Journalism is dead. Sean Hannity told me so. Next week, ABC News will cover a town hall meeting from the White House where Barack Obama plans to discuss health care. It will be a policy meeting where Obama will field questions on his proposed health care policies. Presumably, both supporters and skeptics will have a chance to speak. Sean Hannity, among other outspoken pundits on Fox News, think this is nothing more than an infomercial for health care policies they don't agree with disseminated by a complicit media outlet under the guise of news to a public not saavy enough to know when someone is feeding them a line. So basically, they're accusing ABC News of being copycats. It's not the opinions expressed on Fox News that offends me so much, I believe there's a place in the media for all voices, even those as disgusting as some of the garbage pettled by the likes of Beck, O'Reilly and Hannity. Government, business and social leaders need a strong, dissenting voice, and these days we're sure as heck not getting it from MSNBC. That said, the twisted nature of Fox News' reports, pushing obviously biased reports off as news, twisting comments and spinning news and ...

Yes, I know this video is more than a year old, but I thought I'd share in case you haven't seen it. I promise you, watching the full four minutes is worth it. This eighth grader owns Monica Conyers and tells her exactly what we've all been wanting to say for years. Check out the YouTube video here.

Stolen from my friend Justin, who I'm sure stole it from someone else. 1) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning. 2) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall. 3) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract. 4) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal. 5) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Brittany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed. 6) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children. 7) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children. 8) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the ...

George W. Bush (via last.fm) I had a couple weird dreams last night. In the first, my father and I were at a newspaper where I was recently on site. We were trying to cut through the building to save time on our way somewhere. We got lost and I fell into the press while it was running. The weirder dream had me trying to hear a speech by President Bush. I drove up to where he was speaking — it was a big, outdoor affair on the water. People were gathered around the edges of a lake, watching him on the opposite shore on a large stage. I bounced around in a little, red convertible, trying to find a place to watch. Eventually, he spoke and I missed it. Suddenly, as I was leaving the grounds, there was President Bush in the seat next to me. As we drove around looking for something to eat, we discussed how media coverage of his administration and the Obama administration has differed. He recounted all the things the mainstream media should have nailed Obama on but didn't and just kept saying "It's not fair! They were so much more critical of me than they are ...

I'm not an anti-religious person. I'm definitely not an atheist, or even an agnostic. I think there's a God, and I think he (or she?) is up there, writing clever songs that misuse words like Ironic and working daily to thwart plans by the devil (who was often disguised as girls I'd date.) In any case, I believe that God has his hands full just pulling the levers and pushing the buttons that make the world go around. It's a big job keeping this rock spinning in the right direction. God sure as heck doesn't have time to bless your favorite sports team, help you on your exam or keep you safe on an airplane. Which brings me to a ridiculously annoying letter that appeared in the Muskegon Chronicle yesterday. Letter: Why didn't flight crew mention God? Dena Malda, Muskegon On the Feb. 8 "60 Minutes" program, we were captivated while viewing the Katie Couric interview of the crew and passengers of Flight 1549. However, we were struck there was not one mention of God, who directs pilots of planes and secures the safety of passengers.We have written CBS and asked them for more realistic programming. Help protect our freedoms. Write CBS about this. I fly ...

Image by lucianvenutian via Flickr I was in Adrian, Michigan for work earlier this week. About lunch time, the IT guy suggested we go to a little, out of the way taqueria that he insisted makes the best tamales. If that's the house specialty, I should have known enough to go with the recommendation, but when the IT guy ordered burritos, I followed his lead. I can honestly say, it was the single worst meal I have ever had in my entire life (and look at me, I've had a lot of meals.) To truly understand the catastrophe that was this meal, let me start from the beginning: Adrian isn't a gigantic metropolis, but it's not a hillbilly town either. I thought I was in for a treat when we started rolling through a rough part of town and noticed signs on storefronts written in Spanish. This wasn't going to be some Chili's or On the Border or something, I thought, this will be authentic. I was right on one account, it didn't taste anything like Chili's or On the Border, those places actually have good food. So the IT guy pulled into the parking lot of one of those 24-hour, do-it-yourself car wash ...

Image via WikipediaIn the early days of the American republic, the fate of this new experiment in republican government stood on a precipice. How would the new country survive if it couldn't pay off its foreign debts and get its economy jump started? Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton had a plan. James Madison opposed it, and the two sides debated fiercely in the halls of government and out. It was only after the two sat down at a dinner hosted by Thomas Jefferson that a settlement was reached. The two men, although firmly entrenched on their sides of the debate, compromised — Hamilton got his fiscal plan and Madison earned for his native Virginia the site of the nation's capital. It's hard to imagine the demagogues of today breaking bread and reaching a compromise in the interest of the country. Instead, while the Obama administration and leaders in Congress on both sides of the aisle toil over a stimulus plan to pull out of this recession, people like Rush Limbaugh and Michelle Malkin stir up the masses in the hopes of increasing their audience and selling books. First, Rush said he hoped Obama would fail as a President, a statement that has ...