The Enlightened Redneck » 2010

Posted on 02.19.10 by Danny Glover @ 9:47 am

Conservatives are the talk of the town in Washington this week because of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference that started yesterday, and FreedomWorks joined the festivities by hosting a “blog bash” at its headquarters last night. My wife and I were there.

Hot Air has the proof in picture. By sheer luck, we happened to be chatting with James Joyner of Outside the Beltway when FreedomWorks honored Ed Morrissey of Hot Air as its “Blogger of the Year.” My hot wife, Kimberly, is in the hot pink blouse in the right of the photo, and I’m the dude next to her having a really bad hair night. (I really need a haircut!)

Kudos to my friend Ed for the much-deserved honor. He also will be honored as CPAC’s “Blogger of the Year” today. Ed was one of the first bloggers I met after starting Beltway Blogroll for National Journal in 2005, and he is among the most thoughtful and fair-minded bloggers on the Web. If you don’t already read Hot Air, now under new management, then you should.

I blog there occasionally myself in Hot Air’s Greenroom. I just posted an entry there this morning in my new role as the editorial director of the free-market think tank Digital Society. The topic is the left’s spooky vision for media reform. Here’s an excerpt:

It took 90 minutes but Tuesday evening’s panel discussion about the future of news ultimately devolved into a predictable attack by media “reformers” on commercial media and communications companies that see the Internet as their “plaything.”

The panelists — Robert McChesney and John Nichols of Free Press, Jane Hamsher of the blog Firedoglake, and Ivan Roman of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists — all said their ideas for media reform depend first and foremost upon winning a fight for control of the Internet. Their idea of victory is government oversight and massive federal spending. …

McChesney accused phone and cable companies of having a business model aimed at “buying off politicians.” He called them monopolists who want “to take over and effectively privatize the Internet, make it their private plaything.”

McChesney’s rant against an imagined “rip off” perpetrated by “commercial media” is consistent with his oft-stated (but under-reported) “ultimate goal” of dismantling the capitalist system in general and getting rid of the “media capitalists” in particular. His perverted vision of a “free” press features a government that has regulatory and financial influence over both the infrastructure underpinning journalism and the people producing it.

Read the whole thing, and stay tuned to Digital Society for analysis of technology policy and how it can help or hurt America’s burgeoning digital culture and commerce.

Keith Olbermann Is A Dramatic Chipmunk

Posted on 02.18.10 by Danny Glover @ 11:58 am

From the video visionaries at Reason TV:

Filed under: Just For Laughs and Media and Video
Comments: 1 Comment

The Squirrel That Killed ‘Green’ Jobs

Posted on 02.15.10 by Danny Glover @ 6:06 pm

As a native West Virginian who loves hunting and fishing, I have an inherent conservationist streak within me. It would be fa ir to say that I’m even a bit “green,” meaning that I want to preserve the beauty of this planet God created.

But I long ago broke with the loony environmental movement. The people who walk in those circles make absolutely no sense.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger learned that lesson while pushing for the construction of alternative energy farms in the Mojave Desert. “Alternative energy” is one of the pet causes of environmentalists, but apparently they love imaginary squirrels more. They are blocking construction of the energy farms based on an assumption that squirrels one day might want to live on the land in question.

Via Instapundit, here is Schwarzenegger’s account of a battle that surprised him:

“So the environmentalists … are confused because they want to have renewable energy but then when it comes to the permitting process, creating that renewable energy and building the solar plants, they are then in the way. And they then talk about, ‘You cannot go and destroy this squirrel.’”

“I say, ‘What squirrel? I was out there, I didn’t see a squirrel.’

“They say, ‘Well, there could be a squirrel coming very soon.’

“So I say, ‘But there’s no squirrel there right now.’

“‘But you’ve got to protect things that could be there.’”

Environmentalists simply cannot be taken seriously when their words and their actions are in such obvious conflict. They always find a reason to fight progress, even the progress like alternative energy development that they say they want to see.

Filed under: Government and News & Politics and People
Comments: None

Will You Marry Me? No Way, Loser!

Posted on 02.15.10 by Danny Glover @ 12:21 pm

All of you enlightened rednecks who think it’s a good idea to propose to your would-be spouse in a very public way must watch this video:

The hat tip goes to Ed Morrissey of Hot Air, who offers these words of wisdom: “Unless you’re sure of the answer, prospective suitors should consider the YouTube age before popping the question at a sporting event.”

UPDATE, 2/16: The whole thing was staged, which means both the man and the woman are losers.

Filed under: Just For Laughs and Sports and Video
Comments: None

That’s My Snow-Carved Parking Spot!

Posted on 02.14.10 by Danny Glover @ 11:17 pm

A young Christian named Drew is staying with us a few months while he does an internship in the Washington area. A Georgia Tech student, he’s had quite the treat (or curse) the past week as the mid-Atlantic region has been slammed with snow.

Last night, Drew spent quite a bit of time shoveling himself a parking spot out of the snow along our street. But when he returned from worship service this morning, someone else had taken it. We tried to explain that it’s a public street and we can’t keep people from parking there, but he couldn’t be consoled.

When we returned home from evening worship a few hours later, the spot was vacant again so I went to the basement, grabbed a can of purple spray paint (the perfect color for a strapping boy who exercises every day) and laid claim to the spot for Drew.

I can’t guarantee folks will pay any attention to the sign, but I gave it the ol’ college try.

Filed under: Human Interest and Just For Laughs and News & Politics and Photography
Comments: None

Mountaineers Road Trip

Posted on 02.14.10 by Danny Glover @ 10:12 pm

Last week, my son and I drove 3-1/2 hours to Morgantown, W.Va., to watch the WVU Mountaineers play the Villanova Wildcats in a battle between two Big East powerhouses — No. 4 in the nation vs. No. 5.

The game was played two days after the Blizzard of 2010 that walloped the Washington area, so we snapped some great snow pictures in addition to shots of ‘Nova superstar Scottie Reynolds, who attended church at our congregation when Anthony was a baby, after the game.

I got half of what I wanted from the trip: Scottie had a great game, but my alma mater lost to his team. But somehow seeing my Mountaineers lose wasn’t as depressing as usual because I got to see a friend win. The bonus: Scottie autographed a basketball for Anthony.

The entries below this one feature snapshots from our road trip.

Filed under: Family and People and Photography and Sports and West Virginia
Comments: None

After The Blizzard Of 2010

Posted on 02.14.10 by Danny Glover @ 10:08 pm

I love my point-and-shoot Canon Powershot. It gives me the freedom to multitask on the road — drive with my left hand on the wheel and the camera propped on top of it while I snap photos with my right hand.

It’s not something I would do under normal circumstances, but I couldn’t resist the urge to capture travel memories of the Blizzard of 2010 as my son and I traveled from Virginia to West Virginia for a basketball game at the WVU Coliseum in Morgantown.

Filed under: Photography and West Virginia
Comments: None

Somewhere Along I-68 In Maryland

Posted on 02.14.10 by Danny Glover @ 10:06 pm

Filed under: Photography
Comments: None

Outside The Villanova Locker Room

Posted on 02.14.10 by Danny Glover @ 10:04 pm

After the WVU-Villanova game in Morgantown, Rick Reynolds took my son Anthony, my brother Mark and his son Niko, several Villanova fans, and myself to the VIP section outside the ‘Nova locker room so we could see Scottie.

It was great to see Rick interacting with Scottie Reynolds’ teammates. He’s a people person, and he has passed that personality trait along to his son, which will serve Scottie well if he goes pro.

Filed under: People and Photography and Sports
Comments: None

Thanks For The Memories, Scottie

Posted on 02.14.10 by Danny Glover @ 10:00 pm

Scottie Reynolds sent the Villanova Wildcats to the Final Four in 2009 with a drive down the court that ended in a last-second layup to win the game against Pittsburgh. At the 2010 WVU-Villanova game in Morgantown, W.Va., Scottie signed copies of a black-and-white photograph that captured the moment.

Here’s a snapshot of Scottie signing one of the pictures for the Villanova fan who brought them to the game:

Plus two more shots of Scottie outside the locker room in Morgantown:

Filed under: People and Photography and Sports and West Virginia
Comments: None

Barack Obama Is ‘Not Believable’

Posted on 02.12.10 by Danny Glover @ 9:10 pm

That’s what Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a Democrat from my home, coal-producing state of West Virginia said about the president’s conflicting statements and actions on clean-coal technology. “He’s beginning to be not believable to me,” Rockefeller said.

As Don Surber of the Charleston Daily Mail helpfully reminded his readers, Rockefeller is the same man who said this of Obama a little more than a year ago: “He’s the president I’ve been waiting for all my life.”

Obama’s double talk and broken promises — not just on clean-coal technology but on about any issue you pick — have done wonders to open the eyes of even his biggest fans.

Filed under: Culture and Government and Human Interest and Media and News & Politics and People and Rednecks and Video and West Virginia
Comments: 1 Comment

Investigative Reporting From The Right

Posted on 02.12.10 by Danny Glover @ 8:40 pm

Last week, the journalism “guide” for the New York Times-owned portal About.com asked to interview me for a story about investigative journalism by conservatives and why so few do it. His story is online now. Here are excerpts from the Q&A section with me:

Q: You’ve said little in the way of conservative investigative journalism exists. Why do conservatives excel at talk radio and opinion shows, but not investigative journalism? What do you think should be done to change this?

A: Much investigative journalism has at its core a belief that government is the solution to whatever problems the investigations uncover. Conservatives who have seen how government creates more problems than it solves don’t have any interest in doing work that will promote more government interference and less freedom. …

Q: Do you think James O’Keefe’s arrest has set back the cause of conservative investigative journalism? What do you think of his tactics?

A: The best analysis I read after James O’Keefe’s arrest and what it means for conservative journalism was, ‘One step forward, two steps back.’ We’ll never know what story he would have told had he not been caught allegedly committing crimes, but his tactics crossed an ethical line and should not be emulated. …

Q: More philosophically, should there even be a such thing as liberal or conservative investigative journalism? Shouldn’t investigative journalism take the reporter wherever the facts lead? If you were a conservative investigative reporter who dug up something that cast conservatives in a bad light, would you feel obliged to reveal it?

A: Philosophically, investigative journalism is liberal for the reasons I already have discussed. It is driven by a change-the-world attitude that trusts government and maligns Big Business and other perceived evils. The belief systems of the reporters and their editors influence what gets investigated and what doesn’t. Last year’s ‘ClimateGate’ scandal and the mainstream media’s willfully subdued reaction to it made that perfectly clear. If conservatives wait for today’s supposedly objective investigative journalists to unearth stories like those, the public will never hear them. …

Read the whole thing at About.com.

Filed under: Government and Media and News & Politics and People
Comments: 2 Comments

The Calm After The Blizzard

Posted on 02.10.10 by Danny Glover @ 9:27 pm

The nation’s capital is buried in snow after two monstrous storms in less than a week. Today’s storm was so bad at times that visibility was deemed too dangerous for even snow plows to be on the road clearing the snow. The federal government has been closed all week and will be again at least through tomorrow. It is now officially the worst winter on record here since 1899.

Yet the scene in Washington looks so peaceful in this snapshot of the Capitol building, taken this evening after the storm cleared out of the area:

See more AP photos of the storm at Don Surber’s blog.

Filed under: News & Politics and Photography
Comments: None

Insider Trading In Journalism

Posted on 02.10.10 by Danny Glover @ 6:11 pm

Thinking outside the media box is dangerous. Media companies need to be forward-thinking and both willing and able to adapt quickly if they hope to survive and thrive in a changing marketplace. But thinking unconventionally may lead to behaving unscrupulously.

The proof is in this new and utterly unethical media business model:

IBusiness Reporting plans to report on companies that may be engaging in fraudulent practices (kinda like the ones Minkow engaged in way back when) and fund its reporting through shortselling the stocks of those companies. If the stock price drops after the outlet reports negative information about the company, IBR makes money.

Let’s say that again. There are no ads on the site. No endowments. Nothing of the sort. When one of IBR’s staff, who has taken the position that such-and-such stock will go down, reports information that makes the stock go down, IBR makes money.

One man behind the operation, Barry Minkow, went to jail for orchestrating a Ponzi scheme, so his willingness to cross the boundaries of ethical behavior is no surprise. But Los Angeles Times reporter William Lobdell, who should know better than to engage in such conflicts of interest, is running iBusiness Reporting. His involvement tarnishes the reputation of journalism.

IBR’s business model is a perverted form of insider trading. IBR is buying stocks in companies with the intent of making money by driving down share values. Hopefully, this scheme will be short-lived.

Filed under: An Enlightened Redneck ...
Comments: None

Frosty The Tea Partier

Posted on 02.10.10 by Danny Glover @ 5:43 pm

The Cincinnati Tea Party decided that all of this year’s snow presented a great opportunity to make a statement in white, with dashes of red and blue:

Filed under: Human Interest and News & Politics and Photography
Comments: None

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