Snead 101

Snead 303

2009-07-05T19:53:00.004-04:00

Movin' On Up

2009-06-22T11:50:00.000-04:00

So if you pay any attention around here, you know I never write about anything terribly personal. This blog, since it's inception, has never had many aspirations other than the occasional informative or amusing post. You may ask, "Informative and amusing for whom?" For me, I guess. I've always loved my sense of humor and I really enjoy the articles, videos, clips, interviews, parodies, links and everything I run across on the Internet. So, if nothing else, this blog is a great place for me to visit and I know I can always count on myself to deliver fantastic content.

But, in my humble opinion, it has certainly evolved. And it has undoutedly helped me grow. In trying to join the conversation of a surprisingly large political blogosphere in the Palmetto State, I had to educate myself. Sometimes I get down on myself just for not knowing a lot of stuff, mostly because it's too passe to blame my parents, or the education system, or anyone. If you want to know something, you have to learn it. Simple math. But it's incredible how much goes on behind the scenes, between the lines of newspaper print and press releases. I don't understand how people involved in politics keep track of everything, let alone the common folk who just want to know what's going on in their government. But the learning process has been nothing if not entertaining.

And frustrating. It's disturbing to see that a lot of political discourse in South Carolina is controlled by partisan consultants, people who aren't necessarily tied to any discernible values other than what their "client" (i.e. elected or wannabe officials) dictates. So while the theatrics of South Carolina politics are incredibly entertaining, the impact of reducing important debates to vacant drivel is just sad. In the last year alone we've seen South Carolina catch national attention for rejecting a gay tourism campaign and supporting state-sponsored Christian license plates. There was also that time some asshat called me a traitor. It's hard to figure out if politicians around here are pandering to a reliable base or if they're really just that backwards. In the end, stupid is as stupid does. When given the opportunity, I moved most of my political rants over to Indigo Journal. IJ was fun and I'm grateful to Tim and Jennifer for the community they are building. Liberal and progressive South Carolinians are behind the eight ball at the ballot box, but it's not for a lack of trying. It's just going to take a lot of hard work, communication and leadership, but I have no doubt SC will eventually be pulled kicking and screaming into modernity.

One of the best parts of hosting a blog is that it's like moving into a new neighborhood where you can pick your neighbors. I haven't met many "blog friends" over the years (They probably wouldn't like me anyway. My teeth can be frightening...) but it's great to know that while I'm moving 1600 miles from Columbia, they will still be just a click away. I really don't want to list everyone in my Google Reader, but I do my best to feature posts in the Snead Feed. That certainly won't change.

Obviously this is why I don't write many long posts; they get way too long way too fast. So here's the deal: I'm moving from Columbia to Denver, enrolling in the University of Colorado at Denver's School of Public Administration and going after a Master of Public Administration with a planned concentration in nonprofit management. Katie Rose, the girlfriend, is moving with me and starting her social work career and campaign to save the world. It's very exciting and although our two-day road trip doesn't kick off until next week I'm already surrounded by boxes and waiting for our ReloCube. After this post I'll put a more permanent "We've Moved" sign here and then it's time to put the finishing touches on my new blog home, Snead 303.

The idea behind Snead 303 is that I'll be writing more often, with more personal events/observations/experiences and, for now at least, I'll be leaving South Carolina in my rear view and immersing myself in any and everything Denver, Colorado and the West have to offer. There might even be some of this and I can only hope more of this. Advice on people to do and things to see while I'm out west would be greatly appreciated. The majority of my life has been spent between Walterboro, Beaufort and Columbia, and from what I've been told it's a big world out there.

As always, thanks for tuning in. I hope you'll follow along at Snead 303.

For the Dads

2009-06-21T09:00:00.002-04:00

The exact saying eludes me at the moment but today we're thinking about how anyone can be a father but it takes a man to be a dad. Or a poppa, pops, daddy, pa... you get the point. I don't say it enough, but I hope my old man (which I would never call him to his face, of course) knows what he means to me. Credit for everything good I've ever done goes to him and my mom; the bad should be blamed on too much fast food or something.

Happy Father's Day to all the real men out there.

Father Meets Son/Son Meets Father (NY Times)
My Father's Words (NY Times)
President acknowledges military fathers' sacrifices, contributions (AFPS)
Father's Day, from a military brat (The Times and Democrat)
Lost for 12 years, a prodigal father is found (LA Times)
Blind father, son find their way (Denver Post)
Sophia's Song: Elite angler Steve Kennedy celebrating first Father's Day (ESPN)
Very special Father's Day for Falcons' Nicholas (ESPN)

Colbert Doesn't Ask, Doesn't Tell in Iraq

2009-06-14T18:15:00.000-04:00

South Carolina's favorite son, Stephen Colbert, took his Comedy Central show to Baghdad last week for a first-of-its-kind USO show, performed, taped and aired from Iraq. One of the best moments was Stephen's debate against himself over the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy which bars homosexuals from openly serving. In the end, this was just a comedy bit. But I thought it was brave of Colbert to tackle the subject in front of an all-military crowd and his tongue-in-cheek performance really captures absurd arguments of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" supporters.

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Formidable Opponent - Don't Ask, Don't Tell

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Stephen Colbert in Iraq

For more:
The Colbert Report Clips and Full Episodes (Comedy Central)

Documentary, S.C. veterans target anti-gay Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy (Snead 101)

'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Should Be Next DoD Program Cut (Indigo Journal)

Will Obama be Truman on Gay Rights? (RealClearPolitics)

The American Debate: Obama needs just a bit of Truman's courage (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

Just Another Day In South Carolina

2009-06-13T12:14:00.004-04:00

GOP activist says escaped gorilla was "ancestor" of Michelle Obama (WIS)

SCGOP Activist Posts Remark Disparaging First Lady (FITSNews)

Don't get me wrong, not every South Carolina GOPher is a racist. Just the ones who use the Internet.

Thursday Afternoon Cinema: 'Prop 8 - The Musical'

2009-06-11T16:30:00.002-04:00

According to my calculations, I'm the 4,160,395th person to watch this on Funny or Die. The same folks who brought us "A Gaythering Storm" took home a Webby Monday night for this video. Enjoy.

"Prop 8 - The Musical" starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and many more... from Jack Black

Join the SC Pride movement HERE.

A Belated Congratulations

2009-06-11T07:30:00.002-04:00

This is old news but apparently my head has been in the clouds the last few weeks and I would be remiss if I didn't say something about President Obama's selection of Major General (ret.) Charles Bolden as National Aeronautics and Space Administration Administrator. Lame title, right? Maybe "Charlie" will jazz it up...

The Columbia native, Naval Academy grad, Marine fighter pilot obviously has the right stuff (despite his PhD from the other USC) and he's going to need it at the helm of NASA. News reports first named Bolden as the expected successor to former NASA chief Michael Griffin in January and his selection gives him the biggest job for any Palmetto Stater in the Obama administration. One of South Carolina's U.S. Senators, Jim DeMint, has given Bolden's nomination a thumbs-up although given DeMint's personal philosophies he'll probably suggest eliminating NASA funding during the confirmation hearing.

So congrats, happy happy, and good luck to General Bolden. And Sir, just in case you're reading your clippings, it's one thing to put a man on the moon but isn't it about time to put a Gamecock in space? I'll keep my schedule open for you.

Stimulate Me!

2009-06-10T16:35:00.011-04:00

Before we pack our bags and head west, Katie Rose and I are trying to unload some extra furniture. If the price is right, of course. Do yourself (and me) a favor and check out these AMAZING, INCREDIBLE, ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! deals on craigslist, before our attorney general shuts it down.

~~Student Desk $30 OBO~~ Sold!

~~2 Rocking Chairs~~ ~~$50~~ Sold!

50" Rear Projection HDTV $1000 OBO

Kitchen Table $50

I hope they have these in Colorado…

2009-06-10T12:20:00.003-04:00

But I doubt it.

If there’s one thing all South Carolinians love, it’s food. And I’m not talking about some tofu, seven-grain, low carb or low calorie or low anything dishes. We love good food and we’ve gotten pretty good at making it. Hot spots for South Carolina’s best cooking can usually be found close to the coast, where Lowcountry folks have spent generations passing down, and honing, their family recipes. Today the New York Times featured just such a spot in its “Dining & Wine” section.

AT 3:45 on a recent Saturday morning — as frogs croaked into the void and a mufflerless pickup downshifted onto Cow Head Road — Rodney Scott, 37, pitmaster here at Scott’s Variety Store and Bar-B-Q, gave the order.

“Flip the pigs,” he said, his voice calm and measured. “Let’s go. Some char is good — too much and we lose
him.”

A. J. Shaw, a college student home for the summer, and Thomas Lewis, a onetime farmer, left their seats and joined Mr. Scott in the pit room, a rectangular shed dominated by two waist-high concrete banks, burnished ebony by wood smoke, ash and grease.

Ten butterflied pig carcasses — taut bellies gone slack, pink flesh gone cordovan — were in the pits when Mr. Lewis reached for the sheet of wire fencing on which
one of the pigs had been roasting since 4 the previous afternoon. In lockstep, Mr. Shaw topped that same pig with a second sheet of fencing, reached his gloved fingers into the netting, and grabbed hold.
As the men struggled, the 150 pounds of dead weight torqued the makeshift wire cage. When the carcass landed, skin-side down, on the metal grid of a recently fired pit, skeins of grease trailed down the pig’s flanks, and the smoldering oak and hickory coals beneath hissed and flared.

“I cooked my first one when I was 11,” Mr. Scott said, as he seasoned the pig with lashings of salt, red pepper, black pepper and Accent, a flavor enhancer made with MSG.

Working a long-handled mop, he drenched the pig in a vinegar sauce of a similar peppery composition. “You’ve got to always be on point, when you’re cooking this way,” he said. […]

The crowd that Saturday afternoon was typical: Half black and half white, half locals and half pilgrims.

Locals, many of whom work at the Tupperware plant, on the other end of Cow Head Road, came to pick up half-pound orders, pulled from various quadrants of the pig and tossed with sauce in the manner of a meat salad. They knew to ask Virginia Washington — Rodney Scott’s cousin, the woman behind the high-top order counter — for a cook’s treat of fried pig skin, still smoky from the pit, still crisp from the deep fryer.

DeeDee Gammage planned to eat her barbecue between slices of white bread, in the car, on the way home. Lou Esther Black told Mrs. Washington that she would serve her take-away atop bowls of grits on Sunday morning. “I let the grease from the meat be my sauce,” Ms. Black said. “You don’t need butter.”

Locals knew that if they dawdled until the serving table ran low, Jackie Gordon, Rodney Scott’s aunt, would break down another pig on the bone table. They knew that, with a little luck, they might score a rack of spareribs, wrenched hot from a carcass.

Pilgrims lacked the locals’ foresight, but made up for it in appetite. The average out-of-town order was two pounds.

In addition to pork, day-trippers bought sauce by the gallon, hot or mild. (They were probably not aware that the sole difference is how far Mrs. Washington dips her ladle into the jug and whether she stirs, to loosen the pepper sediment.)

At the register, out-of-towners bought quart jars of locally grown and ground cane syrup from Ella Scott, the 67-year-old mother of Rodney Scott, and wondered aloud whether any of that syrup made it into the family’s sauce. (When asked, all the Scotts will say is that it has “a little sugar.”)

Visitors took side trips to the smoke-shrouded pit house where pigs lay splayed and sauce-puddled. They stared down into the mop sauce bucket, where sliced lemons bobbed.

They ogled the five-foot-tall burn barrels, where hunks of wood the size of footstools flame, then smolder, then break down into the coals that Mr. Scott and his colleagues shovel into the pits. They traded theories about the barrels’ construction, about how the coal grates within are formed by piercing the steel barrels with a crisscross of truck axles.

“Back home they’ve just about gone to gas for cooking,” said David Hewitt of Florence, S.C., as he waited for his order. “And they serve on buffet lines. This place is the last of a breed. If you like history, this place is full of it.” […]

“This is a business for us,” [Mr. Scott] said. “We don’t do it the old way. We do it the best way we know how. That means a lot of oak. That means a lean pig, which means less grease and less a chance of grease fires. No matter which way you do it, though, some folks don’t want you to go nowhere.”

His son echoed his feelings. “People keep talking about how old-fashioned what we do is,” he said. “Old-fashioned was working the farm as a boy. I hated those long hours, that hot sun. Compared to that, this is a slow roll.”

Pig, Smoke, Pit: This Food Is Seriously Slow (NY Times)

The Scotts won’t make the trip to New York’s Big Apple Barbecue Block Party this weekend, but South Carolina will be represented by Jimmy Hagood and his BlackJack BBQ out of Charleston. New Yorkers might get a small taste of barbecue done right this weekend, but they’ll miss out on the complete experience provided by the Scotts and countless other slow roll specialists found all over the Palmetto State.

For more on South Carolina barbecue, check out this article by Charleston City Paper's Jeff Allen. If you have the chance, be sure to visit the Scotts. It doesn't get more organic than this.

One Year

2009-06-08T07:15:00.002-04:00

It's been exactly a year since I convinced this girl that dating me wouldn't be an incredibly terrible experience. I promised that if things didn't work out there wouldn't be any hard feelings and I would only stalk her for a few weeks. I even used her as an excuse to quit smoking. Three weeks from today we'll be somewhere between St. Louis and Denver. I can't imagine starting this next chapter with anyone else except her.

D-Day

2009-06-06T11:15:00.000-04:00

The Longest Day

Photo Collection (Denver Post)

Army.mil Feature

D-Day Plus 65 (The Washington Post)

Snead on Films

2009-06-06T10:45:00.000-04:00

Time for another look at the SneadFlix rental activity. 1 star = Hated - 5 stars = Two snaps up

Burn After Reading 4 stars
Operation Homecoming 5 stars
For The Bible Tells Me So 5 stars
The Fall 5 stars
Milk 4 stars (Wish I'd watched the doc version first)
Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace 4 stars (Better pay attention - These two almost require CliffsNotes)
Thank You for Smoking 3 stars
Ghost Town 4 stars (A gem - good for the whole family)
Juno 4 stars
Summercamp! 3 stars (A doc w/o much story structure but entertaining)
Fuck 4 stars
Humboldt County 4 stars

Oops

2009-06-03T16:55:00.001-04:00

Someone at the GPO is having a really shitty summer...

On days like this, I bet the Government Printing Office (GPO) wishes it had a giant undo button for the entire Internet - that, or Superman-like abilities to zoom around the earth and turn back time.

A couple of days ago, a blogger at the Federation of American Scientists' Secrecy News blog noticed that the GPO had posted a document on its Web site called "The List of Sites, Locations, Facilities And Activities Declared To The International Atomic Energy Agency."

Publishing government documents is the GPO's bread and butter, of course. But in this case, there was a problem - the document contained sensitive, not-intended-for-the-public information on literally every nuclear facility in the United States.

Apart from the potential economic benefit the release could have for the makers of Pepto Bismol and Xanax, the error has become a major embarrassment for the feds. While security experts debate the potential impact of the publishing mistake, it serves as yet another opportunity to break out the cliches: The genie is out of the bottle. The cat's out of the bag. You can't stop the signal. Pandora's box and all that. Because when it comes to the Internet, there's no such thing as a retraction. Once it's out there, it's out there, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it.

But the government says it's not that big a deal. Right. Tell that to the goat who hit "Publish".

Meanwhile, I spent a few days on the road with Katie Rose and Ma and Pa Snead. We rode up to Abingdon, Virginia, so we could bike the Virginia Creeper. I highly recommend the Creeper, especially if you start at Whitetop and work your way back to Abingdon. If you take that route, the first 17 miles is down hill. Easy day. Some pics and vids here.

And last, but not least, buy my television. Because I'm moving.

What The Hell Is Wrong With The State?

2009-05-29T10:55:00.003-04:00

Seriously. Who thought this was a good idea?

As if there aren't enough reasons to hate The State.

H/t Hey Jenny Slater

Every Day

2009-05-26T20:30:00.003-04:00

If you have a loved one serving in our all-volunteer military, I don't have to tell you that every day should be Memorial Day. But those of us who hold that pure, deep love and respect for our Soldiers, our ~~Squids~~ Sailors, our Airmen, our Marines, and even our Coasties are always happy when the rest of the nation takes a moment to join us in memorial. I'm sharing this with you a day late, but the sentiments expressed here aren't just once a year on the last Monday in May.

Commentary: A day to remember the price of freedom

Joe Galloway

For our remaining World War II veterans, the days dwindle down to a precious few. Some of their veterans associations held their last reunion this past year; too few are left to gather again. Fewer than 5 million are left of the 15 million who wore the uniform between 1941 and 1945, and they're disappearing from among us at the rate of 30,000 each month.

The passing years also take their toll among veterans of the Korean War, the forgotten war, and they've begun to thin the ranks of those who served and sacrificed in Vietnam.

Two who died this past year left holes in the ranks of my own small brotherhood, the veterans of the battles of the Ia Drang Valley, fought in Vietnam at the dawn of our war there in November 1965.

Maj. Ed (Too Tall to Fly) Freeman died last August in his hometown of Boise, Idaho. He belatedly earned a Medal of Honor in 2001 for flying his Huey helicopter through a storm of enemy fire 14 times in one hot afternoon, bringing in ammunition and taking out wounded Americans.

His wing man and boss, Lt. Col. Bruce (Old Snake) Crandall, who received the Medal of Honor in 2005, was beside Ed's hospital bed that last week saying his goodbyes and continuing their half-century argument over which of them was the "second-best pilot in the world."

Early this year, Medic Randy (Doc) Lose, one of the survivors of the "lost" platoon of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion 7th U.S. Cavalry in the Ia Drang, was buried in the National Cemetery in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Doc Lose earned a Distinguished Service Cross for his actions in saving the lives of a dozen wounded men who were trapped behind enemy lines for over 24 hours. He was wounded four times as he crawled from man to man, plugging their wounds with C-Ration toilet paper after he ran out of bandages.

Doc never got over the experience. The Vietnam War killed him just as certainly as it did the 79 other men of his battalion who died during those three days in the valley of death. May God rest his soul and grant him peace.

Yes, for the 20 million living veterans of America's wars, old and new, and for the families and friends of the fallen, Memorial Day has a very special meaning, and it is a time for reflection and silent tears.

Map the Fallen

This Memorial Day I would like to share with you a personal project of mine that uses Google Earth to honor the more than 5,700 American and Coalition servicemen and women that have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have created a map for Google Earth that will connect you with each of their stories—you can see photos, learn about how they died, visit memorial websites with comments from friends and families, and explore the places they called home and where they died.

This work first began while I was a graduate student in Environmental Science at U.C. Riverside. While teaching myself how to use Google Earth for a research project visualizing sensor networks, I came across the icasualties.org website. Immediately drawn into the stories of the members of the military that had died up to October 2005, I decided to try mapping each of their hometowns. I posted my U.S. & Coalition Casualties map to the Google Earth Community. Fast-forward to 2007: my thesis work on visualizing sensor networks in Google Earth and my personal mapping projects landed me a job at Google.

Google Earth has come a long way since late 2005 when I first started using it: a few of these improvements include time animation, "regionation" for efficiently displaying thousands of points on the map, and Touring, which enables you to record your flightpath and narration to guide your audience through your content. I'm sure many of you have heard of Google's 20% time program, where engineers can work the equivalent of a day a week on a project of their choosing. I decided last year that it was time to revisit my casualties mapping project, and have since spent some of my 20% time (as well as a healthy dose my own personal time) rebuilding the map to use these new features.

For this project I collected information from a number of sources, including the Department of Defense's Statistical Information Analysis Division, icasualties.org, MilitaryTimes.com's Honor the Fallen, Washington Post's Faces of the Fallen, the Iraq and Afghanistan Pages, and Legacy.com. I used the Google Maps and GeoNames.org geocoding services to get coordinates for each person's home of record and approximate place of death. The map includes data through March 2009. I'd like to point out the incredible time commitment the above organizations invest in maintaining this information; as I've learned, it is not an easy task. All of the data I have assembled and generated for this project will be made freely available for download in the near future.

Photos: The Big Picture Memorial Day 2009

NY Times: Time Ebbs for the Heroes Who Saved the Harbor

The Boston Globe: Two families that served with honor

FOX Nonsense

2009-05-21T15:52:00.002-04:00

Former Gov. Jesse Ventura tells FOX News dopes how he really feels. Host Steve Doocy, sitting closest to "The Body", clearly wants no part of this action.

Want to know the biggest difference between Ventura and FOX host Brian Kilmeade? Ventura has an agenda, but he's honest about it and it's based on information and experience.

H/t Brandon at VetVoice

My Favorite Republican

2009-05-15T10:18:00.002-04:00

Still fighting the good fight for the Department of Navy and Marine Corps and doing other good work on behalf of our warriors.

For More:
My Favorite Republican Wins, A Nazi Loses (Probably Because Of The Jews)

CCP: Documentary, S.C. veterans target anti-gay Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy

2009-05-13T22:40:00.001-04:00

From the Charleston City Paper:

When Jarrod Chlapowski and Alex Nicholson moved from Columbia to Washington in January, the two gay veterans sat down with legislative leaders to get a sense of whether Congress might repeal the military's anti-gay Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. Coming away from those talks with a belief that more work needs to be done to encourage congressional action, the two have launched Servicemembers United, a group of gay and straight veterans actively advocating an end to Don't Ask.

Since the earliest days of the Clinton presidency, gays and lesbians have been allowed to serve in the armed forces only if they're silent about their sexuality and celibate. Designed as a practical way to ignore the injustice of the military's anti-gay stance, the Don't Ask policy has instead spurred witch-hunts, with more than 13,000 able soldiers discharged because of their sexuality. To avoid detection, gays have been forced to ignore homophobic slurs in the barracks, and some have resorted to near cloak-and-dagger techniques to deflect suspicion, creating ex-wives, girlfriends, and an apparent interest in Sports Illustrated swimsuit models.

Chlapowski and Nicholson first met in 2006 during a tour of military schools to spotlight the failings of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. A documentary that includes footage from that tour, Ask Not, will receive a community screening at the Charleston County Library on Calhoun Street on May 26 and will air nationally on PBS on June 16.

Documentary, S.C. veterans target anti-gay Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy

-Greg Hambrick

For More:

Independent Lens: DON'T ASK

Indigo Journal: "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Should Be Next DoD Program Cut

Con-grads and Happy Happy!

2009-05-10T10:51:00.004-04:00

Congrats to all our grads, especially my very own Katie Rose, Master of Social Work. Oh, and except all the recently indoctrinated Cleminals. Good luck with that stain on your resume.

And much love to our mamas. Obviously everyday should be Mother's Day, and for more on that I'd direct you to the late, great Lewis Grizzard, author of "Don't Forget To Call Your Mama: I Wish I Could Call Mine"

Thursday Evening Cinema: SupportYourVet.org

2009-05-07T21:58:00.002-04:00

The new PSA from Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) and the Ad Council, announcing SupportYourVet.org - an online forum for the friends and family of veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Snead on Film

2009-05-05T07:29:00.004-04:00

Not that you care, but here's our recently viewed from the queue with ratings (1 = Hated It, 5 = Loved It).

City of God 4 stars
Pineapple Express 4 stars
Chop Shop 4 stars
Eagle vs. Shark 4 stars
The Bridge 3 stars
What Just Happened? 3 stars
There Will Be Blood 5 stars
Wet Hot American Summer 4 stars
Bigger, Stronger, Faster 5 stars
I'm Not There 2 stars
Let The Right One In 2 stars
Synecdoche, New York 3 stars
Forgetting Sarah Marshall 4 stars
Life Is Beautiful 5 stars
Election 4 stars
W. 3 stars
My Cousin Vinny 5 stars
The Usual Suspects 5 stars
The Wrestler 5 stars
Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral 4 stars

Critics we aren't. And without cable, we aren't neccesarily looking for anything terribly artsy, just entertaining.

USC MIA on YouTube EDU

2009-05-01T08:30:00.001-04:00

I was perusing some public administration stuff on YouTube EDU this morning and I noticed the University of South Carolina is conspicuously absent from the site's directory. Well, not completely. USC Aiken has an account with 28 videos and the MUSC channel sports an impressive catalog of 168 videos with several in the five-digit view count range. Two other prominent Palmetto State schools, Clemson (28 videos) and College of Charleston (66 videos), are also listed in the EDU directory.

So where is South Carolina's YouTube channel? I guess this is it. An account with seven videos, the most recent of which was uploaded nearly a year ago, that hasn't been active in a month. I certainly hope the University isn't expecting to make up the lost exposure with their US News & World Report rankings. Good luck finding them in that directory. Maybe Coach Staley could teach the administration a thing or two about social media.

Thursday Morning Cinema: 100 Days of Hysterics

2009-04-30T07:41:00.002-04:00

Media Matters on Fox News: 100 days of "opposition" to Obama
Fox News has reason to rejoice as President Obama marks the media-manufactured milestone of his first 100 days in office. The conservative cable network's ratings are sky high under the new Democratic president. Yes, it looks like it couldn't be happier serving as "the voice of [Obama's] opposition," to paraphrase Fox News senior vice president Bill Shine. [...]

Fox News has gone to tremendous lengths mainstreaming the sometimes violent, revolutionary doomsday rhetoric of the far right, which used to be confined to the extremist fringe. Appealing directly to the feelings of anger and anti-Obama paranoia in its own audience, Fox hosts have become louder and meaner than anything whispered in the shadows of previous presidencies.

Witness Fox News newcomer Glenn Beck, the network's conspiracy-theorist-in-chief, who, on a recent broadcast, imitated the president pouring gasoline on an "average American" while saying, "President Obama, why don't you just set us on fire? ... We didn't vote to lose the republic." A fan of bizarre imagery to be sure, Beck also portrayed Obama and Democrats as vampires "going after the blood of our businesses" before asking, "Who's next?" and suggesting we "drive a stake through the heart of the bloodsuckers."

Aside from Beck's sideshow theatrics, other Fox News hosts, anchors, and reporters seem to be reading from a unified set of talking points that begin and end with scary sounding "-isms." If Mary Poppins had "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," Fox has "social-fasci-commun-Nazi-McCarthy-Marxism." With great gusto, they've used terms like socialism, communism, fascism, and Marxism at least 1,400 times since the inauguration in their never-ending assault on progressives.

Welcome to South Carolina: Home of Envy, Wrath, Lust and Pride!

2009-04-27T20:45:00.000-04:00

So much for the "Bible Belt". It's time to rename the Southeastern United States the Sin Den. According to some Geogra-nerds at Kansas State, the states of the Confederacy are ripe with capital vices.
The question of evil and where it lurks has been largely ignored by the scientific community, which is why a recently released study titled “The Spatial Distribution of the Seven Deadly Sins Within Nevada” is groundbreaking: Never before has a state’s fall from grace been so precisely graphed and plotted.

Geographers from Kansas State University have used certain statistical measurements to quantify Nevada’s sins and come up with a county-by-county map purporting to show various degrees of lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride in the Silver State. By culling statistics from nationwide databanks of things like sexually transmitted disease infection rates (lust) or killings per capita (wrath), the researchers came up with a sin index. This is a precision party trick — rigorous mapping of ridiculous data. [...]

Envy was calculated using the total number of thefts — robbery, burglary, larceny and stolen cars.... Wrath was calculated by comparing the total number of violent crimes — murder, assault and rape — reported to the FBI per capita.... Lust was calculated by compiling the number of sexually transmitted diseases — HIV, AIDS, syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea — reported per capita.... And pride, lastly, is most important. The root of all sins, in this study, is the aggregate of all data. Vought and his Kansas colleagues combined all data from the six other sins and averaged it into an overview of all evil....
The Wildcats focused on Nevada but offered a nationwide overview. Despite conservative complaints in the South about "San Francisco values" slowly creeping across America, maybe the rest of the country should be worried about the South Carolina values that are producing all this sinnin'.

H/t Neatorama

Coming Home

2009-04-26T12:10:00.001-04:00

I just caught the tail end of a great program by To The Best Of Our Knowledge, 'Coming Home From Iraq.' Details below, listen to the whole show HERE.

"Let me say this as plainly as I can" President Obama said recently, "By August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end." In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, coming home from Iraq. Obama's plan will bring home some 150,000 troops. But what are they coming home to? Their divorce rate is triple the national average. Alcoholism, four times the average. PTSD. Unemployment. Suicide. And a nation weary of the war they fought. They're coming home, are we ready for them?

SEGMENT 1:

Journalist Jim Sheeler is the author of "Final Salute." The book is about Marine Casualty Notification Officer Major Steve Beck and the families affected by his devastating news. Sheeler tells Anne Strainchamps about the next-of-kin notification process and what he does to try to help families of fallen Marines. Also, Iraq war veteran John McCury offers his essay called "The Fallen," part of the National Endowment for the Arts project, Operation Homecoming.

SEGMENT 2:

Tyler Boudreau is a 12 year veteran of the Marine Corps who ultimately resigned his commission due to reservations over the legitimacy of the Iraq war. His book is "Packing Inferno: The Unmaking of a Marine." He tells Anne Strainchamps that while he always had doubts, he did his duty, and doesn't regret his Marine service. Also, Gary Mitchell is a Vietnam vet who's struggled with PTSD for some 40 years. He was a sniper and assigned to carry out planned assassinations. His book is "A Sniper's Journey: The Truth about the Man behind the Rifle." He reads from his book and talks with Jim Fleming about his experiences and their effects on the rest of his life.

SEGMENT 3:

Sargent First Class Toby Nunn served two tours of duty in Iraq. He now works for the nonprofit organization Soldiers' Angels which supports veterans and deployed military personnel and their families. Sgt. Nunn tells Steve Paulson what kind of work he does now and why.