CBS News: Walter Cronkite's First CBS Evening Newscast

Source:The New Democrat

CBS News making history and for good reasons in 1963 with the first half-hour newscast. Which was a huge deal back in the early 1960s when TV networks were all about entertainment and sports, because that is where the money was back then. And whatever time they had left over and the minimal amount of time that the Federal Government required them to cover current affairs, meaning news, that is what they would dedicate to news coverage. Which back then was news in the morning and covering major events like press conferences, presidential speeches and political conventions.

CBS Evening News: Dan Rather-George H.W. Bush Tiff The Day After

Source:The New Democrat

I haven't seen this video in about three years and I saw it then on YouTube. And if I heard anything about it as a kid in 1987 when this interview was conducted when I was 11-12 at the time, I don't remember. So I don't remember this interview very well to say the least, but a post about that interview and the interview itself will be on this blog in the future. What I can say about it is whatever you think of Dan Rather, the man was a tough hardball interviewer who liked to go after people in power. George H.W. Bush was Vice President of the United States at the time, so he obviously qualified.

NFL Films: Johnny Unitas- The Master of the Quarterback Position

Source:NFL Films- Baltimore Colts QB John Unitas. 

Source:The Daily Journal

When you talk about the greatest quarterbacks of all-time as well as greatest players of all- time who ever played, whether they are still playing, or not you have to talk about John Unitas as well or it's a meaningless conversation. Because John Unitas changed the way the game was played and introduced things that were never done before. He called his own plays, was the field coach, everyone on the Colts teams knew who was their most important player and the one guy they couldn't afford to lose, every team that played the Colts knew who was the one player that they couldn't let beat them.

Without Johnny Unitas, the Colts are a solid team perhaps a winning team but with Unitas the Colts were a championship contender from the mid 1950s until the early 70s, he was their Larry Bird or Earvin Johnson, Jim Brown whoever you want to put on that list. That one guy who was the Colts MVP every year he was there practically and a guy who could've won the NFL MVP almost every year he played, because he was that guy he was that great the difference in the Colts winning the championship or being a mediocre team.

The only other two guys that I would compare to Unitas after he retired as as far as what they meant to their teams and how great they were would be, Joe Montana and John Elway. You take those two guys away from the San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos and you can make a very good case that both franchises are still looking for their first Super Bowl Championship.If you judge players by whether they were great or not and should be in the Hall of Fame or not, I have four standards that players have to pass just to be eligible with me.

Was the player one of the best players at his position during his career?

Was he one of the best players in the league during his career?

Would he be a great player in any era that he played and was he a great player based on the previous standards for a long enough period of time?

Typically great NFL Players play around 10-13 seasons. So for me, most players aren't great as soon as they walk in the league. They need about three seasons to see whether they can be a great player or not, sometimes longer than that. And a lot of great players aren't great towards the end of their career, Jim Brown would be an exception to that. So for me if a player is great 6-8 years lets say, as well as meeting the other standards I just laid out then they are a Hall of Famer as far as I'm concern. But John Unitas had all of that plus so much more. You're not going to find a tougher QB or a better QB in the clutch. Plus the fact that he was the Colts offensive coordinator on the field. He called their plays, he invented the two minute drill and made fourth quarter comebacks popular and exciting.

John Unitas wasn't a QB but a great player who played QB. "What do I have to do to win the game", that's all he cared about. If you took the lead late in the fourth quarter against the Colts in the fifties and sixties with Unitas, you were probably going to lose. Because now you have to face the master and you have to figure out how to defend one player with eleven and most teams couldn't do that. The New York Giants found that out the hard way in the 1958 NFL Championship. They tried to take away the pass and Unitas calls a trap play up the middle and Alan Ameche runs for 20 plus yards that put the Colts in field goal position. Which would've won the game in overtime. But they had Unitas and were thinking touchdown and that's why the Colts won the most important game in NFL history.
Source:NFL Films: Johnny Unitas

Real Time With Bill Maher: New Rule - Stupid People

Source:The Daily Journal  

Bill Maher loves to make fun of the Christian Right, or does a damn good job of impersonating someone who loves to make fun of the Christian Right, so good he should win an Oscar. Why not they are big easy target, kinda like aiming at an ocean from a beach. So why not shoot, instead of comedians and bloggers actually sitting down and putting their hand to their chin and going "hum what should I write about now". How about just listen to ignorant people talk and make fun of them instead. Thats what I always say anyway, or just said it actually thats the first time I just said that, but who's counting, well I guess I just did.

I mean think about who's easier to make fun of then ignorant people, especially when they're in charge like I don't know in the White House, or Congress.

Examples of doing dumb things-

Sending the country to war based on false intelligence to use as an example. Trying to link Iraq with Al -Quada, which is like trying to link a prostitute with the Southern Baptist Convention. They don't go together, sure there are Southern Baptists that like Prostitutes, but they generally don't go together. Or trying to link homosexuality with the 9/11 Attacks. If these people weren't so stupid, I might be mad at them just because of their hate. But since they are so stupid, its hard for me not to feel anything, but sorry for them. They are victims of our public education system and not being raised right.

And because of this, the rest of society gets to laugh at them and put up with them. Here's another one, Catholics can't go to heaven because they aren't Baptist. Isn't Heaven meant for good people. When we don't raise our kids right, or make sure they get a good education, they suffer the consequences of that of course. And a lot of them end up in our criminal justice system generally as guests. But the rest of society, sure gets some new easy big targets to shoot at, like a blimp over a stadium. (In other words Rush Limbaugh) But we have to deal with their stupidity, their lack of intelligence. Like what we had on Iraq before we went to war. Especially when they are pressured to run for high office to help their party. Because of their name recognition and who their father is and they end up having to make decisions.

The presidency isn't  ignorant politicians, or it sure as hell shouldn't be.  Can you imagine what it must of been like for Condolezza Rice to explain intelligence reports to George W. Bush. She must of had to use drawings or try to compare military combat with football games or something. This whole idea, or attacking another country because they may attack you in the future. First of all our national defense is so strong that would never happen. Because any foreign fighter plane or planes or warships that attempted to invade the United States because of our radar system would first be warned before they got close or could launch an attack. And then we could blow them away as well. The rest of the world knows this, which is why we haven't been attacked by a foreign military inside America since 1941.

Ignorant people on the Far-Right and Far-Left are fun to make fun of, lets just admit that. We can't or shouldn't be nice to everyone. For every Saint that we have, we need a few (pardon the term) assholes to keep it real. So most of the country can stay within striking distance of reality. (When they aren't high) But we need to remember that we pay a price for ignorance as a country, especially when it reaches high office. Because we as a country or state lets say, have together paid a price for their stupid decisions. So lets do our part to prevent as many future ignorant people in the future as we can.

George Carlin: Stupid Bullshit

Source:FreeState MD

Imagine a world without stupidity, hey that's the title of this blog, well sort of, sometimes it helps to pay attention to what you are writing, but sometimes it can also cost you. Because you might think that "damn I'm a bad writer" and if you are wondering about the language? Well the title of this blog should've been a very big clue. Like the size of a dinosaur actually and if that's still not big enough for you, then you are part of the stupid bullshit problem in America that's holding us down.

But seriously imagine a world without stupid bullshit and as you are imagining that, imagine a world without Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, Michael Moore, Melissa Harris-Perry, to name some examples. You think a world without stupid people, well that could be big problem. Because who would we have to make fun of anymore. I thought of that and decided its a chance worth risking because. Of all the stupidity that would be moved to Siberia or some place in hell like that. As the smart people are now in charge.

Imagine a world where we had politicians and other public officials who actually knew what the hell they were doing. We wouldn't go to war over bogus evidence because we would have a President and a National Security Council who actually knew how to read intelligence reports. We wouldn't have a fiscal cliff because we would have a President and a Congress who would be smart enough not to put the country through that. We wouldn't have a sequester because we wouldn't have a President and a Congress who were smart enough not to cut things across the board.

Meaning cutting parts of government that we need as much as waste in government. You might think a world without stupid people would be a problem. Because we would have a Congress that actually knew what the hell they were doing and start being very productive as passing a lot of legislation and as a Liberal I generally believe more laws that are passed, the less freedom that we would have. But think about it this way, no more stupid people in Congress, House or Senate. And replaced by people who actually know how to write good legislation.

A world without stupid people would be a world with a no stupid zone. To sort of borrow  Bill O'Reilly's no spin zone and Billy wouldn't be allowed in the no stupid zone because it would be a world without stupidity and things like intolerance, racism, homophobia. And other types of bigotry would be eliminated. Because all the stupid people would be rounded up because they wouldn't have the same constitutional rights as smart people. And the stupid people would be sent to Siberia or some place and the smart people would rule the world.

M*A*S*H: The Best From Season One

Source:The New Democrat

I've been asked a lot in my lifetime all thirty-eight years of it by people who know me, but perhaps not very well, people who I'm friendly with. "How do you describe your sense of humor"? Because if I'm friendly with you and we get along and open up with each other, my humor will come out of lot because it is a big form of communication for me. Because I use it to basically let people know how I'm doing and how I'm feeling.

I have a real good friend who I met in high school over twenty years ago. (Damn that makes me feel old!) Who gets the same question, actually her sister asked him that the same question. Actually she asked us together one night when we were hanging out together. And I'm going to give you the same answer as I gave her and my buddy feels the same way. Because we essentially have the same sense of humor. Actually he stole mine, and I'm borrowing someone else's, but anyway. We both have a low-tolerance for stupidity, stupid questions or people acting stupid. And we use our spontaneous sense of humor to let people know what we think of that.

I posted the video of M*A*S*H in this blog because that show had the same sense of humor. Looking for funny moments in life wherever possible and doing it in the worst circumstances possible. Thousands of miles away from home in a land they perhaps never heard of before the Korean War. And having to try to save as many lives as possible in the heart of this war. When they could've been killed at any time, but using that humor to keep their sanity. And joy for life as much as possible as so many people around them lost their lives.

What makes M*A*S*H the best sitcom of all time is the writing and this style of humor. And Alan Alda who in many ways was playing himself when he was playing Captain Dr. Benjamin Hawkeye Pierce the Chief Surgeon of this 4077 M*A*S*H Unit. Unlike a lot of the sitcoms of today that are cookie cutter and use each other's material. Or lines they picked up from the last hit movie comedy or latest hit comedian. M*A*S*H used their own lines that hadn't been written before or only heard by very few people. And the humor was based around finding the funniest and stupidest things in a horrible situation. To keep their joy of life alive

Jim Heath: CBS News Election 1982 Highlights

Source:The New Democrat

The recession of 1981-82 was huge and cost Congressional Republicans especially in the House a lot of seats. House Republicans lost something like thirty-five seats. Going from the low 190s in the House to the upper 150s where they were going into the 1980 general election. So House Republicans especially lost everything that they picked up in 1980 in 1982. Similar to House Democrats that lost everything that they picked up in 2006 and 08 in 2010. Senate Republicans managed to retain control of the Senate after 1982, but they lost a couple of seats as well.