WarrenPeese

My Take on Talk Radio: Part II

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As noted in Part I of this series, long hours of driving around listening to talk radio has–if I say so myself–made me a connoisseur of this medium (or, for the French-averse, aficionado). For purposes of s***s and giggles, I developed a Ten List of talk radio programs, ranking them from worst to first. My criteria for judgment is the total package: content, presentation and entertainment value. Talk shows compete with the other stations on the dial, both against music and other talk formats. If the program doesn’t get your attention or if the presentation puts you to sleep (not a good thing for commuters), then content quality of the show is wasted.

The worst talk show fellas were covered in Part I, and this one will hit the Middle of the Pack. Another thing. If I haven’t listened to it, I can’t comment on it. I literally heard Air America for the first time just a few days ago. Al Franken was on and he was grousing about the Democratic Party not being liberal enough, and lobbying for Howard Dean as DNC chair. The next day Janeane Garofolo, in the absurdly named "Majority Report", was trying to rally the progressive troops in calling the Ohio presidential results illegitimate. While I’m sorely tempted to rank Fringe Radio No. 11, fifteen minutes of painfully listening to these harangues is not enough time to pass judgment. Other guys I haven’t listened to much or at all are Neal Boortz, Glenn Beck, Oliver North, Mike Gallagher, Gordon Liddy, etc. So, without any more ado, drumroll please…

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Jon Stewart: Powerful Television Mogul

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Well, he’s not a mogul but he is powerful.  Less than three months ago, Stewart appeared on CNN’s Crossfire and totally annihilated the show and its hosts.  As I wrote here, Stewart should get an Emmy Award for the category of Best Guest on a Talking Head Show.  There isn’t a real category for this, … Read more

I’m Switching Camps

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At the risk of sounding like a wishy-washy flip-flopper, I have no choice but to change my position.  After the third recount in the Washington State governor’s race, I wrote in several comment sections in several weblogs that Dino Rossi should concede the election to Christine Gregoire, provided that an independent audit be conducted and that the state legislature enact laws that would prevent the re-occurrence of all these voting mishaps.  That position is now untenable, and now I’m firmly on the side of a revote.  Here’s why.

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My Take on Talk Radio: Part I

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I have a job that puts me in the car several times a week. The radio is usually on and it’s frequently tuned in to talk radio. How did I get started? Back in the late 1980s, after several hours out in the field and getting bored with music stations, I switched over to the AM band and heard Rush Limbaugh for the first time. Quite frankly, I was hooked because outside the Wall Street Journal and a few low-circulation magazines, there was no real outlet that represented and articulated my conservative views. The alternative was to fume at the obvious bias of CNN and network news coverage. Judging by the growth of Rush’s listenership and the number of subsequent offshoots, I wasn’t the only one was frustrated with TV news.  So began my journey as a talk radio listener.

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How Wahhabism Gets Spread

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You wouldn’t think that a guy with a name like Stephen Schwartz would be a Sufi Muslim, but he is, having converted to the faith during his time in Bosnia. In his latest piece at techcentralstation, Schwartz examined the anticipated spread of a harsher brand of Islam in Athens, all centering around the "proposed construction of the first state-recognized mosque in the vicinity of Athens in modern times."

The Islamic Center in the Athenian suburb of Peania, more than 15 miles northeast of Athens near the new international airport, will be financed directly by the King Fahd Foundation of Saudi Arabia. According to the Arab News, an English-language Saudi daily, some 8.5 acres were donated by the Greek government for the structure. Foreign assistance for the radicalization of Islam in Greece will inevitably be a central element of the activities at the mosque, which will be very large, intended, it is said, to accommodate all of the estimated 120,000 Muslim faithful in the capital city. The total number of Muslims in Greece is estimated at more than 500,000.

This new mosque will introduce Wahhabism to Greek society, the very ideology that western civilization is at war with. The name "King Fahd" rang a bell with me because he also funds madrassas in Britain, Germany and untold other places, offering dis-assimilation and the oppression of females in its coursework. Are we really at war with Wahhabism? I believe we are, and that we should be outspoken in saying that this form of Islam is heretical. As I wrote here, the sect is too closely entwined with the House of Saud, and its precepts are disturbingly similar to those preached by al Qaeda. There is also quite a bit of overlap with Qutbism, which is highly influential in the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda. The butchers of Beslan were also Wahhabi influenced.

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And Now For Something Completely Different

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Well, not really.  The nub of it is this.  Von and Edward asked me to contribute some writings to Obsidian Wings and I said "yes", and I extend a heartfelt thanks.  At Tacitus, I was under the moniker of "Bird Dog" and, since a new era is being ushered in over there, I thought I’d usher in some small changes as well, such as using my real name.  So what’s the point of this post?  To introduce myself, something I’ve never really done before on a weblog, so here goes.

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