More media bias -- sometimes it's what ISN'T reported.

Turn on the news this week, and what do you see? You'll be guaranteed to see:

- The tawdry escapades of Mark Foley, a former Republican Congressman.
- The death toll from Iraq.
- Worry about North Korea.
- Immigrant scare tactics (a popular Democrat 'wedge' issue).
- The latest satirical commentary on President Bush's latest speach.

What won't you see?

- The record-setting Dow Jones Industrial Average. (Over 12,000 for the first time in history!)
- The very low unemployment figures.
- The low gasoline prices.
- The low inflation rate. (Hint: The Consumer Price Index actually went down in September.)
- The security controls are working. No terror attacks in over five years.
- The war in Iraq is working for many -- Iraqi women may now seek healthcare, Iraqi children are now educated regardless of religious belief or ethnicity and Iraqis are free from the threat of torture by Udai and Kusai Hussein.

Does this not seem odd? The Dow Jones set a new RECORD HIGH -- it's barely reported. A Congressman sends some e-mail -- let's keep it in the headlines although there's nothing new to report. HUH?

Balance? I think not! Irresponsible? Absolutely.

Shame on the Tennessean.

An open letter to the editor of the Nashville, Tennessee daily 'news'paper, the Tennessean:

Dear Sir:

Is the Tennessean on the Democratic Party payroll? Do you enjoy being completely disconnected from the opinions of your prospective readership?

The election recommendations on the Opinion page are ridiculously one-sided -- every Democrat running for a Congressional seat was selected. Nevermind that the Democratic challenger for district 7 is completely without experience and happens to be running against a savvy and popular veteran Republican! (Implying that Republicans are without integrity was a nice touch.)

I can learn from opinions that I don't agree with, but what am I to do with recommendations that are so one-sided that they aren't credible? By-pass them.

I think that I'll by-pass the paper while I'm at it, too. If this culture runs within, how can I trust anything to be balanced?

The Nashville Tennessean. Weak. Left. Peerlessly out-of-touch.

Edit 10/19/2006: Apparently, someone else beat me to this criticsm. See here.

Dawg Catchers!

The score from Athens, Georgia: 16th-ranked Georgia Bulldogs 22, Vanderbilt Commodores 24.

GO 'DORES!!

Dr. Tom Henderson: Local Hero!

A true hero in our community: Dr. Tom Henderson. A great man doing great things for others. A man of character and action.

Dr. Henderson runs a healthcare practice that charges people very little (only $10 to $30 depending upon their ability to pay) for quality care given by people who care. He and his staff treat around 60 people each day.

I'm proud to say that he's also a shepherd of our church congregation.

Sick of the Media bias -- Representative Mark Foley is a case-in-point

I'm so mad about this that I won't even take the time to insert my normal links -- this is just a stream of consciousness.

Representative Mark Foley. He was a closeted homosexual until it was revealed that he was communicating by e-mail and text messages to like-minded male capitol pages. Scandalous? Yes. Sensational? Yes. Illegal? Probably.

However, when the news media reported the Foley scandal, the headlines read 'House Republicans Grapple With Sex Scandal' and 'Pressure Builds on Hastert over Foley Scandal'.

They smeared the entire sitting majority of Congress and the ranking Congressional leadership over a single member's indiscretion.

I find this without merit, but NOT without without precedent -- this is another completely partisan, overt hatchet job to slander all Republicans close to the November elections. Pure and simple. Journalists are liberals that would love nothing better than to sweep all Republicans from office and they'll lie, cheat and steal to do it.

Here's my proof:

In the last fifteen years or so, there have been a handful of policital scandals of this magnitude: Rep. Gary Condit's sexual affair with an intern in his office (Chandra Levy), Rep. Barney Frank's cavortation with a male prostitute, and, of course, President Bill Clinton's admitted sexual relationship with a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. Make one thing certain: all of these scandals involved illegal and immoral activity on the part of all three of these men. All three men compromised the security of the government and the country as a whole by their actions. All three of them had actual sexual contact with their victims. (And they are victims, aren't they?)

But one thing never happened during any of these tawdry, disgusting and unlawful proceedings: No major news organization dared to drag an entire political party into the quagmire. Why? They are Democrats.

Let's review:

Rep. Barney Frank:
Crime: Sex with a male prostitute on several occasions; allowed the prostitute to use Federal housing for his encounters with other homosexual clients.
Tenor of the media: 'Poor Barney. He's a sympathetic and courageous man to admit his homosexuality in this trying time.' Sure, they speculated that he would lose his seat in Congress (he didn't), but who wouldn't have?

President Bill Clinton:
Crime: Sex with a female subordinate on several occasions.
Tenor of the media: 'Those mean and partisan Republicans, especially that nasty Ken Starr! It's his private life!' Rather than admit that lying under oath and abusing a subordinate are reprehensible, the papers attack the prosecution and every Rupublican sitting in the Senate.

Rep. Gary Condit:
Crime: Sex with a female subordinate; she's later found dead. Condit is exonerated of her death, but admits a long-running sexual relationship.
Tenor of the media: 'Poor Chandra! And Gary Condit's a deceitful man!' Nary a word about the obligations of Congressional leadership. No calls for the Democrats to resign leadership positions.

Rep. Mark Foley:
Crime: E-mails and text messages to male pages. (No physical contact!)
Tenor of the media: 'See, SEE! We told you all of those Republicans were HORRIBLE! Dennis Hastert should quit as Speaker of the House because he's a BAAAAD man!! Nobody should vote for a single one of them because they're all this bad!'

I'm sick of it. Fed up to the top of my head (and I'm 6'5"!).

The shame of it all? People really believe what they see on the news without questioning any of it. Open your eyes, people. Open your eyes!

A Taiwanese Brother-in-Arms

Saabs are loved the world over, but I wouldn't have thought Taiwan to be a hotspot for classic 900 lovers. I was wrong. Sunthink722 has a great collection of photos from a number of auto-related events, and he's got a stunning white C900 of his own. He and his bride even took the car out for wedding photos! Take a minute to stroll through his pics.