Are they really that stupid?

I was watching The Newshour with Jim Lehrer on PBS this evening. He was talking with some suits about a bailout of the US auto industry. One of them seemed to think the auto companies were special, and that we should bail them out.

His reasoning was less than stellar.

He compared the auto industry to the airline industry by asserting that an airline in Chapter 11 can still fly planes and still sell tickets but people won't want to buy a car from a car company in Chapter 11 because of a fear of an inability to get parts and/or repairs later.

Here's a page listing on line sources for parts for a 1952 Studebaker.

And you won't even have to get a cash advance to buy a rebuilt starter for a 1952 Studebaker.

Blogging on TV

In the late 70's I worked at Northern Trust, in the Chicago Loop. It was common for me to go to a bar after work on Friday and there was a country-western bar on the North side of the loop, next to the Greyhound bus station that I often went to. It was pretty much a dive. But it was a 4 o'clock bar, with a big dance floor, and two bands so that they had continuous live music. Classic honky-tonk country music.

The female anchor person from one of the local news shows often came in on Friday nights after she finished the 10 pm broadcast. She'd come straight from work, wearing her work clothes. I don't remember her name.

She did her broadcast sitting at an anchor desk, and this predated the leg flashing habits of anchors for Fox News. So her work cloithes consisted of a silk blouse with a fashionble suit jacket combined with cut-off jeans.

I guess she was kind of an early TV blogger.



h/t Ann Althouse

Clinton, Obama, and 60 minutes

I didn't watch 60 minutes this past Sunday but apparantly they had seperate interviews of Clinton and Obama. And apparantly 60 minutes has managed to turn itself into a boring softball game.

Nip/Tuck

I generally like TV about dysfunctional people. My favorites include The Simpsons, Married with Children, The Shield, The Office, My Name is Earl, Rescue Me, Malcolm in the Middle, Law and Order (Criminal Intent), and Monk. I guess I identify with dysfunction.

When Nip/Tuck started on FX a couple of years ago I liked it for the first few episodes. But I quickly got bored with the characters and their problems. They are certainly dysfunctional, but not in a way I can identify with, they didn't even try to be good people, just narcissistic sociopaths.

It appears that the writers have gotten bored with the characters also. The new season is centered around them all moving from Miami to Los Angeles. They've run out of stories for the characters I guess they've deiced to just focus stories on the background setting. It's certainly easier than trying to create interesting characters, but I won't be watching.

New Media

MSNBC is running a story on some ongoing landslide in San Diego.

They're running footage from a local NBC affiliate. They running the local stations internet broadcast. A cable channel is running a story that a San Diego broadcast station is streaming on the internet.