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Bloggers have no job security -- so goodbye!

November 5, 2007

This is my final blog.
Just can't afford the risk.
I need my paycheck.
I need my health insurance.

Rishawn Biddle needed his, too.
But the Indianapolis Star editorial writer is now out of a job.
A blog did him in.

Biddle, a black man, blasted a city-county council president, who is also black.
One Web site said the blog was titled: "The Indianapolis Black Democrat minstrel show."

The editor of the Star fired Biddle and apologized to readers for the insensitivity of his blog.

I am real good at insensitivity. That's why I can't take a risk doing something I don't get paid for.
I'm the "sports guy." I write these blogs for the freedom of expression. I do it for free because I enjoy it.

But what happened to Biddle -- even if he deserved it -- scares the holy crap out of me.

The blog culture is dangerous.
You can really get caught up in the freedom of expression.
When I Googled "blogger fired," I got several different stories.
Biddle is not alone.

But he was alone at the Star.
Notice that no editor was fired along with him.
That's because blogs aren't edited.
I write whatever I want, then post them. No editor proof reads them.

Newspapers want their Web sites to appear to be journalistic endeavors, but anytime something is printed with no editing -- it ain't journalism.
But when something "insensitive" shows up in a blog, one person -- the writer -- takes all the blame.

I don't like those rules.
So this is my 324th and final blog.
Goodbye, friends
It has been fun.

Posted by at 8:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

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Rider-Coyotes -- let's double the fun

November 2, 2007

The Hooterville Falls school district and the police department don't like Rider-Coyote week.
I would like to see two of them.

My suggestion for the Times Record News Kickoff Classic in 2008 is Rider vs. Coyotes -- Part I.

So what if the Coyotes and Raiders end the regular season playing each other? Why not let them start the season too?

Rider coach Scott Ponder said he would love it.
WFHS coach Travis Pride said no way.
Both know that the current balance of football power is leaning heavily to the southwest -- in Rider's direction.

Coyotes-Rider is the biggest draw in Wichita Falls. No football game -- no nothing -- gets this kind of a crowd. We could make a lot of money and donate all to some needy project here in town. The food bank. Interfaith Ministeries. Habitat for Humanity. Good stuff like that.

The kids would love it.
The fans would love it.
But nobody would love it more than the egg farmers.
More eggs are sold here during Rider-Coyote week than during Easter.

The principals would never go for it.
Don't think the school district or the cops would like it much either.

What better reason to do it?

Posted by at 7:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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Dropping the "D bomb" from the pulpit

November 1, 2007

My preacher dropped the "D bomb" in church last Sunday.
The walls trembled.
The foundation shifted.
Old women gasped, then placed their hands over the ears of some children sitting near them.

God turned his face away from us.

And I missed it.
It zipped right past me unnoticed.

I must be calloused.
The preacher embarasses himself, the church and the Lord Himself, and I missed it?
What could I have been thinking?
What's for lunch? ----- Again!!!

No, I was awake and heard every word the preacher spoke.
Even the God-awful "D bomb."

DANCE!!!!

Baptists don't DANCE!!!!!
Don't you remember the old joke about why Baptists never have sex standing up -- because people might think they are dancing?

The preacher began his sermon by saying that he chaperoned his daughter's junior high DANCE!!!!!

Doesn't he know the Ten Commandments.
I'm sure "Thou Shalt Not Dance" is at least No. 6.
It has to be right there behind the other big Baptist ones.
Thou Shalt Not Cuss.
Thou Shalt Not Drink.
Thou Shalt Not Smoke.
Thou Shat Not F..... (no I am not going there).

Having broken all of the above commandments -- including the DANCE!!!! one -- I am not going to pass judgment on my pastor or declare to you today that Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers are burning in Hell.

But there are some old Baptists that were shocked when they heard the "D bomb" spoken from the pulpit.
A friend of mine said one old lady told her that if she knew our preacher better, she would walk into his office and give him a piece of her mind

A very narrow mind that it is.

Posted by at 6:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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