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Rhodes Unscholarly?

Friday, Apr. 04, 2008 3:54 AM

Air America has suspended talk show host Randi Rhodes for calling Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton a 'big f***ing whore' at a recent public appearance. Rhodes also referred to Geraldine Ferraro in similar terms.

"Air America encourages strong opinions about public affairs but does not condone such abusive, ad hominem language by our Hosts," said Air America chair Charlie Kireker.

Personally, I think Rhodes is a victim of her own success, just like so many other opinion vendors (and, no, bloggers are not immune), confuses having an audience for having hold of an indispensible sliver of the truth.


Case in point - the other day, I suggested NATO might be a little skeptical of President Bush's plans for a missile defense shield, which would require basing elements in Poland, despite protests from Russia.

I was wrong. NATO voted in favor of the program yesterday.


Despite the ACLU securing the release of the full text of a controversial 2003 memo providing the legal justification for torture, and despite the fact that said memo points to a second, still-classified memo that performs similar legalistic mumbo-jumbo in defense of warrantless wiretapping, the story was by and large ignored by the media.

We'll complain about Darfur, about China, about the elections in Zimbabwe, about needing to provide the fruits of liberty to democracy-starved Iraq ... but when it comes to our own failings, our own prison camps and patriotic fervor for war crimes, we remain oddly silent.


Bruce Schneier points us to this item, which details the vulnerabilities in the 'smart key' technology used by major car manufacturers.


And from the Unclear on the Concept Department, the driver on Sansome Street in San Francisco this morning who stopped at a flashing red light and remained there, waiting for it to change. Now, to be fair, it's 3:30 AM in the morning, and I've spaced out myself at the same light.

The dumb part comes as the driver in question then proceeds to the next three red lights, which are not flashing red, but operating on their normal cycle ... and they stop, then drive through the still-red light.

I've also seen this along the Embarcadero, where you can add the left turn against a red light to the mix.



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