MacYapper - John McIntire
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A sad note about a local man I barely knew, but who made a major impression on me. He was a beacon of sanity amid the post 9/11 anti-Muslim fervor, when American ignorance and hatred dominated the landscape, and sanity and understanding went out the freaking window.
Syed Farooq Hussaini, who went by his middle name Farooq, is dead. I interviewed him on NightTalk in the days after 9/11, when the air was thick with maroons who wanted to lynch everyone who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent.
Dennis Roddy reports in the PG that he died of kidney disease.
POST-GAZETTE.COM:http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08140/883114-100.stmSyed Farooq Hussaini, director of interfaith relations for the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh, died yesterday after a long battle with kidney disease. He was 50.
A frequent lecturer on Islam, he served on the Religious Leadership Forum of Southwestern Pennsylvania and was a member of the Daughters and Sons of Abraham program at Carlow University.
MacYapper - I remember Farooq having the courage to be the local face of Muslim Americans not long after 9/11. I remember him putting up with annoying hostile callers. I remember him being a man of common sense and wisdom. He calmed the waters by explaining the difference between the crazies who perpetrated this, and your average Islamist. He explained that the religion really didn't glorify killing, and in fact condemned it. He was clear, concise, knowledgeable, and just what the doctor ordered.
Again, I barely knew him. But he made a huge impression on me. The world needs more smart and grave guys like Farooq.
JOURNALISTS WHO THINK THEY'RE GOD VS. BLOGGERS
So I've been watching portions of this Bob Costas debate about blogging versus mainstream journalism. Because it's Bob, it's all about sportsy-ness. Sportsyosity.
So he's got this big fat ass of an MSM sports reporter who's yelling at a blogger.
He's yelling at the blogger, who runs
www.deadspin.com, because he says the standards are not up to snuff. He's particularly outraged about the "comments" section, in which various sportsies are referred to as douchebags or a-holes or whatever.
While acknowledging that I don't allow for comments on this blog because I don't want to take the time to police them, it is absurd for MSM maroons to criticize blogs because they allow average Joes and Joannes to vent with moronic language in print.
People can tell the difference. The big fat loud MSM guy challenged the blogger on his knowledge of big time legendary sports writers. Then he demanded to know who could "evoke" the spirit of a ballgame more, a legendary guy, or some hack in his underwear?
Of course it's the legend. But bloggers are not there to "evoke." Even Costas, a bit of an MSM snob his own self, was quoting idiotic comments as if that proved that the blogs weren't worth the cyberspace they're printed on.
As the blogger pointed out, the MSM guys don't get to decide what is and is not cricket in the blogosphere. The print snobs didn't like TV and now they're being forced to do TV... video on the print websites, hourly deadlines instead of daily because of the "internets"... so they may not flow forth with wonderful prose like the good old days, faced with constant pressure to crank the shit out.
The big fat MSM guy was yelling about "standards." What about "credentials" and "access"? First of all, sports is an f'ing joke. Everybody cheats. Nobody cares. And let's not forget big fat MSM guy... IT'S A FREAKING GAME FOR CHRISSAKES.
Just because you love it like a son and cherish its contrived records and alleged legendary moments, doesn't make it ACTUALLY IMPORTANT. So let's just lighten up, bub.
These days it's just a big business. Of course, it always has been, but it's even more corrupt now that more money is at stake. And the owners don't care. Witness Dan Rooney trying to sweep New England's spygate under the rug. He knows Coach Billy cheated. He's just concerned that a perception that the game isn't fair will alienate butts in the seats. He just wants to make money. And he also knows that everybody cheats, if they can figure out how, but Coach Billy just took it to a new level.
Sportsies taking themselves WAY TOO SERIOUSLY aside (and they HAVE to get over themselves), they obviously don't understand the blogosphere. One Costas panelist said he can't believe a guy's opinion unless he knows where the guy's coming from, how much experience he has, and whether his publication has any credibility. Here's a helpful hint dude. Don't read blogs. Simple. You don't believe 'em? Don't read 'em.
The sportsies talked about "access." The Post Gazette's Bob Smizik recently bitched about talker Mark Madden's not showing up to talk to athletes in the locker room (while discussing the Costas show and the fact that Madden's name was mentioned)
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08129/880065-194.stm and concluded that's why he bitches about Hines Ward and Jerome Bettis, because he doesn't have to face them.
That's why I like Madden. And it does temper a columnist's criticism if you have to face them. I enjoy that he takes on the big shots because everyone else simply swallows there appendages and the accompanying accouterments. People are tired of the sameness and frankly often boring nature of MSM journalism.
I was an MSM reporter for years. I understand the desire for standards, ethics, and big meetings with many important people standing around scratching their chins.
But, particularly in sports, it's ok just to shoot off your mouth. Because it offends the sensibilities of the holier-than-thou longtime sportsies doesn't make it wrong.
DID THE WHITE CHICK LOSE BECAUSE SHE'S A CHICK? So there are all sorts of pissed off women. There they were, poised to capture the presidency, when some haircut who looks cute in a suit comes out of left field and steals it. They say there was sexism involved. Of course there was. In the sense that there is always sexism involved with men and women, and there is always racism involved with whites and blacks.
But was it the determining factor? Is that why she lost? I would say no. Opinion is mixed in this interesting NYT piece.
NYTIMES.COM:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/19/us/politics/19women.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&partner=MYWAY&adxnnlx=1211191320-3f%20LWxMJoE%20zlbaMhirBLQ&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin
“Women felt this was their time, and this has been stolen from them,” said Marilu Sochor, 48, a real estate agent in Columbus, Ohio, and a Clinton supporter. “Sexism has played a really big role in the race.”
Not everyone agrees. “When people look at the arc of the campaign, it will be seen that being a woman, in the end, was not a detriment and if anything it was a help to her,” the presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin said in an interview. Mrs. Clinton’s campaign is faltering, she added, because of “strategic, tactical things that have nothing to do with her being a woman.”
MacYapper - The Clinton team blew it. They ran like the front runner instead of the underdog fighter chick. That allowed someone else to be the come-from-behind fighter person for whom America is a sucker. You know Billary's favorite analogy, Rocky Balboa?
NYTIMES.COM:Janet Napolitano, the Democratic governor of Arizona, said the world was different now, especially the political world, thanks in part to Mrs. Clinton. “I never heard anybody say she can’t be elected because she’s a woman,” said Ms. Napolitano, who supports Mr. Obama and like many of his supporters saw less sexism in the race than Mrs. Clinton’s backers. “That’s a different deal than we’ve heard before in American politics.”
But as others watched a campaign that starred two possibly transformative figures, they felt a growing conviction that the contest was unfair. Mrs. Clinton’s supporters point to a nagging series of slights: the fixation on her clothes, even her cleavage; chronic criticism that her voice is shrill; calls for her to exit the race; and most of all, the male commentators in the news media who, they argue, were consistently tougher on her than on Mr. Obama.
MacYapper - That may have been true for a time, but the Reverend Wright evened things out. The Black Dude was hit with a constant barrage of criticism that may well have sunk him, had he not confronted it with the race speech in Philly. In the end they were both smacked with boatloads of criticism, some of it undeserved. Welcome to politics.
And call me sexist if you like, but her voice IS shrill. It was just stabbing my eardrums courtesy of MSNBC. She's in Kentucky, in denial. She's still dropping her g's. Those media bigshots who are "tellin'" you. Could it be any phonier?
Women politicians aren't necessarily shrill, any more then men are. Shrillary is.
NYTIMES.COM:“The most important contribution she has made is to show that women candidates are just like men candidates,” said Joan Scott, a historian at the Institute for Advanced Study. “You have to judge them not on the basis of their gender but their character.”
Over the course of the campaign, Jennifer Rogers, a film producer in Los Angeles, came to agree. She voted for Mrs. Clinton, in part because she hoped to see a female president, but she recently lost enthusiasm over what she called a lack of truthfulness on the candidate’s part. “Her problems are about who she is and not her gender,” said Ms. Rogers, 28.
MacYapper - Bingo. And that sniper fire thing was really embarrassing. Only one of these candidates has to worry about sniper fire.
But it's almost time to move on, and so we've got to stop ragging on Billary. We'll need her supporters. Yes, many have been alienated for good, but hopefully not most.
The Times makes an important point. She has made women presidential candidates credible forever more. And that has advanced the cause of women's rights. And that's a good thing. Thank you Hillary.
You'll still be a kick-ass senator and a fascinating historical figure. And no I don't think it'll be too late for you in 2016! You'll be 68 years young.
COMEDY TONIGHT AT THE SHADOW LOUNGE!
Mo Mozuch runs this hipster room in the east end. I'll be there. Gab Bonesso will be there. Other funny-ass comics will be there. 8pm, man. I say "man" because I wanna be a hipster.
5972 Baum Blvd
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
MORE INFO ON UPCOMING COMEDY SHOWS AND COMEDY AUDIO AT:www.myspace.com/MacYapperROCK ON MAC-YIPPERS!email me at johnmcintire@comcast.net
