Idiots of the Week: Post-Thanksgiving Crazed Shoppers

Well, a lot of time has passed since I last posted. I was out of town for the Thanksgiving holidays and have been busy "catching up" since I've been back. Seems like I'm always busy catching up for one reason or another. I will try to add more blog entries over the next few days, but before any more time slipped by, I wanted to discuss my Idiots of the Week.

First, yet another pet peeve of mine. Why is it that on the local and national broadcast news on the Friday after Thanksgiving, one of the main stories, if not THE lead story, is holiday shopping? Is this really news? Don't we all know that the Friday after Thanksgiving (aka Black Friday) is the busiest shopping day of the year in our commercial, capitalistic society? Do we really need to see some poor local reporter unlucky enough to not have the day off hanging out at the local mall to ask people "What are you buying this year?" and ""What do you think about the crowds?" To the first question, I actually heard a guy reply, "Um probably clothes, um, clothing, and sweaters." Now that's news you can use.

But I digress, you probably saw the same "news" that I did that Friday night, where people were getting trampled as Wal-Mart stores opened in the wee hours Friday morning, people were getting into fights, people stood in long lines to check out, and tempers flared when the stores put out like a half dozen of some item on sale to lure people into the store and the suckers began to realize they'd been duped. My question: Was it really worth it? You got up at 4 a.m., got pushed around and generally physically abused, you wasted possibly hours standing in line to check out, and for $30 off of that crappy TV set? You people are idiots!

'Tis the season.

Idiot of the Week: Bob Woodward

As someone who got a degree in Communication, has worked at magazines and newspapers, and now tries to pass along small pearls of wisdom to college students working in Student Media, it saddens me to see the state of journalism these days. The offenses are long, ranging from laziness in reporting to poor writing skills and promoting various points of view through the biased presentation of facts. And that's just the print media, which is far better than broadcast, which, for the most part, is a complete joke.

And one of the disturbing aspects of media's downward spiral is the celebrity journalist. Take Bob Woodward, please (bah dah dum)! Here's a guy who was revered as one of the top journalists of his time. After his work in Watergate, people became journalists BECAUSE of Bob Woodward and his Watergate partner Carl Bernstein. But what happens when you have too much going on and become -- as we like to say in the South -- too big for your britches?

Woodward got scooped by "Vanity Fair" on his own story when VF revealed the identity of Deep Throat earlier this year. Then Woodward scrambled around and put out a ho-hum book covering the Deep Throat situation. And because he's keeping busy writing books, being a weak guest commentator on TV, making the lecture circuit, being a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, working as an editor-at-large at "U.S. News & World Report." and occasionally doing his job at The Washington Post, which has primarily evolved, apparently, into White House stenographer, Woodward can't seem to find the time to tell his boss that Bush administration sources are leaking Valerie Plame's CIA identity to him. Woodward was then forced to apologize for the oversight.

Woodward revealed that Valerie Plame's secret identity was leaked to him by a senior administration official before Scooter Libby outed her but apparently declined to mention this earlier because he was afraid of being subpoenaed.

As more and more information comes out about Woodward, Deborah Howell, ombudsman at the Washington Post, recently criticized Woodward for his two journalistic "sins": those being not telling his boss of being leaked information and to then comment on the investigation without disclosing his own connection to the case.

Woodward, in a clear case of the pot calling the kettle black, said on MSNBC's "Hardball" in June regarding the Patrick J. Fitzgerald probe into the Plame case that in the end "there is going to be nothing to it. And it is a shame. And the special prosecutor [Fitgerald] in that case, his behavior, in my view, has been disgraceful." Guess what, Bob? I find your behavior disgraceful. You are a huge disappointment. Do us all a favor and retire so perhaps you could move into the White House where you can continue to cozy up to the administration. You've become an old hack who is too busy hobnobbing with the Washington elite and working on all the projects that make you wealthy instead of being a good journalist who seeks the truth. And for that, you're my Idiot of the Week!

Any thoughts on Woodward or the state of journalism in general? Post your comments.

Idiot of the Week: Wal-Mart

A new feature for you to look for in this blog will be my Idiot of the Week award. The "idiot" could come in the form of a person, but also could be an organization, a country, or even a multibillion dollar evil corporation -- which brings me to my very first winner: Wal-Mart!

After a group of us (hello Mark, Eliott, Dave, and Taryn) drove to the Christiansburg, Va., library last night to catch a showing of the Robert Greenwald documentary Wal-Mart: The High Price of Low Cost, I came away even more vehemently opposed to this monolithic example of capitalism gone wrong. I must confess, I have entered the evil box known as Wal-Mart twice in the past year, each time looking for specific items that I was having a hard time finding elsewhere, but I pledge here and now to eliminate even twice-yearly trips to this corporation built on greed and power.

Wal-Mart is my Idiot of the Week for its track record of years of abuse and neglect of its workers, the environment, and tax payers. Its record of discrimination of women is appalling and its failure to provide an adequate living wage or health care to employees is disgusting. The Greenwald documentary brings these topics to light by illustrating real stories of former and current Wal-Mart employees and those affected by Wal-Mart coming to their town.

Wal-Mart is a company that has the power to be a great positive force in this country and the world but its greed, instead, has turned the company into my Idiot of the Week. So be careful of the all-out spin that will be spewing forth from Wal-Mart. The company has set up a war room designed to fight the many truths that are coming out against the company and they have millions of dollars to spend on PR -- money that could be spent on providing health care and other benefits for their employees.

So, to you, Wal-Mart, I wish you only the worst.

Do you have news articles or personal stories about Wal-Mart to share? Post your comments!

Election Day!

I voted today! Did you? Get out and vote!

Time Flies

I can’t believe how time gets away from me. Seems like just yesterday I was pondering my daughter’s birthday on October 28, and now we’re a week into November. Wha’ happened? Well, here’s a partial list of wha’ happened.

I came back from Kansas City on Sunday, Oct. 30. That evening a small Halloween party ensued at my apartment. See the photo above for a shot of the gang. Unfortunately, most of the attendees did not come in costume. What’s up with people not dressing in costume for a Halloween party? Such slacker friends. Nevertheless, a good time was had by all.

I traveled with Taryn to visit a friend in Salem, Va. We met Sue at a place called Carini Pizza, which was mostly a dive but had really good pizza. The restaurant had a lot of character, though. Or perhaps that should be had a lot of characters, including the employees of this fine dining establishment. I don’t want to give away all the secrets of the Carini crew, so let me just say that if you ever get a chance to enjoy the dining atmosphere of Carini, it will be an experience that you won’t soon forget.

Part of the conversation between me, Sue and Taryn included Roanoke’s infamous Chicken Man, the incredible Charles Cullen. And I just learned that a documentary Cullen will be shown at Roanoke’s Grandin Theatre this Thursday, Nov. 10. And to think, I will be at the opera instead! Curses!!

After a busy week recovering from a trip out of town, my daughter was in town over the weekend. We went to see the new Disney computer-animated film Chicken Little. About the experience: Let me just say that, generally speaking, I’m not fond of kids. Sitting behind me were two women and two little boys. One of the little boys, who was probably six years old, was perhaps the antichrist. The kid would laugh with a fake laugh. He would squeak his chair. He would chat with the other kid. He was basically a royal pain and I wanted to throw him over a cliff. So here’s a note to parents: Keep your kids quiet at the movie theater!!! If the kid can’t sit relatively still and be quiet, wait for the freakin’ DVD to come out! Geez! OK, so there was the theater full of kids (this WAS the first Saturday afternoon for the movie), which was a major irritation, but now for the movie.

Zach Braff did a nice job as the voice of Chicken Little and some other voice performances were memorable, such as Joan Cusack, Amy Sedaris, and, in a brief role, Adam West. The musical score was also pretty good as it featured such tunes as REM’s “The End of The World As We Know It,” Barenaked Ladies’ “One Little Slip,” and a hilarious rendition of “We Are the Champions” by Zach Braff. The story was a bit weak, the animation only adequate, and the humor sparse. Basically, this film was no Pixar production, as Pixar still rules as THE big dog of computer-animation movies. Hey Disney, you're a huge megacorporation, I would think you could come up with better movies!

On Sunday, we tried out bowling at Radford University’s new student center, known as “The Bonnie.” The bowling lanes at The Bonnie offered pop-up bumpers for kids, so my daughter, Anna, got the pleasure of bowling gutter-free on her turns. Unfortunately, I did not. Nevertheless, I still finished with scores of 110 and 141, which may have been my highest bowling score ever. In the second game Anna bowled a 93, including three consecutive spares. Our third bowling participant, Taryn, was defeated by me in heart-wrenching fashion both games. She’s still licking her wounds from losing to a guy who basically sucks at bowling. Taryn has her own ball!!

Until next time, I hope you have a ball!!