Wouldn't you know it

Danica is heading up to her parents' house for the weekend (she's helping her mom with the city-wide rummage sale), and I'm home with the dog and my homework/studying for the weekend.

So wouldn't you know it that I come home for lunch to let the dog out and--on the way out of the garage to go back to work--find out that our tub is leaking? Rather, I should probably say that the pipes leading into our tub are leaking, since the tub isn't currently holding any water. It's a slow drip, so right now all I've done is take the drywall panel off and remove the insulation below the pipes, but this is sure to be interesting. I might be buying those plumbing supplies a little earlier than I had planned.

And I have a feeling the dandelions in our front yard may be staying there for a few more days...

Things we need to know

I wanted to write a little bit about what I'm thinking regarding the news of prisoner abuse/torture in Iraq, and why I don't think Rumsfeld should resign. I also wanted to search for a timeline of events so that I could better gauge whether my opinions are supported by the facts. But Lileks beat me to both; he explained why Rumsfeld should stay, and he linked to a timeline at The Mudville Gazette.

Saves me a busy lunch hour, I guess.

FYI

Blogcritics.org is back up after a server problem and a subsequent move to a new server. If it isn't loading for you still, the DNSs may not have caught up with the change yet.

Whose side do you want to be on?

Meirav was two

(via Michele)

"Do they think we're retarded?" returns

Forgot about this category for a while, but a perfect demonstration of the Strib's rat-bastard finkery partisanship (yes, I've wanted to drop even the Sunday Strib and just subscribe to the comics, the ads, and the classifieds, but that doesn't seem possible; I settle for not reading much of the paper itself, just to keep my blood pressure in a happy range) brought it back to mind.

And so, a compare and contrast exercise, in which praise of Kerry and criticism of Bush are in blue, and praise of Bush and criticism of Kerry are in red. I also "blued" and, er, "redded" statements directly and paraphrased from both candidates, as well as indications that the author decided to spin what one of the candidates or their supporters said. Click for the extended entry to proceed:

Continue reading ""Do they think we're retarded?" returns"

Unintentional bias sighting

Last night, for some reason we had the WCCO news on, and kept it on because we were curious about Don Shelby's health problems. Anyway, they went through the day's news, and talked about Bush's bus tour through the Midwest. Nothing unusual there, except the way they decided to describe those states (and I'm paraphrasing here, obviously, but I think I'm pretty close):

... includes states that have lost the most jobs since he took office...

Uhh, ok, let's push aside the real reason those states are being visited:

Friday's visit also concludes a week that features the president's first bus tour of the campaign - a time-worn populist touch - and takes Bush through the heart of the industrial Midwest (starting with Michigan on Monday and Ohio on Tuesday).

Add Wisconsin and Iowa, and the four states account for nearly a third of the electoral votes that are considered to be in play nationally.

They also account for one of every six manufacturing jobs in the country, making them a key venue for the jobs debate at the fore of the 2004 campaign. Together, the four states have lost 15% of their manufacturing jobs in three years.

I'll ignore that they focused on the "jobs issue," because the job losses are certainly a factor in the political equation, as the last paragraph explains.

However, there's more to find in there. "...since he took office..." (again, paraphrasing, but it's pretty close if not exact). Not "since the recession started," which would be the most neutral way to say it. Nope, we had to make the connection to Bush because, as we all know, he was able to cause a recession the first 3 months he was in office (or, you know, maybe before he took office). Pay no attention to the internet bubble behind the curtain, people!

I am 99.99999% sure that whoever wrote that story for 'CCO had no intention of passing along his/her personal bias, but I'm almost as sure that s/he wasn't very concerned with eliminating it either. And without constant reminders to do so (or having it ingrained in them from an early age), why would they spend the extra time to do so?

What I want to know is, why are Minnesota lawyers required to take an "elimination of bias" class, while journalists are free to sneak in whatever biases they can get past their (often equally-biased) editors?

I know, wrong kind of "bias," but they're the ones who chose the word "bias" instead of "racism," not me. I am merely propagating their inability to use precise language for my own purposes.