voices.in.my.head

I have a dilemma — a moral quandary — one which is now causing me great stress. I sat and watched several episodes of this TV series last year, while, in the back of my head, I felt really strange watching, even cheering the main character. So once all of the available episodes were watched, that was that — it was over. Dexter was a cable television series that ran uncensored and unwaivering in their main plot, which cheered a serial murderer.

This movie is psychologically hard-core.

PTC angry with CBS again (OneNewsNow.com) — The Parents Television Council is blasting CBS for airing a primetime show which features a serial killer as the hero.

On Sunday evening, CBS aired two episodes of Dexter back to back. The show follows the life of Dexter Morgan, played by Michael Hall. Dexter is a blood spatter analyst with the Miami Metro Police Department. However, he moonlights as a serial killer who murders only those who get away with grisly homicides.

I can certainly understand the reluctance of such a movie being aired across the most watched block of airtime in the free world.

But the danger is that this movie is really sick and twisted in a really unassuming way. The setting, for example, is modern-day Miami, Florida and is nothing visually out of the ordinary.

But the main character is a killer — of serial killers.

Dexter, as an individual, has always come across me as a bit of a likable wierd-o. He’s well-built, polite to the ladies, protects his step-sister and his girlfriend and even exhibits “hero” qualities to some extent. But those hero qualities are so completely stretched to the bizarre every time he turns to his dark side where he methodically tracks, captures and gruesomely does his prey in.

I feel at conflict with myself when I watch this show. And I don’t like it. Dexter causes me to root for the underhanded, the devious, the psychotic and ultimately, the evil dressed in boat shoes and a cotton shirt.

Double Concerto

Michelle Malkin blogs about the NY Time's decision to trim the fat and reduce operational expense. Her opinion is "my" opinion:

MY FISH WRAPPER IS SHRINKING — The Old Gray Lady is going on a diet (a real one, not a Cindy Sheehan one): The New York Times Co. plans to narrow the size of its flagship newspaper and close a printing plant, resulting in the loss…

The NY Times isn't a favorite paper of mine. In fact, I seldome get anything other than heartburn from that publication. However, there is one thing string, one tie, that binds me to the NY Times. I happen to work at a major US Newspaper and have felt what they're going through on more than one occasion. The decision to tighten its belt is never an easy one to make, however…the times demand that the traditional newspaper enterprise to diversify more than ever to compete with newer media outlets such as internet magazines and blogging.

Blogged with Flock

According to Jack Kelly, a writer for the Post Gazette, the Federal response to Katrina was not as portrayed.

“Mr. Bush’s performance last week will rank as one of the worst ever during a dire national emergency,” wrote New York Times columnist Bob Herbert in a somewhat more strident expression of the conventional wisdom.

And it seems that Florida Army National Guardsman Jason van Steenwyk shares that opinion:

Jason van Steenwyk is a Florida Army National Guardsman who has been mobilized six times for hurricane relief. He notes that:

“The federal government pretty much met its standard time lines, but the volume of support provided during the 72-96 hour was unprecedented. The federal response here was faster than Hugo, faster than Andrew, faster than Iniki, faster than Francine and Jeanne.”

For instance, it took five days for National Guard troops to arrive in strength on the scene in Homestead, Fla. after Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992. But after Katrina, there was a significant National Guard presence in the afflicted region in three.

Journalists who are long on opinions and short on knowledge have no idea what is involved in moving hundreds of tons of relief supplies into an area the size of England in which power lines are down, telecommunications are out, no gasoline is available, bridges are damaged, roads and airports are covered with debris, and apparently have little interest in finding out.

So they libel as a “national disgrace” the most monumental and successful disaster relief operation in world history.

Van Steenwyk calls the relief efforts after Katrina the most successful disaster releif operation in the world. How could that be? Nearly every television news station has said the same thing—that the Bush adminstration is to blame for a slow, feeble response to hurricane Katrina’s devastation to New Orleans’ and other Gulf Coast areas like Gulfport and Biloxi, among others. Kany West, Chris Rock, and Howard Dean have all said that President Bush hates black people, Celine Dion approved of the looting and lawlessness that went on in New Orleans, Democratic senator Mary Landreau wanted to attack the President and called him names and pointed the finger repeatedly at him and the Administration for causing deaths in New Orleans and on and on it goes. Sheer lunacy.

And yet, all relief efforts could do is this:

• More than 32,000 people have been rescued, many plucked from rooftops by Coast Guard helicopters.
• The Army Corps of Engineers has all but repaired the breaches and begun pumping water out of New Orleans.
• Shelter, food and medical care have been provided to more than 180,000 refugees.

And yet, the media still complains that nothing is going well, it’s taking forever to get things done.

Moltenthought blog offers the media hounds some solid advice and a fanny-spankin’. Oh, this is good.

Michelle Malkin once again takes to task the blaring omission of the mainstream media’s reporting that attempts to paint the Bush administration in a bad light. Their hysteria and vehement hatred for G.W.B goes on overdrive when CNN reports that certain firms with ties to the White House are getting the contracts to help rebuild after Hurricane Katrina.

Malkin points out that [ ...just like CBS and Dan Rather on the Memogate scandal... Ed.] CNN jumped to a conclusion that what they uncovered was the whole story. Their lack of research serves only to embarrass them, once again. Read this:

Michelle Malkin: THE DEMOCRATS’ KATRINA PROFITEER — But in their zeal to embarrass the Bush administration, CNN overlooks one very fat and inconvenient fact–and embarrasses only itself.

The Shaw Group, a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate, is headed by Jim Bernhard, the current chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party. Bernhard worked tirelessly for Democrat Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s runoff campaign and served as co-chair of her transition team. Another Shaw executive was Blanco’s campaign manager. Bernhard is back-scratching chums with Blanco, whom he has lent/offered the Shaw Group’s corporate jets to on numerous occasions.

Always one to stir up controversies, the MSM doesn’t seem to get it that there are very few firms that could handle the scope of such projects. Halliburton and The Shaw Group are tops in a very sparse list of companies that could rebuild the infrastructure of a city as unique as New Orleans. It makes sense that they don’t “bid” out the contracts to dozens or hundreds of smaller contractors. The scale and scope of this project—from Biloxi and Gulfport to New Orleans—is certainly of historically epic proportion. Besides, The Shaw Group’s worldwide headquarters are not in California, not in New York, not in France or Indonesia—nope, they’re based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Like it or not, they’re local and preferred.

It seems that finally The American Red Cross explains, “Why is the Red Cross not in New Orleans?”

• Acess to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders.
• The state Homeland Security Department had requested–and continues to request–that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city.
• The Red Cross has been meeting the needs of thousands of New Orleans residents in some 90 shelters throughout the state of Louisiana and elsewhere since before landfall. All told, the Red Cross is today operating 149 shelters for almost 93,000 residents.
• The Red Cross shares the nation’s anguish over the worsening situation inside the city. We will continue to work under the direction of the military, state and local authorities and to focus all our efforts on our lifesaving mission of feeding and sheltering.
• The Red Cross does not conduct search and rescue operations. We are an organization of civilian volunteers and cannot get relief aid into any location until the local authorities say it is safe and provide us with security and access.
• The original plan was to evacuate all the residents of New Orleans to safe places outside the city. With the hurricane bearing down, the city government decided to open a shelter of last resort in the Superdome downtown. We applaud this decision and believe it saved a significant number of lives.
• As the remaining people are evacuated from New Orleans, the most appropriate role for the Red Cross is to provide a safe place for people to stay and to see that their emergency needs are met. We are fully staffed and equipped to handle these individuals once they are evacuated.

I hope Sean Penn, Hillary Clinton, Celine Dion, Kanye West, Jesse Jackson, and the rest of the Bush-hatin’ crowd are reading this…really reading this for what The American Red Cross is really saying. They were ready to go in. They had supplies and relief—they were waiting in the wings right after the winds died down. However, they were turned away. It wasn’t George Bush’s fault, for goodness sake.

Hat Tip via Captain’s Quarters blog and Hugh Hewitt