Congratulations to the Jawa Report

Everyone do a little dance for the 10,000,000 visitors that visited the Jawa Report

More dancing thanks to Pirate’s Cove

Fred on the Fairness Doctrine

ABC Radio on-line has a great post by Fred Dalton Thompson on the Fairness Doctrine.

June 29, 2007

A Better than Fair Day

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Yesterday was a good day. Talk radio, along with the blogs, helped block an immigration bill that the American people overwhelmingly opposed. Then, a congressman, who is also an ex-radio talk show host, managed to get a “yes” vote on language in a House bill that could permanently stop those who want to resurrect the Fairness Doctrine.

We’ve been hearing threats to use the obsolete Fairness Doctrine to go after talk radio ever since the left-leaning talk radio network, Air America, failed. Ironically, I think Air America might have had a shot if its target audience hadn’t already been served so well by many in the mainstream media. But regardless, giving the government veto power over radio stations’ programming decisions is wrong. I don’t think forcing the one sector of the media where conservatives have a clear voice to provide equal time to liberals is the American way. At the very least, it has a chilling effect on station owners.

I understand how the left feels though. For most of my life, the big broadcast television networks and almost all the major newspapers and magazines presented only one side of a lot of issues. Talk radio is a relatively small part of a bigger media picture, but I imagine it aggravates the new congressional majority to hear their opposition’s arguments without the old filters.

I would remind them, though, that a few Republicans were elected even when the entire mainstream media was painting us as heartless Neanderthals. I would also remind the current congressional leadership that they managed to win the last election despite talk radio.

Americans are smart enough to recognize news that’s biased — even when journalists pretend they’re not. New polls show that more than seven in 10 people recognize that the news comes with an agenda. So maybe we should welcome a new Fairness Doctrine. We could start by requiring that every broadcast television news show be co-anchored by both a liberal and conservative; and all major newspaper staff be evenly divided.

Not much chance of that happening. Nor should it in a free country — but I’ll tell you something that those who want to control the media apparently don’t know. Everyday, more people are listening to streaming radio on the Web and downloading podcasts. Some popular talk shows skip radio altogether and go straight to the Internet. You can even hear talk shows on Web-enabled telephones if you want, and that will get much easier and cheaper quickly.

If the current stars of talk were pushed off the radio dial, they’d get their audiences anyway. The era of controllable media is over, and nothing will ever bring it back.

posted by Fred Dalton Thompson on 6/29/2007 5:37:40 PM

Source:  http://www.abcradionetworks.com/article.asp?id=432145&SPID=15663

Julia

Testing a new Theme

Well, I am testing out a new theme.  Tell me what you think of it.

I was getting tired of the old theme and I also changed some things on the sidebars. 

 

Thinking Blogger Award

I have been tagged by DeMediacritic with the Thinking Blogger Award. I am honored to think that someone would even think of my blog for this honorable award.  It is hard to just come up with 5 blogs that make me think.  There are alot out there.  But these are mainly the blogs I check out every day.  There are more, but these are the first one’s I look at every day.

The rules are:

Participation in the "Thinking Blogger Awards;" the rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote

So let me think.

1. All Things Beautiful
2. The Anchoress
3. Gates Of Vienna
4. The Jawa Report
5. Blonde Sagacity

A nice commentor pointed out that I had The Anchoress url for Both The Anchoress and The Jawa Report.

My bad.  Trying to think and post at the same time can be hard to do.  Especially at work when 2 people are out and I have to do the work of 3 people.

Thinking Blogger Award

I have been tagged by DeMediacritic with the Thinking Blogger Award. I am honored to think that someone would even think of my blog for this honorable award.  It is hard to just come up with 5 blogs that make me think.  There are alot out there.  But these are mainly the blogs I check out every day.  There are more, but these are the first one’s I look at every day.

The rules are:

Participation in the "Thinking Blogger Awards;" the rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote

So let me think.

1. All Things Beautiful
2. The Anchoress
3. Gates Of Vienna
4. The Jawa Report
5. Blonde Sagacity

A nice commentor pointed out that I had The Anchoress url for Both The Anchoress and The Jawa Report.

My bad.  Trying to think and post at the same time can be hard to do.  Especially at work when 2 people are out and I have to do the work of 3 people.

Cleaning house

If  you are a regular visitor here you can see that I changed things around.  Every once in a while you need to change things up

Tell me what you think.

I have reached a milestone

While I was not looking my sitemeter reached 20,000.  It really doesn’t reflect how many people have been here really though. I put the sitemeter up after I was blogging for awhile anyway.  And also It does not include the people that visited my old blog at Blogger.com.

But thanks to all of you who visit my little part of the internet super highway.  You know that ALGore inveted the internet didn’t you??  So without his help I would not be blogging today.  So thanks AlGore.

P.S.  I have put some ads on the sidebar.  Go visit some of the ads and help me out with a little extra cash.  I know I will not get rich from them, but a little extra money always is good

Top 5 Blogs

Brian at Iowa Voice has put up a list of his top 5  daily reads. 

Here are mine (in no particular order):

1. DUmmie FUnnies  It is always fun to look at waht the DUmmies are up to, without actually having to go to the DUmmies sites.
2. Barking Moonbat Early Warning System  I have ot give it up to my fellow St Louisian. Especially after all the ice we got last week.
3. Captain’s Quarters  I have always like reading his blog.  It is very well written.
4. The Jawa Report  Rusty and the gang get have some really good posts about the Islamic Jihad. You will find out more about whjat is going on in the Middle East there than you can on all the MSM
5. The Anchoress  Very good and very well written.  The Anchoress has got to be one of the better written blogs out there. 

I am sorry if anybody out there is not on my list, but it is kind of hard to just come up witht the top 5.  There are many blogs that I got ot every day.  There is The Gateway Pundit, Gates of Vienna, Knowledge is Power, In the Bullpen, Say Anything and the list can go on and on. 

Blogging will probably be light until next week.

I will probably not blog that  much the rest of the week and over the weeekend.  Well, I usually don’t blog on the weekend anyway.  But tomorrow is Thanksgiving and Fri I am playing in a golf tournament.  So I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.

First Thanksgiving

In 1621 the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast which is now known as the first Thanksgiving. While cooking methods and table etiquette have changed as the holiday has evolved, the meal is still consumed today with the same spirit of celebration and overindulgence.

What Was Actually on the Menu?

What foods topped the table at the first harvest feast? Historians aren’t completely certain about the full bounty, but it’s safe to say the pilgrims weren’t gobbling up pumpkin pie or playing with their mashed potatoes. Following is a list of the foods that were available to the colonists at the time of the 1621 feast. However, the only two items that historians know for sure were on the menu are venison and wild fowl, which are mentioned in primary sources. The most detailed description of the "First Thanksgiving" comes from Edward Winslow from A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, in 1621:

"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, among other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed upon our governor, and upon the captain, and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakersof our plenty.

Did you know that lobster, seal and swans were on the Pilgrims’ menu? Learn more…

Seventeenth Century Table Manners:
The pilgrims didn’t use forks; they ate with spoons, knives, and their fingers. They wiped their hands on large cloth napkins which they also used to pick up hot morsels of food. Salt would have been on the table at the harvest feast, and people would have sprinkled it on their food. Pepper, however, was something that they used for cooking but wasn’t available on the table.

In the seventeenth century, a person’s social standing determined what he or she ate. The best food was placed next to the most important people. People didn’t tend to sample everything that was on the table (as we do today), they just ate what was closest to them.

Serving in the seventeenth century was very different from serving today. People weren’t served their meals individually. Foods were served onto the table and then people took the food from the table and ate it. All the servers had to do was move the food from the place where it was cooked onto the table.

Pilgrims didn’t eat in courses as we do today. All of the different types of foods were placed on the table at the same time and people ate in any order they chose. Sometimes there were two courses, but each of them would contain both meat dishes, puddings, and sweets.

More Meat, Less Vegetables
Our modern Thanksgiving repast is centered around the turkey, but that certainly wasn’t the case at the pilgrims’s feasts. Their meals included many different meats. Vegetable dishes, one of the main components of our modern celebration, didn’t really play a large part in the feast mentality of the seventeenth century. Depending on the time of year, many vegetables weren’t available to the colonists.

The pilgrims probably didn’t have pies or anything sweet at the harvest feast. They had brought some sugar with them on the Mayflower but by the time of the feast, the supply had dwindled. Also, they didn’t have an oven so pies and cakes and breads were not possible at all. The food that was eaten at the harvest feast would have seemed fatty by 1990’s standards, but it was probably more healthy for the pilgrims than it would be for people today. The colonists were more active and needed more protein. Heart attack was the least of their worries. They were more concerned about the plague and pox.

Surprisingly Spicy Cooking
People tend to think of English food at bland, but, in fact, the pilgrims used many spices, including cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, pepper, and dried fruit, in sauces for meats. In the seventeenth century, cooks did not use proportions or talk about teaspoons and tablespoons. Instead, they just improvised. The best way to cook things in the seventeenth century was to roast them. Among the pilgrims, someone was assigned to sit for hours at a time and turn the spit to make sure the meat was evenly done.

Since the pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians had no refrigeration in the seventeenth century, they tended to dry a lot of their foods to preserve them. They dried Indian corn, hams, fish, and herbs.

Dinner for Breakfast: Pilgrim Meals:
The biggest meal of the day for the colonists was eaten at noon and it was called noonmeat or dinner. The housewives would spend part of their morning cooking that meal. Supper was a smaller meal that they had at the end of the day. Breakfast tended to be leftovers from the previous day’s noonmeat.

In a pilgrim household, the adults sat down to eat and the children and servants waited on them. The foods that the colonists and Wampanoag Indians ate were very similar, but their eating patterns were different. While the colonists had set eating patterns–breakfast, dinner, and supper–the Wampanoags tended to eat when they were hungry and to have pots cooking throughout the day.

Source: Kathleen Curtin, Food Historian at Plimoth Plantation
All Photos Courtesy of Plimouth Plantation, Inc., Plymouth, Mass. USA

History Channel

Read more about Thanksgiving at the History Channel

Stix

Sorry for the lack of posts last week

Last week I was on vacation and did absolutely nothing all week, except to I voted on Tues.

I really didn’t get on the home computer that much so I didn’t really have anything to post.  Now with the Looney Left taking over the House and the Senate, there is going to be a whole lot to post about in the coming months.

It should be a a fun few years until the Republicans get bakc into power.

Stix