rant rant rant

gotta love the media. first they reported on rumors. now they report that the rumors were false. of course, the mayor of nahlans and the police superintendent were perpetrating the rumors. but still, you think the media might take some responsibility? nope. check it at nytimes.com. there are some real gems in there.

"Not one piece of educational material was taken - the best-selling books are all sitting right where they were left," Captain Canatella said. "But every $9 watch in the store is gone."

or

Faced with reports that 400 to 500 armed looters were advancing on the town of Westwego, two police officers quit on the spot. The looters never appeared, said the Westwego police chief, Dwayne Munch.

or

In an interview last week with The New York Times, Superintendent Compass said that some of his most shocking statements turned out to be untrue. Asked about reports of rapes and murders, he said: 'We have no official reports to document any murder. Not one official report of rape or sexual assault.'

400-500 armed looters? are you kidding me? let's see if we could even imagine 50 folks with guns getting together to cooperate and loot an entire town. 400? so obviously untrue. i can just see those two cops trying to get their jobs back.

here's a good one. michael crichton as an expert witness at a senate hearing. wtf? who really cares what his opinion on global warming is? what credentials does he have? what credibility?

Still, he retains enough of his scientific background to thrust himself into the debate, insisting that the environmental movement "did a fabulous job in the first 10 years, a pretty good job in the second 10 years and a lousy job in the last 10 years."

As a result, he said, its influence on policy needs to be reined in, at least until alternative views are given equal airing and fair consideration by independent reviewers. Only then, he said, can policy makers make informed decisions.

i gotta say that i think that the "alternative views" to environmentalism have gotten plenty of airing. i mean, oil, mining and timber companies are not lacking in access to the government, especially this administration. and lets not confuse the scientists doing the research and the folks taking the conclusions of that research and asking it to be used to direct policy. entirely different animals. independent reviewers? isn't that what the scientific community and journals are? the public confusion about science baffles me. tomorrow, evolution. kansas is getting on my nerves.