It’s SJI’s weekly open forum, where thoughts and opinions on any topic are welcome. What’s on your mind?
47 Comments
This website would be a great training facility for NASA communications specialists.
The average lag time between the posting of a comment and any chance of receiving a reaction to that comment is equivalent to communicating by radio with an astronaut who is 8 billion miles (12 light hours) away.
So if you want to have an idea of the challenges that will be faced by the blogger of the future- rocketing through space out beyond the orbit of Pluto, to participate in even the most competently run website which gets updated on a regular basis, then SJI is definitely the place to learn.
Mike Cassidy’s top-of-the-front-page plea today (Sept. 13, 2009) to help the San Jose Mercury News was an interesting example of how the Merc twists things into conformity with its own deformed view of reality in San Jose.
Cassidy insists we provide the Merc with “solutions—new, brilliant, creative solutions” when in fact the Merc is so wedded to its Seventies’ Weatherman Underground views that I doubt it can even understand new solutions.
America = Evil
For a good example of why it will never reduce its virulent anti-American impulses, recall the vicious and dishonest essay by Patty Fisher (June 17, 2009) about American history. In Fisher’s view, this is an evil, hateful country with no redeeming qualities. That there was no rebuttal from anyone at the Merc signals the Merc’s institutional complicity in her hatred for America.
Christianity = Evil
The Merc has demonstrated its anti-Christian bigotry numerous times. One of the most overwhelming examples was how a couple of years ago the Merc condensed twenty years of accusations against, and convictions of, Roman Catholic priests into one massive smear campaign that plainly suggested that the crimes arose out of Christianity, and outside of a frequently encountered endorsement of Seventies-based bizarre sexual behavior. Readers do not see a similarly presented smear against those from other religions or philosophies and there are plenty of similar events—the cover-up and one sided propaganda is blatant.
Whites = Evil
The Merc is deeply anti-white as shown by three pieces of evidence:
The diverse white American peoples are regularly and uniformly presented to readers as not diverse—when have you ever seen recognition of white diversity in essays or articles that fawn over the diversity of other demographics?
The diverse white American peoples are never presented as Americans when other demographics are always presented as Americans.
The diverse white American peoples are never referred to by their continent of origin similarly to African Americans and Asian Americans.
In the view of the Merc, “whites” are just “whites” (not even people!) unless they are “non-Hispanic whites.”
To smother the wonderful diversity of white Americans who originated in Europe is a viciously institutionalized campaign to present these peoples to readers from other demographic groups in a wholly dishonest and negative way. The Merc is an institution deeply convinced about the loathsome qualities uniquely to be found among the diverse white American peoples.
Merc = Deformed View Of Reality
In my first paragraph above, I referred to the way the Merc twists things into conformity with its own deformed view of reality, and here are three quotes from Cassidy in his essay today that demonstrate this:
“The Mercury News remains a powerhouse of talent, intellect and dedication.” Says who? Other Weathermen? And if so, why can’t that talent write in a balanced way about factual material?
“No news outlet has more reporters working to tell you what is going on in San Jose and Santa Clara County.” There may be more reporters, but they rarely tell you what is going on with school issues, bond and tax issues, scandals involving the Merc’s pet politicians, or local events. And don’t even use the words “follow through” because after exciting news breaks, the stories die without resolution.
“I’ve (Cassidy) grown up here, learned how to be a journalist here, learned to respect and listen to readers—after all, readers are why we show up every day.” I count no fewer than four Big Lies in that one sentence.
Good luck to the Merc in recognizing its need to reform.
This is EXACTLY the root of the Merc’s (and Big Newspaper’s) diminishing relevance.
The internet and twitter didn’t kill newspapering. What killed newspapers was the abandonment of “journalism” in favor of “mass communication”.
An essential first step in saving newspapers would be to sweep through the ownership and editorial spaces, round up everyone with a “mass communication” degree or a “diversity” poster, frog march them out the door, and then hire some real, thinking, analytical, skeptical JOURNALISTS.
H. L. Mencken didn’t get tingles up his leg writing worshipful paens to Woodrow Wilson. Mencken saw the flaws and vanity in the politicians of the day and told his readers the politically incorrect unvarnished truth.
Has the Merc in its entire existence ever written one unkind syllable or punctuation mark about, oh say, Barbara Boxer or Barack Hussein Obama.
Boxer and Obama are just two instances of the Merc’s “deformed reality”.
How many more instances of deformed reality does a paying customer need to experience before he concludes that Big Newspaper really doesn’t offer any added value over Big Alphabet Network or Big Public Employee Union, or Big Trial Lawyers, or Big Mass Entertainment.
We have learned that the Valley Water District is pursuing a plan by friends and allies of Dick Santos to build a concrete sea wall around the Bay, meaning the death and destruction of local birds and wetlands. Jamie McLeod has been enrolled in this scheme as Santos has never met an egret he liked, and McLeod has been secretly trying to put forward the plan as an advocate for a Hunters Point stadium to build support for the Water District.
That’s my proposal for the San Jose Medical Center site (17 acres on Santa Clara Street.) We dwell on pragmatic and doable developments so much that we’ve forgotten how to dare to dream and think big and then find it within ourselves to achieve more than we ever thought possible.
The joint library project came up as a casual brainstorming idea between Mayor Susan Hammer and SJSU President Bob Caret while the new SJSU President and new Mayor were reaching for ways to change the relationship. The final project ended up more popular and successful than either of the previous seperate libraries, and increased library usage, leveraged a city wide library branch rebuilding effort, and added a new landmark that bridged SJSU and the emerging “reimagined” downtown.
Let’s think big again. How many prisons have we built in the last 20 years? How much has state and local payrolls grown with special projects that supported vague missions without clear metrics for success?
How many H1 visa have we had to issue for doctors and engineers while our children struggle through the pipeline of higher education starting at community colleges to have their hopes dashed long before they make it to a graduate program.
SJ and California has a need for more science, medicine and engineering talent. We already have some of the best teacher and nursing education in the state at the CSU campus. Let’s move heaven and earth and think outside the box to create a new urban UC campus to focus on biotech, engineering and education. We can build endowments that challenge public school students to maintain levels of achievement through high school that will not only grant them admission but scholorships to this new University.
That’s my thought for the day. If we confine ourselves merely to the pragmatic and push the best possible development using sparse private funds, we’ll get a moderately dense McDevelopment with shades of Santana Row tapering back to single family low density homes and a token Valley Med clinic thrown in to meet the stated desires of the neighbors to preserve the medical function of the closed hospital (and spend the $50 million in bonded money raised for that purpose.)
I will use this excerpted boast from Mr. Cassidy’s piece to question the dismal quality of the Mercury’s operational “intellect.”
“The Mercury News compiled statistics that supported a suspicion that some in the Latino community had held for years: San Jose Police officers make many more arrests for conduct crimes, such as disturbing the peace and public drunkenness, than other major California cities and that Latinos make up a disproportionate number of those arrested. City hall and the department itself have called for changes, including all but decriminalizing public drunkenness, except for serial offenders.”
If we validate the reckless assumption demonstrated above, that being that suspicion + statistics = actionable proof, then it would be very easy to use statistics to validate—and demand the government to remedy, just about every claim made by the United Northern & Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in its 2009 flyer, “Ten Steps to a Better America.” In it, the Klan calls for: an end to free trade, immigration, foreign aid, and discrimination against whites; support for gun rights, small businesses, the teaching of Christian values, and increased law and order.
It would take but a few hours to locate statistics supporting the KKK’s demands, statistics demonstrating the benefits behind the demands, statistics every bit as malleable as those used so irresponsibly by the Mercury in discrediting our police department, but that would hardly constitute any proof of intellect. Quite the contrary, only idiots and liars would ever attempt to explain away complex human issues using convenient statistics that tell only a small part of the story. So, if Mr. Cassidy is to believed, if the Mercury staff is truly blessed with sound intellects, then one could only conclude them to be liars.
Isn’t it good strategy to to know your enemy? When trying to refute/dismiss as garbage a position I disagree with, I try to find out what that position is.
Your comment could be easily (and I suspect intentionally) interpreted as implying that finfan is a KKK sympathizer, so of course everything he or she says should be disregarded, right? That’s not way to have quality discourse. Facebook is a better venue for snarky remarks.
My hand is raised and from now on I’m boycotting the “Reply to this comment” feature.
This fiasco is a good example of what happens when you take a system that’s already working for most people and, due to the grumbling of a few, screw it up for everybody.
The Law of Unintended Consequences never sleeps.
The previous comment structure was better.
Instead of messing with a good thing and screwing it up in the process, how about a SEARCH box so you can locate articles and comments by subject, keywords, authors, or dates.
That way I can check what comments I made that I’ve forgotten.
Think SEARCH!!!!!
pgp of Surf City.
I am honored to discover that after reading my post your only comment was observational; clearly you were either in complete agreement with my thoughts, or simply devoid of any thoughts at all. If the former, I appreciate the endorsement; if the latter, I congratulate you on your typing skills.
As for my knowing “what the KKK advocates,” if you would like some tips on how to use your computer to search for information let me know, I’ll be happy to tell you where to go.
MODERN VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving..
CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.
America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green.’ Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton stage a demonstration in front of the ant’s house where the news stations film the group singing, ‘We shall overcome.’ Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper’s sake.
Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.
Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Ant Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around him because he doesn’t maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow.
The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.
“The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.” – Cicero – 55 BC
It appears that the bogus quote orginated in a 1965 novel, “A Pillar of Iron,” by Taylor Caldwell.
It might have been based on a similar quote: “The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome fall.”
If you don’t like history, I guess you can make it up.
Perhaps the right lesson to learn over the past 2063 years is that we should be skeptical, check our sources, and refrain from spreading untruths that distort public discussion.
How did Mike Cassidy get the job of saving the Mercury News? Shouldn’t the publisher Mac Tully be leading this conversation? If the Mercury News wants to start a discussion about its future, the community needs to hear from those with the power to make real changes.
In case anyone’s interested in supporting a good cause, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Association of Santa Clara Valley is holding a Working Women’s Awards Breakfast, Saturday, Oct. 17th, from 10am-1pm, at the Dolce Hayes Mansion in San Jose. Tickets are on sale now. Advanced tickets are $55.00 for general admission, $45.00 for students/seniors over 65, proof of status with ID. Send you checks to PO Box 4738, San Jose, Ca. 95150-4738. Make checks payable to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Association. (Tickets are $10.00 more at the door.) Seating is limited.
All proceeds go to educational materials and scholarships for low income, minority students.
John Galt,
No one is discriminated against. Anyone can apply and receive scholarships as long as they meet the requirements set forth, and RACE is NOT one of them.
Somehow, your clarification has confused me even further.
So low income white kids can qualify but only minority kids can qualify if they’re not low income?
Or is race absolutely not a factor and your use of the word “minority” completely erroneous and misleading?
Do you have any data that breaks down the amounts awarded to the various ethnic groups?
I guess I just don’t understand why it was ever necessary to use the word “minority” if race is in no way a factor. It kind of gives the impression that it IS a factor. I mean, just turn it around and ask yourself what kind of reaction you’d get if you stated that the “scholarships are available to low-income and white students.” Wouldn’t you expect that to raise some eyebrows?
And thanks for the invitation, but I won’t be attending the breakfast. I used to be quite a generous person when it came to charitable giving. But now that the government gives so much of my money to “the poor” for me I’m much less inclined to do so.
Quite a shame really.
Either you’re pulling mine and Christian’s leg, or you’ve never applied for scholarships before so I’ll try and break it down in the most simple way I can. In every situation where donations are made to students for scholarships, the donating party has a right to set forth their own conditions on who gets the money. These are NOT government funds. They are funds given by private parties or private businesses.
When I was in college I was in my 30s. I received scholarships and grants that were designated for older, returning students. I received scholarships for journalism, as well as, scholarships for females only. I also received scholarships for having a GPA over 3.5.
So the term low income means just that, low income. The term minority means just that, minority. So if the scholarship is for low income and minority students it means no one rich, regardless of race will be qualified to receive the scholarship. Does that make it clearer?
Will you be attending the breakfast? All proceeds go to educational materials, and scholarships.
Eric,
As usual the Merc’s article makes Cindy look like she committed some kind of wrongdoing. This type of bias, yellow journalism really ticks me off. It is so irresponsible.
You think getting paid nearly $80k to set up a foundation that basically has no money should make her look good? She came in as a highly paid consultant, left with a bag load of money, and what did the District get in return?
Sometimes it’s the truth that makes someone look bad and it is not the fault of the media for reporting it.
JMO,
Everyone has a right to the presumption of innocence. We don’t have ALL the facts. I think there needs to be a Civil Grand Jury investigation into this. I also think if this were unknown consultant the news wouldn’t be so sensationalistic! Targeting Cindy for the failings of others is really ridiculous to me. She has a son, bills to pay, and a mortgage just like the rest of us. Why bash her for trying to earn a living when she was hired to do a job she is more than qualified to do?
I think that any entity should pay professionals what they are worth, IF they can afford it! My comments pertain to the way the reporter wrote the story. I think the idiots who took that kind of money a way from students are the ones that are wrong here, not Cindy. Why isn’t anyone holding the arrogant employers responsible for taking money a way from the kids? Come on let’s be honest here and look at the facts. This isn’t the first time they’ve robbed students of money they shouldn’t have.
I think the folks that hired her look bad and should be held accountable, not Cindy. Since when is earning a living to support your family a crime? The crime for me is that they considered hiring a consultant in the first place. I’ve been on many Boards as a volunteer. I raise money for good causes for FREE all the time, and believe me in these past 4 years that hasn’t been easy. The Boards I’m on go after bright, skilled folks who DONATE their time. Hint, don’t you think that is what the idiots who hired Cindy should have done instead of taking money they didn’t have a way from the schools, and kids?
And secondly, as I said to JMO, if this were someone none of us had ever heard of, and not Cindy Chavez, I don’t think it would matter to the public half as much, nor would the Murkey “bias” News have sold as many newspapers.
You don’t really believe that this story was responsible for selling a single issue of the paper, do you?
The newspaper business has changed a whole lot over the years and I doubt anyone bought the Merc because of this story.
What “bias” are you talking about. They reported what happened. A foolish school board (shall we say dysfunctional) hired an expensive consultant to do a job that appears to have acheived abysmal results. Sounds like enough blame to go around for everyone.
I guess it is all in your perception of how you see the story. Ask SJPD, Dolores Carr, or anyone else the Murk goes after if they think that fair and factual writing happens on the issue the Murk is reporting. (A term I use reluctantly by the way.)
They beat up Republicans, anti-immigration folks, and on and on.
This just in: the Mexican Heritage Plaza founders, in a fit of self congratulation, have awarded themselves a plaque for extraordinary achievement and fiscal acuity. The plaque contains various cultural symbols but lacks The most representitive icon for that project: $ sign. This fifty million dollar flop has sucked dollars from all segments of our town and still the “Silly Council” can’t figure out what should be done with it.I say make the wasteful “Stupidvisor” who is most responsible for it live there and for good measure, carefully place the hedious El Poo Poo en El Parque (all $700,000.of it) right in the middle. And with that selfserving business done,the Plaza Founders then awared (posthumously) the navigator of the Titanic a plaque for excellence in navgation.
I love the hideous El Poo Poo en El Parque now that I read about how the artist was originally doing something different but after the city kept pestering him about it (story abbreviated for the sake of brevity) he abandoned his previous design and produced El Poo Poo. Every time I see it I smile, and sometimes I laugh, too. Maybe we should let that be a lesson to us about producing crappy design. Too bad we didn’t have that as an example before we built the Convention Center.
This website would be a great training facility for NASA communications specialists.
The average lag time between the posting of a comment and any chance of receiving a reaction to that comment is equivalent to communicating by radio with an astronaut who is 8 billion miles (12 light hours) away.
So if you want to have an idea of the challenges that will be faced by the blogger of the future- rocketing through space out beyond the orbit of Pluto, to participate in even the most competently run website which gets updated on a regular basis, then SJI is definitely the place to learn.
The current “Post a Comment” feature is equally maddening.
Let’s return to the prior system/layout.
Mike Cassidy’s top-of-the-front-page plea today (Sept. 13, 2009) to help the San Jose Mercury News was an interesting example of how the Merc twists things into conformity with its own deformed view of reality in San Jose.
Cassidy insists we provide the Merc with “solutions—new, brilliant, creative solutions” when in fact the Merc is so wedded to its Seventies’ Weatherman Underground views that I doubt it can even understand new solutions.
America = Evil
For a good example of why it will never reduce its virulent anti-American impulses, recall the vicious and dishonest essay by Patty Fisher (June 17, 2009) about American history. In Fisher’s view, this is an evil, hateful country with no redeeming qualities. That there was no rebuttal from anyone at the Merc signals the Merc’s institutional complicity in her hatred for America.
Christianity = Evil
The Merc has demonstrated its anti-Christian bigotry numerous times. One of the most overwhelming examples was how a couple of years ago the Merc condensed twenty years of accusations against, and convictions of, Roman Catholic priests into one massive smear campaign that plainly suggested that the crimes arose out of Christianity, and outside of a frequently encountered endorsement of Seventies-based bizarre sexual behavior. Readers do not see a similarly presented smear against those from other religions or philosophies and there are plenty of similar events—the cover-up and one sided propaganda is blatant.
Whites = Evil
The Merc is deeply anti-white as shown by three pieces of evidence:
The diverse white American peoples are regularly and uniformly presented to readers as not diverse—when have you ever seen recognition of white diversity in essays or articles that fawn over the diversity of other demographics?
The diverse white American peoples are never presented as Americans when other demographics are always presented as Americans.
The diverse white American peoples are never referred to by their continent of origin similarly to African Americans and Asian Americans.
In the view of the Merc, “whites” are just “whites” (not even people!) unless they are “non-Hispanic whites.”
To smother the wonderful diversity of white Americans who originated in Europe is a viciously institutionalized campaign to present these peoples to readers from other demographic groups in a wholly dishonest and negative way. The Merc is an institution deeply convinced about the loathsome qualities uniquely to be found among the diverse white American peoples.
Merc = Deformed View Of Reality
In my first paragraph above, I referred to the way the Merc twists things into conformity with its own deformed view of reality, and here are three quotes from Cassidy in his essay today that demonstrate this:
“The Mercury News remains a powerhouse of talent, intellect and dedication.” Says who? Other Weathermen? And if so, why can’t that talent write in a balanced way about factual material?
“No news outlet has more reporters working to tell you what is going on in San Jose and Santa Clara County.” There may be more reporters, but they rarely tell you what is going on with school issues, bond and tax issues, scandals involving the Merc’s pet politicians, or local events. And don’t even use the words “follow through” because after exciting news breaks, the stories die without resolution.
“I’ve (Cassidy) grown up here, learned how to be a journalist here, learned to respect and listen to readers—after all, readers are why we show up every day.” I count no fewer than four Big Lies in that one sentence.
Good luck to the Merc in recognizing its need to reform.
Merc = Deformed View of Reality
This is EXACTLY the root of the Merc’s (and Big Newspaper’s) diminishing relevance.
The internet and twitter didn’t kill newspapering. What killed newspapers was the abandonment of “journalism” in favor of “mass communication”.
An essential first step in saving newspapers would be to sweep through the ownership and editorial spaces, round up everyone with a “mass communication” degree or a “diversity” poster, frog march them out the door, and then hire some real, thinking, analytical, skeptical JOURNALISTS.
H. L. Mencken didn’t get tingles up his leg writing worshipful paens to Woodrow Wilson. Mencken saw the flaws and vanity in the politicians of the day and told his readers the politically incorrect unvarnished truth.
Has the Merc in its entire existence ever written one unkind syllable or punctuation mark about, oh say, Barbara Boxer or Barack Hussein Obama.
Boxer and Obama are just two instances of the Merc’s “deformed reality”.
How many more instances of deformed reality does a paying customer need to experience before he concludes that Big Newspaper really doesn’t offer any added value over Big Alphabet Network or Big Public Employee Union, or Big Trial Lawyers, or Big Mass Entertainment.
We have learned that the Valley Water District is pursuing a plan by friends and allies of Dick Santos to build a concrete sea wall around the Bay, meaning the death and destruction of local birds and wetlands. Jamie McLeod has been enrolled in this scheme as Santos has never met an egret he liked, and McLeod has been secretly trying to put forward the plan as an advocate for a Hunters Point stadium to build support for the Water District.
Will everybody who prefers the old comment structure please raise a hand?
<thrusts right hand into air>
I am raising both my hands to that
UC San Jose
That’s my proposal for the San Jose Medical Center site (17 acres on Santa Clara Street.) We dwell on pragmatic and doable developments so much that we’ve forgotten how to dare to dream and think big and then find it within ourselves to achieve more than we ever thought possible.
The joint library project came up as a casual brainstorming idea between Mayor Susan Hammer and SJSU President Bob Caret while the new SJSU President and new Mayor were reaching for ways to change the relationship. The final project ended up more popular and successful than either of the previous seperate libraries, and increased library usage, leveraged a city wide library branch rebuilding effort, and added a new landmark that bridged SJSU and the emerging “reimagined” downtown.
Let’s think big again. How many prisons have we built in the last 20 years? How much has state and local payrolls grown with special projects that supported vague missions without clear metrics for success?
How many H1 visa have we had to issue for doctors and engineers while our children struggle through the pipeline of higher education starting at community colleges to have their hopes dashed long before they make it to a graduate program.
SJ and California has a need for more science, medicine and engineering talent. We already have some of the best teacher and nursing education in the state at the CSU campus. Let’s move heaven and earth and think outside the box to create a new urban UC campus to focus on biotech, engineering and education. We can build endowments that challenge public school students to maintain levels of achievement through high school that will not only grant them admission but scholorships to this new University.
That’s my thought for the day. If we confine ourselves merely to the pragmatic and push the best possible development using sparse private funds, we’ll get a moderately dense McDevelopment with shades of Santana Row tapering back to single family low density homes and a token Valley Med clinic thrown in to meet the stated desires of the neighbors to preserve the medical function of the closed hospital (and spend the $50 million in bonded money raised for that purpose.)
John, I’m with you, but without numbered responses, how does one describe the comment one is referring to?
And I’m with you on the law of unintended consequences. Hopefully we don’t get to watch that play out in <insert your political cause here>.
Re: Dale Warner’s topic,
I will use this excerpted boast from Mr. Cassidy’s piece to question the dismal quality of the Mercury’s operational “intellect.”
“The Mercury News compiled statistics that supported a suspicion that some in the Latino community had held for years: San Jose Police officers make many more arrests for conduct crimes, such as disturbing the peace and public drunkenness, than other major California cities and that Latinos make up a disproportionate number of those arrested. City hall and the department itself have called for changes, including all but decriminalizing public drunkenness, except for serial offenders.”
If we validate the reckless assumption demonstrated above, that being that suspicion + statistics = actionable proof, then it would be very easy to use statistics to validate—and demand the government to remedy, just about every claim made by the United Northern & Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in its 2009 flyer, “Ten Steps to a Better America.” In it, the Klan calls for: an end to free trade, immigration, foreign aid, and discrimination against whites; support for gun rights, small businesses, the teaching of Christian values, and increased law and order.
It would take but a few hours to locate statistics supporting the KKK’s demands, statistics demonstrating the benefits behind the demands, statistics every bit as malleable as those used so irresponsibly by the Mercury in discrediting our police department, but that would hardly constitute any proof of intellect. Quite the contrary, only idiots and liars would ever attempt to explain away complex human issues using convenient statistics that tell only a small part of the story. So, if Mr. Cassidy is to believed, if the Mercury staff is truly blessed with sound intellects, then one could only conclude them to be liars.
Wow. finfan knows what the KKK advocates. Who would have thought? What a surprise.
Isn’t it good strategy to to know your enemy? When trying to refute/dismiss as garbage a position I disagree with, I try to find out what that position is.
Your comment could be easily (and I suspect intentionally) interpreted as implying that finfan is a KKK sympathizer, so of course everything he or she says should be disregarded, right? That’s not way to have quality discourse. Facebook is a better venue for snarky remarks.
Pat (1st comment),
My hand is raised and from now on I’m boycotting the “Reply to this comment” feature.
This fiasco is a good example of what happens when you take a system that’s already working for most people and, due to the grumbling of a few, screw it up for everybody.
The Law of Unintended Consequences never sleeps.
The previous comment structure was better.
Instead of messing with a good thing and screwing it up in the process, how about a SEARCH box so you can locate articles and comments by subject, keywords, authors, or dates.
That way I can check what comments I made that I’ve forgotten.
Think SEARCH!!!!!
pgp of Surf City.
Pat (9/13/09 1:28 PM),
There, how’s that?
And yeah. It’d be a shock to the nation to see Joe Wilson proven right.
Kline, et al,
I am honored to discover that after reading my post your only comment was observational; clearly you were either in complete agreement with my thoughts, or simply devoid of any thoughts at all. If the former, I appreciate the endorsement; if the latter, I congratulate you on your typing skills.
As for my knowing “what the KKK advocates,” if you would like some tips on how to use your computer to search for information let me know, I’ll be happy to tell you where to go.
MODERN VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving..
CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.
America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green.’ Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton stage a demonstration in front of the ant’s house where the news stations film the group singing, ‘We shall overcome.’ Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper’s sake.
Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.
Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Ant Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around him because he doesn’t maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow.
The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.
So what have we learned in 2,063 years ?
“The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.” – Cicero – 55 BC
Evidently nothing…
Quote is too good to be true: http://quotationsbook.com/quote/45485
It appears that the bogus quote orginated in a 1965 novel, “A Pillar of Iron,” by Taylor Caldwell.
It might have been based on a similar quote: “The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome fall.”
If you don’t like history, I guess you can make it up.
It is a joke that aptly shows that history eventually repeats its self. Get it?
Perhaps the right lesson to learn over the past 2063 years is that we should be skeptical, check our sources, and refrain from spreading untruths that distort public discussion.
That’s not a joke.
Perhaps developing a sense of humor wouldn’t hurt either.
How did Mike Cassidy get the job of saving the Mercury News? Shouldn’t the publisher Mac Tully be leading this conversation? If the Mercury News wants to start a discussion about its future, the community needs to hear from those with the power to make real changes.
Christian (9/14/09 10:51 AM),
That Cicero was a pretty smart dude.
Good post, Christian. You’re finally catching on!
In case anyone’s interested in supporting a good cause, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Association of Santa Clara Valley is holding a Working Women’s Awards Breakfast, Saturday, Oct. 17th, from 10am-1pm, at the Dolce Hayes Mansion in San Jose. Tickets are on sale now. Advanced tickets are $55.00 for general admission, $45.00 for students/seniors over 65, proof of status with ID. Send you checks to PO Box 4738, San Jose, Ca. 95150-4738. Make checks payable to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Association. (Tickets are $10.00 more at the door.) Seating is limited.
All proceeds go to educational materials and scholarships for low income, minority students.
Let us know when they’re holding the Working Men’s Awards Breakfast, will you?
White kids need not apply?
Score: Cindy Chavez—$79,000.00, ESUHD kids—$4,470.
And to think she could have been mayor of SJ.
John Galt,
No one is discriminated against. Anyone can apply and receive scholarships as long as they meet the requirements set forth, and RACE is NOT one of them.
Oh. I’m confused. What did Christian mean by “minority students”?
John Galt I left out the “and”. It should read low income and minority students. I think you know the definition of minority.
Somehow, your clarification has confused me even further.
So low income white kids can qualify but only minority kids can qualify if they’re not low income?
Or is race absolutely not a factor and your use of the word “minority” completely erroneous and misleading?
Do you have any data that breaks down the amounts awarded to the various ethnic groups?
I guess I just don’t understand why it was ever necessary to use the word “minority” if race is in no way a factor. It kind of gives the impression that it IS a factor. I mean, just turn it around and ask yourself what kind of reaction you’d get if you stated that the “scholarships are available to low-income and white students.” Wouldn’t you expect that to raise some eyebrows?
And thanks for the invitation, but I won’t be attending the breakfast. I used to be quite a generous person when it came to charitable giving. But now that the government gives so much of my money to “the poor” for me I’m much less inclined to do so.
Quite a shame really.
Either you’re pulling mine and Christian’s leg, or you’ve never applied for scholarships before so I’ll try and break it down in the most simple way I can. In every situation where donations are made to students for scholarships, the donating party has a right to set forth their own conditions on who gets the money. These are NOT government funds. They are funds given by private parties or private businesses.
When I was in college I was in my 30s. I received scholarships and grants that were designated for older, returning students. I received scholarships for journalism, as well as, scholarships for females only. I also received scholarships for having a GPA over 3.5.
So the term low income means just that, low income. The term minority means just that, minority. So if the scholarship is for low income and minority students it means no one rich, regardless of race will be qualified to receive the scholarship. Does that make it clearer?
Will you be attending the breakfast? All proceeds go to educational materials, and scholarships.
JMO’C,
We can only hope that those parents who worked so hard to raise that $115k for the district will realize that, through her skim, Cindy took 70& of it.
I thought the SOS $$ raised by the parents was different $$ than what the district paid Cindy.
I believe JMO’s correct—it’s different money. Chavez’s salary was apparently paid by the district two years ago.
There’s a summary and link to the Merc story here: http://www.sanjose.com/top-stories-sept-16-2009-a21541
Eric,
As usual the Merc’s article makes Cindy look like she committed some kind of wrongdoing. This type of bias, yellow journalism really ticks me off. It is so irresponsible.
K: you think it’s RIGHT that of $84k she kept $79 of it?
You think getting paid nearly $80k to set up a foundation that basically has no money should make her look good? She came in as a highly paid consultant, left with a bag load of money, and what did the District get in return?
Sometimes it’s the truth that makes someone look bad and it is not the fault of the media for reporting it.
JMO,
Everyone has a right to the presumption of innocence. We don’t have ALL the facts. I think there needs to be a Civil Grand Jury investigation into this. I also think if this were unknown consultant the news wouldn’t be so sensationalistic! Targeting Cindy for the failings of others is really ridiculous to me. She has a son, bills to pay, and a mortgage just like the rest of us. Why bash her for trying to earn a living when she was hired to do a job she is more than qualified to do?
I think that any entity should pay professionals what they are worth, IF they can afford it! My comments pertain to the way the reporter wrote the story. I think the idiots who took that kind of money a way from students are the ones that are wrong here, not Cindy. Why isn’t anyone holding the arrogant employers responsible for taking money a way from the kids? Come on let’s be honest here and look at the facts. This isn’t the first time they’ve robbed students of money they shouldn’t have.
I think the folks that hired her look bad and should be held accountable, not Cindy. Since when is earning a living to support your family a crime? The crime for me is that they considered hiring a consultant in the first place. I’ve been on many Boards as a volunteer. I raise money for good causes for FREE all the time, and believe me in these past 4 years that hasn’t been easy. The Boards I’m on go after bright, skilled folks who DONATE their time. Hint, don’t you think that is what the idiots who hired Cindy should have done instead of taking money they didn’t have a way from the schools, and kids?
And secondly, as I said to JMO, if this were someone none of us had ever heard of, and not Cindy Chavez, I don’t think it would matter to the public half as much, nor would the Murkey “bias” News have sold as many newspapers.
You don’t really believe that this story was responsible for selling a single issue of the paper, do you?
The newspaper business has changed a whole lot over the years and I doubt anyone bought the Merc because of this story.
What “bias” are you talking about. They reported what happened. A foolish school board (shall we say dysfunctional) hired an expensive consultant to do a job that appears to have acheived abysmal results. Sounds like enough blame to go around for everyone.
I guess it is all in your perception of how you see the story. Ask SJPD, Dolores Carr, or anyone else the Murk goes after if they think that fair and factual writing happens on the issue the Murk is reporting. (A term I use reluctantly by the way.)
They beat up Republicans, anti-immigration folks, and on and on.
This just in: the Mexican Heritage Plaza founders, in a fit of self congratulation, have awarded themselves a plaque for extraordinary achievement and fiscal acuity. The plaque contains various cultural symbols but lacks The most representitive icon for that project: $ sign. This fifty million dollar flop has sucked dollars from all segments of our town and still the “Silly Council” can’t figure out what should be done with it.I say make the wasteful “Stupidvisor” who is most responsible for it live there and for good measure, carefully place the hedious El Poo Poo en El Parque (all $700,000.of it) right in the middle. And with that selfserving business done,the Plaza Founders then awared (posthumously) the navigator of the Titanic a plaque for excellence in navgation.
RIP Mary Travers
I love the hideous El Poo Poo en El Parque now that I read about how the artist was originally doing something different but after the city kept pestering him about it (story abbreviated for the sake of brevity) he abandoned his previous design and produced El Poo Poo. Every time I see it I smile, and sometimes I laugh, too. Maybe we should let that be a lesson to us about producing crappy design. Too bad we didn’t have that as an example before we built the Convention Center.