|
Posted on 05.12.13 by Danny Glover @ 12:22 am
We don’t want our children educated in an environment where a teacher lets an unruly student bully her (and other students film the episode), where the disruptive student wins praise for ranting at the teacher, and where neither the mother (a teacher herself) nor school administrators punish the student for being inexcusably disrespectful. There are no winners in this episode at Duncanville High School in Texas, which sadly earned 18-year-old sophomore Jeff Bliss 86 seconds of YouTube fame: The message to teachers is that students can shout you down without consequence, and the message to students is that they are in control of the classroom. That’s an unhealthy atmosphere for teaching children who actually want to learn — even if, as Dallas Morning News columnist Tod Robberson argues, Bliss had a valid point about his teacher’s instructional methods. “Teaching by ‘packet’ is no way to get through to young minds,” Robberson wrote in a column decrying Bliss’ behavior and the reaction to it. “… But his choice of protest venues and methods is one I will never celebrate. He owes everyone involved an apology.” (Read previous “Why We Home-School” lessons.) Filed under: 1980s and Business and Culture and Education and Government and Human Interest and Media and News & Politics and Parenting and People and Rednecks and Video and Why We Home-School Comments: None |
|
Posted on 04.21.13 by Danny Glover @ 11:26 pm
This is how you make a masterpiece, redneck style: My wife watched the video with me and wants to buy me one of the paintings, especially once she realized the artist, Heather LaCroix, is from Louisiana. Filed under: An Enlightened Redneck ... and Culture and Family and Features and Human Interest and Media and Parenting and People and Rednecks and Video Comments: None |
|
Posted on 04.08.13 by Danny Glover @ 11:41 pm
More than a decade later in a speech during Black History Month, Attorney General Eric Holder called America “nation of cowards” when it comes to discussing race. And a few weeks ago when a Philadelphia newspaper ran a piece on “Being White in Philly,” Mayor Michael Nutter responded by calling for a formal rebuke of the paper. This is what happens when political and media elites try to shape public opinion. Maybe it’s time to give a redneck and a rap star a voice in the conversation. Country boy Brad Paisley, who was born and raised about 40 minutes up the Ohio River from my hometown, and rapper LL Cool J certainly want to be heard. They’re trying to bring enlightenment to the race debate through the lyrics of Paisley’s new song, “Accidental Racist,” which approaches the subject from the perspective of a white Southerner wearing a Confederate flag and black man in a do-rag. Here’s a snippet from Paisley’s part in the duet:
And here’s LL Cool J’s take on the current state of racial affairs: Filed under: Culture and Entertainment and History and Media and Music and News & Politics and People and Redneck Music and Rednecks Comments: None |
|
Posted on 03.06.13 by Danny Glover @ 11:02 pm
Washington changes politicians. No matter how much they may want to stay true to their roots, they start thinking like the people they spend most of their time with inside the Beltway instead of those they represent back home. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., illustrates this unfortunate phenomenon perfectly. The redneck who did this in his first Senate campaign … … is now guilty of this very Washingtonian attempt at message control:
Manchin’s regression toward “typical Washington politician” has been gradual. He first started going weak in the knees about gun control after then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., was shot in 2011. Manchin voiced second thoughts about the “Dead Aim” campaign ad he had run a few months earlier. Filed under: Hunting & Guns and Media and News & Politics and Video and West Virginia Comments: 1 Comment |
|
Posted on 02.02.13 by Danny Glover @ 3:53 pm
Millions of Americans fear that President Obama is going to infringe their Second Amendment right to bear arms. Guns and ammunition have been selling so fast that Walmart is now rationing them to address the demand. Obama wants to restrict access to guns, but he first he has to win the PR battle. That’s why he’s talking about how he shoots skeet “all the time” at Camp David — and why he released a photo to appease the skeptics who doubt that claim. 
Sorry, Mr. President, firing a shotgun occasionally won’t earn you any street cred among rednecks who cling to their guns ever tighter when politicians like you start plotting to weaken gun rights. You’re no Paul Ryan. Update: The picture of Obama as skeet-shooter-in-chief is great ammunition for Photoshop fun. Here are a couple of spoofs from my Facebook news feed today:
Filed under: 1980s and Business and Culture and Hunting & Guns and Media and News & Politics and People and Photography and Rednecks Comments: None |
|
Posted on 01.02.13 by Danny Glover @ 7:30 am
Seventeen years ago when my wife and I moved to Manassas, Va., this ink-stained wretch found himself in the heart of a newspaper boom town. With a population of less than 35,000 at the time, Manassas was the target audience of three local daily newspapers, the Manassas Journal Messenger, Potomac News and Prince William Journal. The Washington Post also had a small local bureau in the city. The Internet revolution was in its infancy then, but as the news editor of Congressional Quarterly’s BillWatch legislative database, I had transitioned into the digital space and was an early convert to the gospel of digital media. I wanted to believe that daily print newspapers had a future but was skeptical. The move to Manassas gave me hope. My hope for daily newspapers, at least as we old-timers know them in newsprint, died on Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. That was the last day of publication for the News & Messenger, the product of an Oct. 13, 2008, merger between the Journal Messenger and Potomac News.  
World Media Enterprises, owned by Warren Buffet, who has been buying newspapers across America for two years, blamed the demise of the News & Messenger on bad business conditions. “We do not see a long-term viable way to maintain a daily news operation here,” the company said upon announcing the decision in mid-November. So Manassas is starting the New Year without its own daily newspaper, ending an era that dates to at least 1869 when the Journal Messenger started publishing. “We can only hope that the existing papers among us ratchet up their daily coverage of our community in our sudden absence,” the News & Messenger said in its farewell editorial. My friend Mark Tapscott, who once served as editor of the Prince William Journal and who now serves as executive editor of the Washington Examiner that absorbed the Journal Newspapers in 2004, shared his thoughts with me on the closing of the News & Messenger. “The biggest puzzler here,” he said, “is how a county of 400,000 people doesn’t have sufficient demand to support at least one newspaper or website devoted to local news.” The good news is that we may. While we in Manassas won’t have our own daily newspaper anymore, the larger Prince William County will have two weekly newspapers and two websites covering local news in the future. Filed under: Advertising and Business and History and Media and News & Politics and Social Media Comments: None |
|
Posted on 10.30.12 by Danny Glover @ 1:42 pm
The girl in the photo is Kim Stafford, and she’s not from Alabama. She grew up in Massachusetts and attends an liberal arts university in the western part of her home state. The school doesn’t even have a Greek system, and she’s a registered Democrat who plans to vote for Obama next week. But the reason Stafford has become the subject of Internet ridicule is because people who don’t know any actual rednecks are so willing to believe the worst about those rubes from places like Alabama or West Virginia or even Pennsylvania. I suspect that somewhere along the Internet chain, a liberal with a chip on his shoulder about the tea party movement decided to add fiction to Stafford’s satire. He or she added phony details about the photo to get other redneck haters riled, and voila, an Internet legend was born. Stafford has tried to rebut the lies on her own blog, one with a vulgar phrase that captures the essence of redneck bigotry, but the Internet meme persists. People will believe what they want to believe about rednecks. As for me, I’d rather be an enlightened rube than an uniformed dupe who clings to fables. Filed under: Hatin' On Rednecks and News & Politics and People and Photography and Rednecks and Technology and West Virginia Comments: None |
|
Posted on 09.14.12 by Danny Glover @ 2:33 pm
That’s how graphic artist Sam Ward began describing his vision for remaking the USA Today logo, the cornerstone of a rebranding campaign by America’s second-largest newspaper. And it only got worse from there. Sadly, USA Today chief marketing officer Maryam Banikarim liked Ward’s vision so much that she shared it in detail with the whole team, complete with repeated, anatomically suggestive references to “balls.” The memo sounds like it was written by a teenage boy — one determined to ply his creative trade outside the box:
The memo earned plenty of well-deserved scorn from readers of media reporter Jim Romenesko. Here are samples of the feedback on his Facebook page:
Sam Ward and Maryam Banikarim, you are definitely “outsiders” — and that’s not a good thing. Filed under: Business and Media and Outside The Box and People Comments: None |
|
Posted on 09.13.12 by Danny Glover @ 4:41 pm
I have never voted for Rep. Ron Paul for president and can’t vote for his son, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, because he’s not from my state. But philosophically, I’m a fan of both. Listen to Sen. Paul decry the era of “Government Bullies He talked about the book on “Fox & Friends” this week: Paul is a good spokesman for the Leave Us Alone Coalition Filed under: Books and Government and Media and News & Politics and People and Video Comments: None |
“, the title of his new book, and you may become a fan, too.
so clearly defined by Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform in his 2009 book.|
Posted on 09.11.12 by Danny Glover @ 12:47 pm
For the record, Vice President Joe Biden did not invite a biker lady to sit on his lap. He did the gentlemanly thing and pulled up a chair so she could get her picture taken with him. A smart photographer captured the candid moments after the posed picture, and people on Twitter started a rumor about something that didn’t happen the way they saw it.
Sadly, I fell for the Twitter hype about the photo. I’m glad to have heard the rest of the story. Also for the record, pizza entrepreneur Scott Van Duzer did hug President Obama during a campaign trip to Van Duzer’s Florida restaurant — and people are protesting the pizza shop over the hug. Obama haters flocked to the website Yelp to give Big Apple Pizza negative reviews for political rather than culinary reasons.
As an American, I support people’s right to register any political protest they desire, but I also reserve my right to expose some such antics for what they are — petty politics. Van Duzer, a Republican who voted for Obama in 2008 and plans to do so again, is right: “There’s no middle line anymore, and that’s exactly what’s wrong with our country right now.” Scott Van Duzer appears to be a good man, and he is doing good work through his own foundation. He shouldn’t be catching business grief for hugging, or even voting for, President Obama. Disagree with his political views if you want — I do — but leave his business out of it. If I lived in Fort Pierce, Fla., I would be heading to Big Apple Pizza to buy a pie and show my support for the right of small businessmen to freedom of political speech and action. As a conservative, I cannot expect the same — remember the Chick-fil-A uproar — but this is a clear opportunity to “treat others the same way you want them to treat you” (Luke 6:31). Filed under: Business and Food and Human Interest and News & Politics and People and Photography and Religion Comments: 1 Comment |
|
Posted on 09.07.12 by Danny Glover @ 4:22 pm
Unfortunately, Candy Corn Oreos are not an imaginary nightmare on Main Street. They are about to become a reality at Target stores thanks to some evil marketing genius with a sick sense of humor. The news is all over the Internet today, and I knew before I read it that someone covering the story was sure to use the phrase “outside the box,” which too often is synonymous with bad ideas. I’ve explained my animosity toward that phrase before. Now, with the introduction of Candy Corn Oreos, I’ve decided to revive my regular ridicule of the concept with a new feature on this blog. Consider this the first official installment of “Outside The Box.” While we’re talking about nasty attempts at sweet treats, enjoy comedian Tim Hawkins’ take on the subject to start your weekend: Filed under: Advertising and Business and Food and Holidays and Human Interest and Just For Laughs and Outside The Box and People and Video Comments: None |
|
Posted on 09.05.12 by Danny Glover @ 6:44 pm
This gem just surfaced in my Facebook news feed:
We need a sign like it at our local pavilion, where on Labor Day a skateboarder decided to do jumps while wearing baggy jeans. His pants fell to mid-thigh every time he hit the ground, exposing his plaid boxers for everyone else to see. Tacky! Filed under: Culture and Just For Laughs and Photography Comments: None |
|
Posted on 08.31.12 by Danny Glover @ 12:58 pm
Earlier this week, West Virginia State Police Cpl. Marshall Lee Bailey was killed in the line of duty during a traffic stop along the interstate. Another officer, Trooper Eric Michael Workman, was shot and is on life support. (Update: Workman died today after being taken off life support.) The outpouring of compassion for state police since then has been remarkable. Almost immediately on Facebook, my West Virginia friends posted status updates about the shooting. Some asked people to pray for the dead and wounded, even the suspect who shot the two state policemen, a sheriff’s deputy and a truck driver who had arrived to tow the suspect’s victim. (The shooter, Luke Baber, was killed on scene.) Several shared this request:
People in the state did not restrict their concern to heartfelt but easy Facebook comments, though. They took action offline as well. The generous gestures have included deliveries of Wendy’s sandwiches to the scene of the shooting, more deliveries of food trays and pizza to state police headquarters the day after the shooting, an impromptu donations for the families of the officers, and frequent phone calls from people asking how they can help. “The generosity and the kindness we’ve been shown is just amazing,” said Sgt. Michael Baylous, the state police spokesman. The response is typical for West Virginians, and it isn’t limited to public officials. My state family bestowed similar kindness on journalists in 2010 when they come to cover a coal-mining tragedy. “These people are extraordinary,” one journalist wrote of his experience. Filed under: Media and News & Politics and People and Rednecks and Weather and West Virginia Comments: None |
|
Posted on 08.27.12 by Danny Glover @ 8:19 pm
Once upon a time, the family newspaper and its local broadcast equivalents cared enough about wholesome conversation to filter the profanities lest they offend the sensibilities of their readers, listeners or viewers. Either news executives don’t care anymore or their audiences have no sensibilities, or both, because the cussing is everywhere in journalism. The latest evidence: The a-word is all over NPR. It has appeared in NPR coverage 22 times in the past year, most often when sources say it on air. Worse, when a publication has a fit of common sense by not assaulting readers with vulgar, suggestive language, it faces ridicule for being puritanical. That’s what happened to the Los Angeles Times and other publications that showed discretion in not publicizing the name of a certain Russian punk band that has been in the news recently. The shaming worked. Within days, the name of said punk band was being repeated in headline after headline of the Times. Filed under: Culture and Education and Media and News & Politics and People and Religion Comments: None |
|
Posted on 08.27.12 by Danny Glover @ 8:19 am
Does this make you want to eat Little Baby’s Ice Cream? I didn’t think so. But it did make more than 2 million people want to watch the ad on YouTube. The ad clearly accomplished the goal of introducing more people to the Little Baby’s brand — enough of them that President Obama’s campaign paid to build a preview of its “Blatant” ad into the video pre-roll, which is what played when I just watched the Little Baby’s ad. But few consumers are likely to rush out and buy ice cream pitched as the key to “glistening skin” and “clean and clear pores.” Just the thought of eating Little Baby’s now makes my stomach turn. All I see are scary eyes and hairy cream. Filed under: Advertising and Business and Food and Just For Laughs and Video Comments: None |
| previous posts » |
