Does This Strike You As Familiar?

From My Notes, Part 1:

Cable fellow just arrived. Couple of days beard growth, shirt out of pants, he looks like every mugshot of a pedophile you've ever seen. He enters (Socks did not hide. I think we're okay). "Where's the modem?" (sigh). I show him. (another sigh) He hooks up his Big Device. (sigh 2x). "I gotta look at the boxnthepole." Looks at box. (sigh) "Sonofa..." Goes to pole. Clumps back across yard. "Dere's some funny stuff goin' on dere in that box. Some splitters not spozed to be dere. I gotta....mumble...(sigh)." If he doesn't stop sighing, I'm getting him an oxygen bottle.

Part 2:

He briefly got lost in the shrubs just short of where he needed to go and tripped over one of the yard lights. Once at dapole, he slammed the ladder against it and I heard "Shit!" Now he's back at dabox. I wonder if he heard me a minute ago as I prepared to give my credit card to a vendor over the phone? I said,"Let me move away from the window. Sure don't want the cable guy having my credit card info!" I didn't hear a "shit" or a (sigh) so maybe I'm okay. Oh boy, here he comes with his helmet pushed back on his head looking really disgusted.

Part 3:

He just cut the cable from dabox to dapole. (sigh) Tried to reconnect.(sigh) Realized he had no slack. Dropped it. Looked at it. (sighhhhhhhh blown through his teeth). Helmet pushed back on his head, he's rolling out to datruck. We'll see if he has cable with him in sufficient amount to do the trick...

Part 4:

He returns with large spool of cable. Drops it on dapatio (sigh). Goes to dabox. Mumbles "mother____!" Walks back toward box, stepping in flowers, doing what looks like a dance step when he realizes where he is, disappears in bushes. Ladder slaps against dapole.

Part 5:

He's back on dapatio. (biggest sigh so far). Strips wire. Takes out electrical tape. Scratches self with it. Mutters something. Goes back to dabox. Focuses on dabox for about fifteen minutes. Clumps back to dapole. Strings new cable from dapole to dabox.

Part 6:

He's finished. I ask him how it went. "Well dere was a kinda mess in dere. Loose connections and this, I don't know what it was, bypass thing we're not supposed to use. I dunno why it's dere. I tightened...mumble...down to the D3 connector (sigh)...there's two lines...one not in use...I tied it off. The connections, dey were loose...mumble...up dapole. . . BUT IT WORKS GOOD NOW, HEY?"

Yeah, buddy, thanks.

Only problem is . . . after all that . . . I still have the same problem. (sigh)

Shameful Weather Coverage in Chicago

One of the things I learned in nearly thirty years of covering news is that the general viewing and listening public is sometimes slow to react in the face of threatening weather, sometimes with tragic results.

That's not so much the case in "tornado alley" where weather warnings are commonplace and residents realize the value of staying alert to changing conditions. But I found it true regularly when I came to Chicago.

We had some bad weather in the Chicago area the other night. Three tornado funnels. Straight-line winds in excess of seventy-miles-per-hour. And an end result of more than a quarter of a million people without power.

The local television stations, one of which touts its multi-million dollar weather studio and committment to weather education, shamefully failed in their responsibility to warn the viewing public of the dangers of the approaching storm.

While The Weather Channel focused its coverage on Chicago for the time period the storm was approaching, the local stations dashed off a couple of quick messages. One station, I am told, offered visuals in the form of screen-crawls and radar but no more than minutes of advice or warnings from their meteorologists.

More than 100 people died in Joplin where, as I understand, they had very little advance warning of a terrifying storm.

In Chicago Tuesday night, by my estimate, the television stations had thirty-to-forty minutes to alert their viewers.

I recognize these stations have contractual agreements with advertisers and their networks. I also realize the stations must be sensitive to viewers in outlying areas who are not affected by storms approaching Chicago. There is also the argument that social media, smart-phones and computers all provide weather coverage.

But consider this, too.

If people had died in our storms, which excuse for television's shameful lack of coverage would have most comforted their family and friends?

Mixed Feelings About Concealed Carry in Wisconsin

Wisconsin's State Assembly passed a concealed carry bill today and sent it to the governor who is expected to sign it into law.

I applaud what Wisconsin has done but take exception to the training requirements that have been reported in the media. Apparently the bill requires only classroom work, no actual range time. Bad idea.

But then, I haven't seen any state demanding real-world training for its permit holders.

Granted, many individuals who choose to carry concealed handguns already have significant experience with firearms. Unfortunately, that experience, while better than nothing, is often limited to shooting ranges at best and "plinkin' at cans' at worst. Too many people have told me they don't need or want to take even a basic class because they "know all about guns."

I was fortunate to have early police training, augmented by several advanced classes taught by the FBI. When I decided several years ago to take-up the handgun hobby again, I signed up for individual instruction in basic safety, and carrying and using a concealed weapon, as well as NRA- certified classes in everything from the basics to handgun self-defense in and out of the home. . . about 100-plus hours in all. In the next year, I hope to attend Masaad Ayoob's fine pistol training facility in Florida for more specialized classes.

Concealed carry is a deadly responsibility. It is not a game. It isn't something you do to impress your friends. States should require professional instruction and rigorous range testing before a permit is issued.

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Congress and Casting Stones

So it looks like Congressman Weiner is out.

Reports in the New York Times and elsewhere say the pec-and-ab-displaying Democrat will resign after long discussions with his wife and amid threats that his colleagues planned to strip him of his committee assignments. Probably not the kind of stripping he's used to . . . but, I digress.

Yeah, he's a creep for playing around with other women while married and for the unpardonable sin of lying about it when the media came calling. Now he bows out in disgrace and goes to spend time in rehab or taking long walks on the beach. Can a nasty, but quiet, divorce be far behind?

Here's my take.

I wonder how many others in Congress are guilty of the same thing . . . or worse? Were any of those esteemed statesmen (and undoubtedly stateswomen) among the "colleagues" who urged him to quit? Of course they were!

I suspect more than a few of the finger-pointing media have their own sexual peccadillos to hide. Sure they have a job to do but, do they have the moral right to criticize anyone else? Just askin'.

Final question...what serious issues, what criminal acts, what real wrongs have gone uninvestigated and unreported while the media and pundits have been dancing all over Weiner's weiner?

Is it too much for a disgusted public to ask that we get back to the business of news sometime soon?

Federal Study States the Obvious

Many of us who used to love journalism have known this for some time: with all the *new* sources of news provided by the Internet, the actual quality of reporting has diminished.

Now, the New York Times is highlighting a federal study that makes our cynical observations official.

Commissioned by the FCC, the study focuses specifically on the coverage of local and state government. It says that politicians gain power when the media is not around to question their actions and assertions...and fewer and fewer media organizations are doing so.

Reporters hold up a mirror so society can see how it is functioning.

Without that mirror, the arrogance of power goes unchecked and we all suffer.