News Update: Change

Regular readers of this blog are familiar with Hans' News Feed, your virtual afternoon newspaper (easy URL: www.HansMeyer.net/News).

While I will continue updating the news feed daily I will be discontinuing this daily update.

My news feed will continued to be featured on the home page of the Free World Radio Network, and is accessible on my personal site, HansMeyer.net.

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In the Spotlight: Exposing the Lies

Welcome to In the Spotlight, a semi-regular feature of this blog, where I highlight one or more of the links on my personal Web site, www.HansMeyer.net.

Yesterday I posted the article, The Right-Wing Smear Forward, which is the motivation for today's In the Spotlight.

I'll be highlighting two sites, on my Information links page, dedicated to either confirming or exposing as lies the seemingly unlimited amount of urban legends and gossip found on Web sites and (even more so) in chain mail e-mail messages* we all receive.

The first site is Snopes (also known as Urban Legends):

The other site is Break the Chain, which specifically targets the chain mail messages* we all receive:

* - I like to refer to some of these chain mail messages as a poor person's computer virus. Instead of spreading themselves automatically they use the recipients of the message to do the spreading for them.

You can spot them easily: They're the ones which have a line reading: Forward this to everyone you know, or Forward this to everyone in your address book. If you see that in an e-mail message check with Snopes or Break the Chain. Chances are it is a fake message.

As an added bonus I am including, from my Humor links page, My Right-Wing Dad, a collection of right-wing'ed forwards:


You'll find quite a collection of right wing nut chain e-mail messages, which some people, believe it or not, actually take as the truth!

(go to www.HansMeyer.net/Links, then click on Information or Humor).

Click here for this and previous In The Spotlight posts.

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In the Spotlight: Safeguarding the Separation of Church and State, Protecting Religious Liberty

Welcome to In the Spotlight, a semi-regular feature of this blog, where I highlight one or more of the links on my personal Web site, www.HansMeyer.net.

Today I'll be highlighting several sites dedicated to, as the first site says, "Safeguarding separation of church and state, protecting religious liberty."

1 First Freedom First - Safeguarding separation of church and state, protecting religious liberty:

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State:

Freedom from Religion Foundation - Protecting the Constitutional Principle of the Separation of State and Church:

Theocracy Watch - The Rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party (a public information project of the Center for Religion, Ethics and Social Policy at Cornell University):

Blog Against Theocracy - This is a link archive of those blogs participating in the Blog Against Theocracy blogswarms. The next blogswarm is July 1-4, 2007 :

(go to www.HansMeyer.net/Links, then click on Opinion for 1 First Freedom First and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. Click on Information for Freedom from Religion Foundation and Theocracy Watch. Click on Blogs for Blog Against Theocracy.)

Click here for this and previous In The Spotlight posts.

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In The Spotlight: Holding Politicians Accountable

Welcome to In the Spotlight, a semi-regular feature of this blog, where I highlight one or more of the links on my personal Web site, www.HansMeyer.net.

Today I'll be highlighting two sites dedicated to "Holding Politicians Accountable" by examining their words and advertisements, and highlighting truths, half-truths, half-lies, and outright lies.

First up is Annenberg Political Fact Check, which is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania:


The next site, PolitiFact.org, is a new site, established by the St. Petersburg Times of Florida and Congressional Quarterly of Washington, D.C., to monitor truth in 2008 presidential claims.

On a side note, I have been reading the St. Petersburg Times for almost forty years now. Fortunately, it is available each day here in Tallahassee. I highly recommend this newspaper for its journalistic integrity, whether in print or on-line.

From the St. Petersburg Times Web site:

In 1975, Nelson Poynter established the Modern Media Institute (now known as the Poynter Institute for Media Studies) as a non-profit educational institution to teach and research journalism, and to which he left his stock in the Times Publishing Company. (read the entire history of the St. Petersburg Times)

It was this move which enabled the St. Petersburg Times to remain independent and to keep it from being taken over by a media conglomerate.

With thanks to Randy Wooden, of the Wooden Foundation, for alerting me to FactCheck.org and PoltiFact.org.

Go to www.HansMeyer.net/Links, then click on Information for FactCheck.org and PoltiFact.org, or click on Traditional Media Sites for the St. Petersburg Times.

Click here for this and previous In The Spotlight posts.

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In the Spotlight: Chickenhead

Welcome to In the Spotlight, a semi-regular feature of this blog, where I highlight one or more of the links on my personal Web site, www.HansMeyer.net.

Today I'll be highlighting Chickenhead, a source for some of the best humor on the Web:

First up, The Absolute Bottom 50... (Behold! Lists upon lists of the unimaginably horrible!). Here you will find lists like Biblical Commandments, Fetishes and (naturally) Blogs:

Next up, Comic Strip, two panes of absolute mirth,and "fascinating minutiae":


Then there's Bannertown (Welcome to Bannertown - where old Chickenhead parody advertisements go to die). In addition to the link I'm including some choice banners:




Finally, some Buddy Icons to close out this In The Spotlight:

That's Chickenhead, which can be found on my Humor page (go to www.HansMeyer.net/Links, then click on Humor). Click here for this and previous In The Spotlight posts.

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In the Spotlight: LiLEKS.com

Welcome to In the Spotlight, a semi-regular feature of this blog, where I highlight one or more of the links on my personal Web site, www.HansMeyer.net.

Although we would probably disagree on politics, James Lileks (LiLEKS.com - Unpacking the Past With Joy and Ambivalence Since 1996) has some of the funniest Web pages on the Internet.


There really are too many different sites to individually highlight here, so I'll just go with a few of my favorites.


My first *ahem* taste of LiLEKS humor:


The Gobbler Motel and Supper Club (as Lileks says, "What were they thinking?"):


"Come for the fun; stay for the gigantic cat-eyed fangfish.":

"Class. Pure class. That's what the entire catalog ooses...":


From Lilek's Flotsam Project:


And one of my favorites:


Finally, the one which is probably nearest and dearest to a computer nerd like me:


You can find initial links to LiLEKS.com on my Humor page (go to www.HansMeyer.net/Links, then click on Humor). Click here for this and previous In The Spotlight posts.

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Flight Attendants are there to save your ass…

...not kiss it! *

(photo: AP)

The Today Show was reporting this morning on the explosion yesterday of China Airlines flight #: CI-120 (a Boeing 737-800) in Japan. The hosts were remarking on the incredible fact that all 165 people aboard (passengers and crew) escaped alive.

The next time you’re flying please remember that the primary responsibility of the flight crew is your safety. All of the passengers on flight CI-120 escaped because the flight attendants were doing their main job: Protecting the passengers!

* My wife, who has been a flight attendant for almost twenty years, received a pen from a passenger recently as a small thank you gift. The title of this post ("Flight Attendants are there to save your ass not kiss it") was imprinted on it.

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In the Spotlight: Putting the faux religionists in their place

Welcome to In the Spotlight, a semi-regular feature of this blog, where I highlight one or more of the links on my personal Web site, www.HansMeyer.net.

On Friday I posted The Great I Am Says Vote For Sam, with a graphic/link to Baptists for Brownback. Yesterday it was What Would Jesus Wear. These are two excellent examples of the links I'm highlighting (easy URL: www.HansMeyer.net/Links).

Today we'll look at three Web sites which use humor, satire and sarcasm to thoroughly expose the hypocrisy of the so-called conservative Christians. The kind of faux religionists who deify the blastocyst, who think Chick Publications are the Word of God, and who wallow in sadomasochistic pleasure watching "religious" snuff films. The end-timers who can, quite frankly, Kiss My Left Behind* (read the author's blog).

First up, Jesus' General, who I read every day:


Next, America's Best Christian, Betty Bowers:

And, finally, Landover Baptist Church, where the worthwhile worship:


All three sites are, well, worthwhile! And all three sites can be found in my Humor section (go to www.HansMeyer.net/Links, then click on Humor)

* - Beware the Antichrist: Nickelay Dubyah, ruler of the former Soviet Republik of Texrectumstan.

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Welcome to Michael Silliman!

I want to take this moment to welcome Michael Silliman as the newest member of the Free World Radio Network team!

To mark such an auspicious occasion I'm pleased to offer Michael's latest:

My Strange Day... by Michael Silliman From the pages of "Tales from the Limo..." I usually get my assignments the night before so I can print them out and properly research any addresses that I am unfamiliar with. Late Monday night I'm issued four jobs spread over a 16 hour period. The last one is a supposedly simple transfer at 10:00pm from Long Beach Airport to an address in Huntington Beach for one Shannon Funk. In comparison with LAX, Long Beach is a hick airport where passengers still board and disembark on creaky old stair trucks that drive up to the plane. Old school. Real Flintstones stuff. So I'm standing there for over 20 minutes in a practically deserted baggage claim area listening to the old Donna Summer music blaring out of the rusted speaker with the blown cone, ensconced no more than ten feet from the gate waiting with my sign, when the passengers from Jet Blue #217 from JFK finally start filing through the security gate. What first catches my eye among all the other disembarking passengers is a group of three young women, the center one wearing a goofy hat and sunglasses and being carried along briskly by her friends and I get the immediate impression that she's "somebody." But my focus is on the other female passengers, trying to make eye contact with every woman who gets off the place to see some recognition of their name being held aloft on the clip board, and I pay absolutely no attention to the three girls once they're out of my peripheral vision. Not more than 20 seconds later, a mob of paparazzi about 30 or so thick comes storming around the corner, rudely jostling themselves and the passengers waiting for their luggage trying to get shots of the now fleeing trio, and they, in turn, were followed by a small gaggle of grumpy airport Barneys pissed off that somebody had the temerity to interrupt their precious donut time. Me? I'm standing there with my eyes still glued on the door waiting for my passenger, one Ms. Shannon Funk. Fuck celebrities. This is Elay, man, and I'm celebrity fucking immune. All I care about is getting my passenger in my car and to the address listed on my trip ticket so I can get home, pour a couple of fingers of whiskey and get ready for the next day of playing Chauncey the Chauffeur. One by one, the passengers collect their bags, and bag by bag, the terminal becomes as silent and empty as I first found it. No Shannon Funk. My dispatcher tells me to wait at the location until they can clear me through the booker. As I'm standing there, a young woman approaches me and inquires if I know when Jet Blue #217 from JFK is arriving. I inform her that it arrived over 40 minutes previously which seems to cause her a bit of consternation. When she sees my sign, she tells me that she's looking for Ms. Funk as well, so I inquire if she's a friend and perhaps has a phone number I can reach her with. The young lady then informs me that she works for People Magazine and she's there to report on Ms. Funk. After my brief Scooby-Do moment, I’m informed that my passenger was/is the newly fired/quit personal assistant to Britany Spears that was there at the infamous OK Magazine interview meltdown, and had flown into Long Beach instead of LAX in order to (unsuccessfully) duck being served a subpoena by the trampy pop star’s ex-husband who’s trying to build a case for sole custody of the mutant offspring of their ill-fated union. The reporter seemed incredulous that I had no idea who I was waiting for. She asked me the usually questions about if I saw Ms. Funk being served, or if she spoke to anybody, etc. After a while she realized that I don’t have anything of any real value to add to her story and she puts the notebook down and asked if it would be alright if she waited with me, as she heard my dispatcher’s instructions for me to stay on station, perhaps thinking that the fleeing trio might return to at least collect their luggage, if nothing else. We are joined after a while by a swarthy, beady-eyed gent with a big pro video camera rig that I can tell instantly that she is not real happy to see. Once he discovers who my passenger was supposed to be, he starts hammering me with questions. My inability to answer any of them to his satisfaction just infuriated him no end. The tipping point came when he offered me an obscenely escalating amount of money to give him the address of the drop. There was no moment of hesitation, no visions of what material desires the windfall would garner me. He talked to me like I had a price. Fuck him. I told him that divulging that information would be a violation of a proprietary company procedure, and that he would have to learn that information from someone else. He reacted like Dracula to sunlight…Fuck! An honest man! And then he turned and disappeared into the night muttering to himself. The People reporter seemed slightly bemused, but said nothing. So about 11:30pm, two hours after the plane landed, the booker cleared me from the job and I drove home wrestling with a slight case of “what if” remorse thinking of the shiny black 60gig Playstation 3 and a case of uber-yummy port-casked Balvenie whiskey a moment of lapsed morals might have brought me for simply selling off a person’s privacy. Relax, Ms. Shannon. If they found your home address, they didn’t get it from me. Like the movie quote goes: “Relax, Jake…It’s Chinatown.”

Michael's original music can be found here:

www.HansMeyer.net/Silliman

Welcome, Michael!

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In the Spotlight: Tahoma Beadworks

Welcome to In the Spotlight, a semi-regular feature of this blog, where I highlight one or more of the links on my personal Web site, www.HansMeyer.net.

Today I'll be highlighting one of my favorite blogs, Tahoma Beadworks (go to www.HansMeyer.net/Links, then click on Blogs).

Created and maintained by JoJo, Tahoma Beadworks, covers "Beads, Crafts, Vincent, Music, Grateful Dead, Sports, My Travels & Life in General," with some great photography.

(I am wondering, however, who is JoJo's favorite actor. One of those life's mysteries, no doubt.)

Be sure to visit often... and tell JoJo I said "hello"!

URL: http://beadsandvincent.blogspot.com/

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In the Spotlight: Idiots and Hypocrites

Welcome to In the Spotlight, a semi-regular feature of this blog, where I highlight one or more of the links on my personal Web site, www.HansMeyer.net.

Today I'll be highlighting two great sites, both of which can be found on my Opinion and Humor pages (Easy URL to my Links pages: www.HansMeyer.net/Links).

At the beginning of each week, Democratic Underground places ten conservatives under a different kind of spotlight.

URL: www.democraticunderground.com/top10/index.html

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BuzzFlash.com's GOP Hypocrite of the Week. As they say on the Web site: "So Many Republican Hypocrites, So Little Time."

URL: www.gophypocrites.com

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New Feature: In the Spotlight

Regular visitors to my personal Web site (http://www.hansmeyer.net/) know that I have a large collection of links (easy URL: www.HansMeyer.net/Links).

These links include blogs, media (both traditional media and on-line media), opinion, humor, comics, information and travel, dining and leisure.

Periodically I will highlight one or more of my links, placing them In the Spotlight.

Today I'll highlight two links from my Information links page:

• Pew Research - The Political Typology


• Political Compass

The old one-dimensional categories of 'right' and 'left' are overly simplistic for today's complex political landscape. Use these sites to test exactly where you stand politically. You just might be surprised!

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