Bent Corner

It’s turns out that John McCain’s newest best buddy Joe Wurzelbacher isn’t really even a plumber.

From MSNBC:

Joe the Plumber, American’s most famous tradesman, said Thursday he doesn’t have a license and doesn’t need one.

Joe Wurzelbacher, better known as Joe the Plumber, the nickname Republican John McCain bestowed on him during Wednesday’s presidential debate, said he works for a small plumbing company that does residential work. Because he works for someone else, he doesn’t need a license, he said.

The article goes on to state that Wurzelbacher is the one lone employee of Newell Plumbing and Heating located in nearby Toledo.  Evidently owner Al Newell has a plumbing license, so Wurzelbacher supposedly does not need one.

If Newell Plumbing and Heating is clearing over $250,000 a year, why doesn’t the current owner hire some more workers?  That way, Wurzelbacher wouldn’t have to work 10 to 12 hours a day, seven days a week like John McCain says he does.

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John McCain claims that the Wall Street bailout bill he voted for last night in the Senate puts the country on the brink of economic disaster. Gee, then why did he vote for it?

Maybe the world “brink” means something different then what I think it does. I don’t think so, but the alternative is that McCain is just plain nuts.

I heard this morning on MSNBC that the cast of 300 is advising Barack Obama on foreign policy.  I think this is very good news for the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.  They certainly know a thing or two about fighting Persians.  That could come in handy when it comes to dealing with Iran.

With the Olympics drawing near, MSNBC and NBC News have been dedicating a lot of coverage to the athletes that will be representing the United States in Beijing this summer. If I didn’t know any better, I would think they were allowing the fact that the “games” are being televised on NBC to motivate them into treating the Olympics as news.

I was watching MSNBC this morning and they were talking about the U.S. Olympic swimming trials currently taking place in Nebraska. The story was about the swimsuits the Olympians will be wearing and how they make the swimmers extremely fast. This was news to me since I was under the impression that Olympic swimming is done in the nude.

Evidently it’s not.

The “news” story got me thinking about competitive swimming and how the general public really doesn’t care too much about it. Sure, it gets some attention every four years at the Olympics, but not much attention is paid to swimming the rest of the time.

Why is that?

We live on a planet where 86% of it’s surface is covered with water.  We live on a water planet. You would assume that people living on a world covered with so much water would live and breath swimming. You would think there would be professional swimming leagues enjoyed and followed by millions. Swimmers such as Katie Hoff and Michael Phelps would be household names.

Most people know how to swim. Most people have spent at least some time in the water. We should be able to identify with what these Olympic swimmers are doing and value the exceptional ability they have in the water. The way they are able to rocket themselves through the water is simply awe-inspiring.

We should care about swimming or we should move to Mars.

I’m getting tired of websites that have keyword spam in the title. For example, go to MSNBC and bookmark it. Instead of it simply displayed as MSNBC in your bookmarks, it appears as the following:

Breaking News, Weather, Business, Health, Entertainment, Sports, Politics, Travel, Science, Technology, Local, US & World News - msnbc.com- msnbc.com

They have combined what should be the description with the title. This results in a very lengthy and confusing title in your bookmarks. It’s lengthy, unsightly, and totally unnecessary. It’s hard enough keeping bookmarks organized and efficient without content providers junking up the title with spam words. They’ve spent millions of dollars over the years creating the MSNBC brand name. People already associate MSNBC with the news. They don’t need to beat people over the head with it.

MSNBC isn’t the only one doing this. Too many websites do this.  I wish they would all stop.

From Keith Olbermann’s Sept 20, 2007 “Special Comment“:

And in pimping General David Petraeus, Sir, in violation of everything this country has been assiduously and vigilantly against for 220 years, you have tried to blur the gleaming radioactive demarcation between the military and the political, and to portray your party as the one associated with the military, and your opponents as the ones somehow antithetical to it.

So why can Keith Olbermann use the p-word when describing a four-star Army general, but David Shuster gets suspended for using the word in connection to 27 year old Chelsea Clinton?

My guess it’s because General Petraeus doesn’t care what someone like Keith Olbermann says about him, while Senator Clinton chose to make a Big Deal out of Shuster’s comment. Playing the victim doesn’t look too presidential to me.  If she wants to be president, she needs to buck it up just a little bit. Chelsea Clinton’s not a 12 year old little girl anymore. She is an educated, grown woman that makes her own choices.  She agreed to personally call celebrities and superdelegates to ask them to vote for her mother.  No one forced her.

Hillary Clinton threatened to not participate in a debate sponsored by MSNBC later this month. We should be very leery of politicians that threaten news organizations.

Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul did a phone interview this morning on MSNBC to respond to being called a “crackpot” by correspondent David Shuster. This was in response to Ron Paul’s factually incorrect and totally asinine assertion that Abraham Lincoln “started” the Civil War. Ron Paul went on to claim that the hosts of the morning show had simply not read the right history books concerning the Civil War. He even went on to tell host Jack Jacobs that he was not “brave enough” to read the right American history books.

Not brave enough?

Jack Jacobs is a retired Army Colonel and Congressional Medal of Honor recipient. He also holds three Bronze Stars, two Silver Stars, and two Purple Heart Medals.

Being that Ron Paul is a member of Congress, perhaps he has heard of the Congressional Medal of Honor. It’s the most revered and respected honor in the entire military. Not only is any recipient of the Medal of Honor brave, they are the epitome of bravery. If there is one thing a person who holds the Congressional Medal of Honor should never have to worry about is having their bravery called into question on national TV by a member of Congress. Even if that member of Congress is a whack-job.

When will Ron Paul’s followers realize their idol doesn’t deserve their unwaivering worship?

First Ron Paul said that Abraham Lincoln started the Civil War. Now he claims a distinguished war hero isn’t brave enough to read a certain history book. What will Ron Paul say next? Whatever it is, it’s sure to be entertaining.

Update: Video from Ron Paul’s interview is now up on YouTube, but the first part where he claims Col. Jack Jacobs is not brave enough to read a book that says Lincoln started the Civil War is missing from the video. I was able to find an audio only version that includes the statement by Ron Paul. It’s right about at the 6:40 mark.

I promise that I’m not going to permanently blog about the Don Imus “nappy-headed ho” controversy, but I tend to write about things that interest me. Sometimes I write about funny books. Sometimes I write about politics. Like I said, I blog about things that I find interesting.

Right now, I’m finding the Imus story interesting.

Yesterday’s New York Daily News ran a story about one of the ministers that was calling for Imus to be fired. The man’s name is Reverend DeForest Soaries and he hails from New Jersey. He claims to be one of the first to call for Imus to be fired. I’m not sure if this entitles him to print up t-shirts and trucker hats stating this fact, but I guess only time will tell.

He tells of being asked to act as a liaison between the Rutgers basketball team and Imus by Rutgers coach Vivian Stringer, a member of his flock. Not that I really understand why a liaison was needed. Soaries tells the New York Daily News of meeting with Imus in New York to discuss meeting with the team. As it turns out, the meeting took place minutes if not seconds after Imus found out he was fired from MSNBC.

“I became more of a pastor to him than the facilitator of the meeting,” he said.

“We didn’t even talk about what I was supposed to be there for. I needed to be with him spiritually. This was a man who’d just got big, bad news and he needed me to listen to him.

“He didn’t cry, but I could see he was in pain. He tried to joke, but it was a mask for that pain. He seemed hurt by what had happened to him.

“He felt somewhat betrayed by certain people. He didn’t name anybody, but he thought certain people could have given him more time.

“He thinks he should have been given the chance to meet the team first, that if those people could see he was truly repentant, then CBS and MSNBC would see it that way, too.

“I had words of consolation for him, even though I was one of those asking for him to be fired.”

I’m glad that Reverend Soaries could console and act as a paster to Imus. The last time I checked, that is what our holy men are supposed to do. They aren’t supposed to demand that people be fired from their jobs. They are supposed to act as spiritual counselors.

They are supposed to be advocates for forgiveness. At least the Christian ones. Forgiveness is what the Christian faith is based on. It’s what Jesus preached about. It’s what he commanded us to do to each other. To forgive. Something not a lot of the reverends involved in the Imus controversy have been doing.

Forgiveness means that you don’t demand somebody to be fired.

Shouldn’t Reverend Soaries have kept silent about ministering to Imus? Doesn’t he have some sort of ethical obligation to keep quiet about consoling Imus?

I’m sure Reverend DeForest Soaries did nothing wrong by speaking to the New York Daily News about the meeting. I can tell by looking at his photo that Reverend DeForest Soaries is a very honorable man. Did you notice the way he sits with his chin resting in the palm of his hand? He looks to be very thoughtful and insightful. Plus, I see from his photo that he fancies shirts with French cuffs. Nothing speaks integrity more then fancy French shirts.

Imus on the other hand wears cowboy clothes.