEEEEEEEEEEEEEVIL military, hugging ourselves because the pictures of our HOLOCAUST-LIKE EEEEEEEEEEVIL at Abu Ghraib are ART!!!!! (giggle-giggle) -- and all we can say is...



GREAT JOB, HOWELL!!!!! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!!!

Posted 8:52 AM by Gene

OOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooh, a FORCE OF EEEEEEEEVIL in BOSTON WHACKS DIPPITY-DO!!!!! for supporting -- CONSTITUTIONALLY PROTECTED CHOICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As God -- PINCH would say, THIS -- WILL -- NOT -- STAND!!!!!!!!!!

(But we'll make an exception when he runs the ad in OUR paper.)

Posted 8:45 AM by Gene

Ah, the divine right of kings -- and CONGRESSPOOPS.

And the pygmy monarchs will retain their seats forever, or at least until the Republic collapses -- the latter prospect they surely will hasten with their own regal spending habits, and their noble disdain for the people.

Posted 5:22 PM by Gene

We'll take the folks at ESPNCorp Network News at their word when they say Mark Halperin's a "straight shooter" -- even if their heads are cocked to one side. Perhaps he MEANT to say that at a given moment one candidate may distort the facts more than another so it makes sense not to treat them equally. But NEWS HACK RULE No. 1 is "Do not use the right word when the wrong word will do," and sure enough the memo sounded like a directive from DIP's campaign manager. Because NEWS HACKS don't know how to write, the electorate may not know how to vote.

Posted 3:37 PM by Gene

You know a Freeper's either very happy or very angry WHEN HE USES ALL CAPS IN HEADINGS AND LOTS OF EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I'm guilty of both sins too, but I try to use the exclamation points only as satire, however heavy-handed. As for the caps -- well, I'll try to hold them down.

Posted 3:06 PM by Gene

And then there's BOZELLCORP'S PARENTS TELEVISION COUNCIL. If the ideologues who will be RAVING A CONSERVATIVE MOVIE are Philistines in the manner of THE GLIBERAL (i.e., we know more than you so we don't have to know ANYTHING), BRENT'S SEAL-OF-APPROVAL DISPENSERS are Philistines in the old Babbitty way of being stupid and unlettered and proud of it. Their surface differences notwithstanding, here's a case where six of one does equal half a dozen of the other, and I'd like to take the Andy S. crowd AND Brent and grab them by their scruffy necks and bang their heads together -- though to be sure, with their lack of brain matter it wouldn't hurt.

Posted 3:00 PM by Gene

WALTER WINCHELL PROMOS A CONSERVATIVE MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You HAD to open your BIG FAT MOUTH, SEAN.

Friday may not be P. R. MEL REDUX, but I'm getting this uncomfortable feeling it will be close.

Posted 9:59 AM by Gene

One of the great LIES NEWS HACKS have foisted on us is that every presidential election most newspapers endorse REPUBLICANS, and because there are 80,000 newspapers blahblahblah. But then EditorandPublisher.com runs A STORY:

E&P is charting editorial endorsements across the country. In its exclusive tabulation, the two candidates are about even on the number of endorsements so far but Kerry trumps Bush in the circulation of those newspapers by about a 5-1 margin. [Emphasis added.]

Or as Jack Benny would say, wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwELL!

In short, there is a lot of stomping of the feet and screaming and whistling in America's luxury news suites, and one hopes the story will be made complete with a Bush victory.

Posted 7:49 AM by Gene

Nazis designed the modern airport.

Posted 7:37 AM by Gene

THE PAPER OF RE-CORD's PUBLIC EDI-TOR returns from his long vacation, or snooze, or whatever it was, with this bit of advice:

SEPTEMBER 26, re "Kerry as the Boss: Always More Questions": Faith C. McCready thinks "the Kerry campaign ought to be paying The Times a consultant/advertising fee" for the article.

That's an EXCELLENT idea! It's probably the FIRST good idea to come from one of your columns! We know how increasingly hard up THE PAPER OF RE-CORD is for money -- the VRWC has had SUCH success urging people to give up newspapers -- that we should take our income from wherever we can. God -- I mean, of course, PINCH -- knows we've done enough campaigning for DIPPITY-DO; isn't it time to earn a dividend on it? This is a SUPERB idea! You must take it up with THE PAPER OF RE-CORD COMPANY's board of directors right away!