And you thought the witness protection system was flawed here....

From the BBC

Maxine Carr wins identity secrecy
Maxine Carr has been given a new identity for her protection
Maxine Carr, the former girlfriend of Soham murderer Ian Huntley, has been granted an indefinite order protecting her new identity by the High Court.
She was freed from jail and given a new identity in May, after serving 21 months for lying for Huntley.
Last year the High Court granted a temporary order, saying her identity and whereabouts should be kept secret for her safety.

OK, so just in case you don't know what this person looks like. The BBC thought it best to give you a picture. Way to keep a secret.

Film at eleven

Bill O'Reilly

Need I say more?

The truth is rarely an issue for this dude. He just makes it up as he goes along and we simply have to believe what he says. Well, at least in his mind…

A friend recently suggested that I write a piece on the TV media and the lack of real truth that actually pops out at you.

Have the likes of Dan Rather, Peter Jennings and so on become more the show than the actual reporting of the news? I think so.

Aaron Brown, of CNN, is someone that strikes me as the one extreme. He rarely gets through a story without putting his personal spin on the whole thing.

“Skippy”, as some of us knew him in the early 70’s, came from a local talk radio show in Seattle…along with Sandy Hill, of the ABC Morning show fame, and Greg Palmer, of lesser fame, an entertainment cynic of the local King broadcasting show. All came from this station. It was pretty cool to listen to them; they had an edge.

Aaron went on to ABC and then, finally CNN. He has an opinion by golly and you are going to hear it, in spite of what the story may be. He has a job to do and clearly I have the option to change the channel, which I do.

Luckily, Animal Planet is running “Animal Precinct” at the same time, so it isn’t a tough choice.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have Bill O “talk dirty to me on the phone” Reilly. If this guy were anymore “Right”, he would be wearing full-blown storm trooper clothes. The beauty of him is that he is so loose with his facts that he is laughable. Sadly, there are people who believe his hate filled ranting.

Give me Jeff Gannon.
http://homepage.mac.com/njenson/movies/billmaher021805gannon.html
Now, there is a first class softball pitcher, if there ever was one…The Talon News Agency… there is a gem.

The guy runs gay dating services on the internet; gets a fake name; and is still somehow able to get a Press Pass from the Whitehouse? He gets info that other news agencies can’t get. Well, the easy course of action here is too easy, so we won’t beat that lame horse.

So I read the news or watch the coverage on CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, for you Americans.) It isn’t as entertaining, but I guess I never thought news was meant to entertain.

Now this is a love song

DIAMONDS AND RUST (Words and Music by Joan Baez)
Well I'll be damned
Here comes your ghost again
But that's not unusual
It's just that the moon is full
And you happened to call

And here I sit
Hand on the telephone
Hearing a voice I'd known
A couple of light years ago
Heading straight for a fall

As I remember your eyes
Were bluer than robin's eggs
My poetry was lousy you said
Where are you calling from?
A booth in the midwest

Ten years ago I bought you some cufflinks
You brought me something
We both know what memories can bring
They bring diamonds and rust

Well you burst on the scene
Already a legend
The unwashed phenomenon
The original vagabond
You strayed into my arms
And there you stayed
Temporarily lost at sea
The Madonna was yours for free
Yes the girl on the half-shell
Would keep you unharmed

Now I see you standing
With brown leaves falling around
And snow in your hair
Now you're smiling out the window
Of that crummy hotel Over Washington Square
Our breath comes out white clouds
Mingles and hangs in the air
Speaking strictly for me
We both could have died then and there

Now you're telling me
You're not nostalgic
Then give me another word for it
You who are so good with words
And at keeping things vague
Because I need some of that vagueness now
It's all come back too clearly
Yes I loved you dearly
And if you're offering me diamonds and rust
I've already paid
© 1975 Chandos Music (ASCAP)

Live from the Boonies

I was in traffic the other day, being tailgated by “Buffy the Vanpool Slayer”. She was talking on her cell, and all the while, carrying on another conversation with her passenger. Her passenger looked to be the replacement actress for Mimi on the “Drew Carey Show.” I’m not even sure what this has to do with my thought process afterwards, but it seemed like a good lead-in line.

I was thinking that there really are no real heroes anymore. There seems to be this high tide of unflavored Jell-O that has settled into the fabric of our everyday life. We are a society void of new and wonderful things to challenge and fill our minds with wonderment and amazement.

Much as I hate to admit this, but there are no more innovators like Elvis. I need to be clear that I am not a huge fan of ‘Elvis the pelvis’, but I will, with some reservation, admit that he did influence all the music that was to follow. Fine, I’ve said it and now my wife can gloat for the next year.

We lack the John Kennedy’s; Douglas Macarthur’s who lead this country. There is no doubt that history may have in due course, made these folks bigger than life, but at the same time they influenced and defined a generation. They were America.

In our time, we have seen the Beatles, the Stones and learned that social change can come from the songs of a kid from Minnesota named Robert Zimmerman. We were a generation open to change and each day brought the possibility of something we had never seen.

A surgery that actually replaced a human heart was unbelievable, but yet we watched in awe as Barney Clark held on day after day. The world was transfixed with this. Some of this stuff was out of Jules Verne and Flash Gordon.

We saw the first topless bathing suit; and frankly Rudy, it was one bad fashion design; but hey, it was a start.

We saw a man on the moon; John and Yoko in a bed in Montreal. We watched a war unfolding in Vietnam before our very eyes on the Evening news, delayed tape and all.
We had Archie and Edith; and the Docs on “M*A*S*H” were groundbreaking. It was so much more than eye candy. It made you think, or at least wonder what ever happened to the ‘Beav.’

I remember watching the first time “Live It’s Saturday Night…” come on. The Not Ready for Prime Time Players were amazing to me. They seemed to be afraid of nothing.

I liked that.

Somewhere through the haze of some smoke, I can recall being changed and defined by all of this. I think I was not alone.

Yet, when I look at Buffy, in her SUV, I wonder what she is amazed by? I wonder if the Backstreet Boys and Full House define her. Or maybe she is just in a hurry to get to the mall. I hear there is a special on unflavored Jell-o this week.