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Sept. 27, 2006 I noticed that Katie Couric made it to 60 Minutes tonight. I was unimpressed. She asked Condi Rice lots of softball questions and had at least one real good opportunity to grill her on a pressing point but backed off as Condi wiggled out of it. That's not why I watch 60 Minutes and this doesn't bode well for the future of the show. In general, who cares about Katie? She seems likable enough, but that's not enough for me. Who cared that she took that spot on the CBS Evening News? I was more interested to hear that Judy Woodruff quietly moved from CNN, which has turned into a bit of joke in my eyes, back to PBS. Interestingly, when I looked up the link for Judy, I found this nugget on her WikiPedia page: Her husband is Al Hunt, formerly of CNN and The Wall Street Journal, now managing editor of the Bloomberg News Washington, D.C, bureau. She is not related to fellow TV journalist Bob Woodruff. In April 1986, while the couple was eating at a Dallas restaurant with their 4-year-old son, Hunt recalls a drunk George W. Bush stormed over to their table and unloaded on Woodruff's husband: "You fucking son of a bitch. I saw what you wrote. We're not going to forget this." Hunt had predicted in the April edition of The Washingtonian that Jack Kemp would lead the GOP nomination rather than George H.W. Bush. Bush would apologize to Hunt over a decade later. Chavez came and insulted America. I found the comments amusing myself, and a bit silly. If we believe that America is still a "good guy" in the world, then we should smile in response. Both "sides" agreed that his comments were insulting, which is probably what Chavez expected. John Bolton actually responded appropriately when he noted that Chavez wasn't arrested or blocked from hurling his insults; that's what freedom is all about. Some fanatical UK conservatives used the occasion to liken Chavez with liberalism, implying that American liberals are communists and all of that tired old bit. Does anyone actually still buy this argument? On a graph of economic policies and nations, we might place Chavez near the extreme left, yes. But let's not forget that we'd have to place fascists on the extreme right, on the same side of the graph as American fiscal conservatives. Most other first-world countries, many of which have higher standards of living than we currently do, fall to the left of the US on such a graph but still well clear of Chavez; it's a large graph. Virtually every rich modern nation enjoys a mixed economy, with a capitalist base and healthy doses of socialism thrown in for good measure - we are no exception. We already subsidize heating oil for some parts of the country. We pay farmers not to plant crops and keep food prices artificially low and generally meddle with the free market in lots of ways. I mention these socialist policies specifically because Republicans often support them. If we adopted other proven socialist ideas our standard of living would likely rise as our education, health and crime issues would improve. During the last presidential campaign, some conservatives shouted with glee that the American Communist party, a very fringe group with no representation of which I'm aware anywhere in US government (local or national), supported Kerry. But, did they also mention that end-of-the-world religious nut jobs and the Ku Klux Clan supported Bush? Does this mean Bush has white hooded robes in the back of his closet? What conclusions can we really draw in a nation with just two political parties in power and a plethora of fringe groups? If we look closer, we can see which party has genuine connections and representation with scary fringe groups and, folks, it's not the Democrats. I sent in my final response to John Waters in our little spat only to then read useless-knowledge.com and see his "let's be friends" piece. It's well written and humorous and makes some sound points. My piece actually reaches some of the same conclusions, though with our previous (and mutual), heated, tone. I noted for example that John seems to be suggesting that his views are closer to my views, and I noted that definitions are broad and cast wide nets and gave an example of where this failed me as well. John said in his nice piece that he is a secular humanist at heart, and I'm glad to hear it. Interlaced between his seeming hatred of atheism, skepticism, humanism and transhumanism in his older articles, one can find political hints that he does in fact have much in common with me. I did try to extend an olive branch to John once in the past and attempt to end this spat. His very next article went back on the attack however. In any case, John seems like someone with whom I could get along fine in the real world. We've exchanged some friendly emails. If John and I were political activists, I'd expect us to be shouting and banner-waving within the same mob of people for most issues, thought we'd probably have some philosophical shouting matches of our own. NOTE: It seems that I had a character translation issue and all of my quotes were turned into a Greek letter in the article about Waters so the editor asked me to fix it and resubmit. Surely, this is a sign from God that he did not want this reply posted at UK ;) Since I have this blog that I haven't updated in quite a while, I've decided instead to post it there. It gives very specific responses to John's grumbles, goes into depth about why the Einstein/Russel anti-nuke stance isn't the same as the neo-Luddite movement and so forth. If need be, I shall refer to it in future engagements with Waters; at seven pages in my word processor at 12 point font, it's rather complete and includes references. ------------ About the author Frederick Smith: I enjoy writing about the positive virtues of humanism - humanists are the good guys. I now have a blog that I will start to increasingly maintain and update. Here is the link: fredsuberview.blogspot.com/ About my personal background and life: I was born, I got some education, worked, ate, and had some kids. It seems I like to write � something that was unknown to me until relatively recently...How's that for detail? ;) Hate mail is welcome unless you are from the Army Of God. Please! It's not that I mind seeing pictures of aborted fetuses in my inbox, but once you've seen one you've pretty much seen them all... Email: dahlek65@gmail.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. 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