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OK, so normally when I post something on Inky Mountain, I try to offer some kind of commentary or insight (ha!), but this video really, truly deserves to stand on its own:

Dobson, ACLU Bond Over Bong Hits

According to the Pew Research Center:

"A recent Supreme Court case involving the free speech rights of students is producing some very unusual alliances. Christian conservative groups, such as the American Center for Law and Justice, the Christian Legal Society and the Alliance Defense Fund, are defending a student named Joseph Frederick who was punished by his high school principal for holding up a sign that read "Bong Hits 4 Jesus."

Sure, it's not often that groups like Focus on the Family land on the same side of a controversial issue as groups like the ACLU, but take a look at Focus' explanation of its position:

"Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said it’s important schools strike a proper balance between the students’ rights and school officials’ interests in a safe learning environment.

'While Christians generally support the right of schools to maintain discipline, there has been a disturbing trend in recent years of schools prohibiting only Christian speech while allowing other speech antithetical to Christian belief,' he said.

For example, in the case of Harper v. Poway Unified School District, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a school’s right to ban a student from wearing a T-shirt with a biblical reference to homosexuality. The school allowed a pro-homosexual message by other students."

So, if Focus leader James Dobson wants students to be able to bash gays in the name of Jesus, he has to suck it up and defend students who say Jesus was a pothead, or something like that. Hey, you know, maybe whoever wrote in the Bible that homosexuality was wrong was, like, high or something?

A Rumor Gone Awry

Edwards is dropping out!!! Oops, not so much... The blogosphere has been abuzz today with the Politico's goof this morning about John Edward's press conference announcement. While blogger Ben Smith has written a long apology and explanation about how he got it wrong, it's raised some questions about the trustworthiness and responsibility of bloggers - especially those who are widely read, such as the Politico (here at Inky Mountain I can be as irresponsible and full of shit as I please, although I'll try hard not to be).

A little background: The John Edwards campaign announced yesterday he and his wife Elizabeth would be holding a press conference today at noon with "an announcement about his campaign." Overnight, after word spread that Elizabeth, who has battled breast cancer, had visited a doctor that day, the little squirrels at their keyboards had determined that a) her cancer was back, b) it would require intensive treatment and c) Edwards was ending or pausing his campaign for the Democratic nomination.

The squirrels were wrong.

Forty-five minutes before the press conference began, Smith posted a story with this headline: "Edwards to Suspend Campaign." Within minutes the story had been picked up by other blogs. Then, after probably gulping with bug-eyed, semi-respectable blogger horror, he had to change it to this: "Edwards Campaign to Continue." Soon after, Smith posted his mea culpa, which in part read:

"Though I’ve spent the last several years at major newspapers – the New York Observer and the New York Daily News most recently – I’ve done much of my reporting on blogs, and have developed an instinct to let my readers know whatever I know, as soon as I know it. The medium typically allows you to refine and update a story as it changes – including saying, “Well, my original source had it wrong.”

But the scale of this story was simply too big to report that way, to share information with high but imperfect confidence – and without making that level of confidence crystal clear. I should have waited for a second source, or hedged the item much more fully. Or simply waited for the news conference like everybody else."

It's that last point that gets me. Was Edwards' announcement so incredibly important that we couldn't wait 45 minutes longer for the news? It's not like Smith was the only person to hear Edwards was dropping out. Even I awoke to an e-mail this morning (from a listserve) that said this: "Rumor says his wife may be very sick and under these conditions he cannot continue. Rumor says he will announce at noon tomorrow from chapel hill."

To Smith's credit, lots of times rumors that spread this quickly and widely are often true. But often they're not. And that's why you should never, ever believe anything you see or hear. Ever.

Just kidding. Hey Smith, when are those rumors about Cheney resigning going to come true?

P.S. I'd like to give a shout out to the editor of Wonkette, who seemed to know not to trust what the Politico thought it trusted it knew, and showed us how the pros report rumors:

BREAKING: Edwards To Suspend Campaign, Maybe, Possibly, Don't Rely On Us For Hard News For God's Sake

Apocalypse Averted!

Whew, Inky Mountain survived the switch to daylight savings time! I wasn't sure what would happen when I read headlines like these in the past few days:

"Time Change Stirs Y2K-Like Fears"

"Tech Crews Prepare for Y2K-Like Threat"

"Y2K Again? Daylight Time May Baffle Computers"

I don't know what I would have done if the media hadn't warned me. After all, we all know what happened on Y2K! OK, I know the sarcasm is a bit thick, but who is the editor writing the headline "Y2K Again?" Sooo, what you're saying is that nothing is going to happen? Most of these blatantly sensational articles go on to say that your computer's clock might have to be (OMG!) manually updated.

Over at Inky Mountain, my computer and cell phone updated themselves just fine. I had to change my clocks myself, and luckily I haven't had a traumatic brain injury lately and was able to handle it. I didn't bother changing the time on my circa-1980 VCR - it's been quaintly blinking "12:00" for about 20 years. (seriously, the thing weighs 30 pounds, but hell if I'm going to buy a new VCR to play old My So-Called Life episodes on VHS.) Anyway, despite the fact I own electronics as old as I am (I also have an original Nintendo), even I could have changed my computer's clock if it hadn't updated itself.

I know, I know. I shouldn't be so snide. There's still the possibility of an apocalypse in three weeks when daylight savings usually happens. I'll be curious to see what the headlines say in the days beforehand. I'd like to suggest:

"Y2K: It Really Could Maybe Happen This Time"

or maybe

"Y2K: How About Now?"

Super Fun Photo Gallery

This is a photo gallery assembled by myself and my digital newsroom classmates. My album is "San Francisco," which is a slideshow of pictures from my trip there last summer. The photos were taken by Theresa Crapanzano (the future Dr. Pink).



The gallery and slideshows are a bit small, but you can view a larger version here.

Newsweek Has Identity Crisis, Thinks It's Conan

Poor Newsweek! Its inboxes are overflowing with reader disdain after it challenged fashion designers to help North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il spruce up his look. Second-tier designers created Hipster Kim, as seen at left, as well as Respectable Kim, Sexy Kim, Classic Kim, Tourist Kim, and Yeah Baby Kim. The tourist version of Kim Jong Il has a rocket in his shorts (I cannot believe I just wrote that) and is decked out in a gut-baring "I got bombed in Pyongyang T-shirt." Yeah Baby Kim sports leopard-print underpants.

The original story contains these killer lines:

"If Kim Jong Il is losing his nukes, can his drab jumpsuit be far behind?"

"North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is a man whose outfit is as rigid as his regime."

Indeed. But for some reason, readers are upset, saying nuclear war is so not funny and Newsweek is not place for such nonsense:

"Next maybe we'll see: ‘Color your own nuclear sunset of the human race!’ Or, ‘Take one of our insurgent figures and drill him full of your own custom-patterned bullet holes.’ Somebody who runs this so-called ‘news magazine’ must be deeply, truly insane."

“During much of the 20th century, Hollywood and our media and press demonized Arabs. Look where it got us. Now Newsweek is demonizing Kim Jong Il per his fashion. Jeeez! Seems like something you'd see on MySpace. Surely Newsweek can do better.”

Oh, but it can do better! Because it didn't leave us disappointed that there's no Cross-Dressing Kim or Golfer Kim - you can download your own "Kim-plate" and dress him yourself. Then, you can e-mail your twisted creation to Newsweek and editors' faves will be posted in an online gallery! Isn't technology just awesome? Of course, after this kind of reader venom, it remains to be seen whether the gallery will ever grace our screens.