The Fang's prove once again to be bumbling idiots

AsianWeek Editor at large Ted Fang said Tuesday he regrets publishing a controversial column titled "Why I Hate Blacks" in this week's edition but has not decided whether to keep its author, Kenneth Eng, on his staff.

To read an excerpt of the column, click here and scroll down to the 2.24.07 post.

Lost sucks

Just wanted to put that out there, in case you didn't know.

"Next Wednesday! If you miss this episode, you won't know what everyone's griping about the next day!"

Does anyone give a crap about Jack's tattoos or the Thai chick he nailed on vacation? I didn't think so. "Secrets revealed" my ass.

Global warming will flood airports, parts of SF and 'burbs

If you live on the Peninsula (i.e., San Mateo, Redwood City, etc.) east of 101, you are hosed.

Airlines are evil

Someone is actually trying to do something about it!

West Wing gets it right (as in correct)

While watching an old episode of The West Wing the other day (I plan on doing this and pretending it's real until we have an administration that doesn't give me nightmares), I saw the president lecture a Dr. Laura-like radio host who points out that the Bible says homosexuality is "an abomination." He reminds her that the Bible also says that death is the appropriate punishment for working on the sabbath, touching the skin of a dead pig and wearing clothes made with two different kinds of thread. Of course, the character in the show had no response to this. As a matter of fact, I've never heard anyone on the right, real or fictional, explain this.

I'm also still waiting for someone to explain to me how my marriage is damaged when gay people get married.

More dumb abstinence stuff

The administration also has budgeted another $241.5 million for abstinence-only programs in 2007. Kirby compared California and Texas, two states he said were similarly populous and were home to many Hispanics, a group whose teen pregnancy rates are high.

"California took a very progressive approach," he said. "Texas pushed abstinence and made it a little more difficult for teens to receive contraceptives. Pregnancy did go down between 1991 and 2004, but Texas had the second-lowest decline of all states, 19 percent. California had the second-greatest decrease, 46 percent.

"What's really sad is that Bush is trying to take some of the policies that didn't work in Texas and implement them nationwide."

...

Claire Brindis, a professor of pediatrics and health policy at UCSF ... believes comprehensive sex education should be required, rather than merely permitted, by the state.

"Because there are so many myths out there," Brindis said, and teens grow up in a culture dense with sexualized mass media.

"One myth I've heard is that a person can't get pregnant the first time, and by the way, 20 percent of teens do. I've heard that if your boyfriend drinks Mountain Dew you won't get pregnant, or if you have sex standing up. Or if you sit on a cold sidewalk after you have sex -- I heard that in Southern California.

"I see in my work how early childbearing is both a result of poverty and how it contributes to an endless cycle of poverty. There's a lot of people who believe knowledge is dangerous, that if you give kids more information about condoms they'll go out and have sex.

"But isn't it better," Brindis asked, "to give young people and our large immigrant population the tools to plan? I can't think of anything more moral."

News Flash! Morons run the Examiner

Here's my reply:

As a resident of San Mateo County and a consumer of Hetch Hetchy
water, let me respond to your sarcastic editorial implying that
proponents of Hetch Hetchy Valley restoration all live outside the
Hetch Hetchy service area.

Your editorial demonstrates a gross misunderstanding of the facts.
First, the O'Shaughnessy Reservoir isn't "mammoth." It's the 20th
largest reservoir in California, and one of nine in SF's system.
Second, draining the reservoir will not reduce the amount of water
flowing to customers. Advocates of Hetch Hetchy restoration propose
moving the water closer to the people who drink it and returning the
valley to its originally intended purpose – the enjoyment of every
American.
Third, you are incorrect in saying Hetch Hetchy is "adjacent" to
Yosemite. It is, in fact, INSIDE Yosemite National Park. Uncovering
Hetch Hetchy Valley, which John Muir considered a second Yosemite
Valley, is doable and would right a century-old wrong.

America's favorite architecture

An interesting list of the most-nominated buildings listed as favorites by architects. Yankee Stadium and AT&T Park (Giants) are on the list above Fenway Park? Fenway is far more interesting than any other ballpark, and AT&T is just a copy of Wrigley.

Then there's the Astrodome. Please.

Something good in the federal budget!!!

Of course, the Wicked Witch of the West is already screaming her shrill warnings about the end of western civilization (i.e., San Francisco) if restoring Hetch Hetchy is even considered.

Immigration officials harass moms at school

Thank goodness the government is working so hard on national security. Those Mexicans in our schools were a real threat.

And Redwood City schools didn't need the ADA money those kids were bringing in. Not at all.

Update Feb. 8: Immigration officials claim it's all lies.

The redder, the greedier

This graphic from The Economist is pretty interesting. Sure, you could say that the red states are cold, but so are a lot of the Eastern blue states. When it comes right down to it, this is evidence of the red staters buying into Bush's ridiculous argument (until the State of the Union) that global warming doesn't exist, or isn't man-made. I'm amazed at how people have bought into that, since it's purely economic on his part, and not in any rational way ideological or Biblical.

MediaNews considers buying SF Chron

This would pretty much mean the end of Bay Area journalism.

More legislation in search of a problem

Sally Lieber doesn't have a monopoly on goofball legislation. This guy thinks that people who have just lost a family member in some sort of newsworthy event aren't aware that they can just tell the reporter to go away; he evidently believes that they are under the impression that they are obligated to talk to a reporter just because he or she starts asking questions.

And, in fact, time and again I have witnessed this phenomenon of reporter-as-therapy. People are almost always more than happy to talk to someone about their loved one and any crime or injustice that resulted in their death.

Sergey wants the world to have more reporters

Let's see him put his billions where his mouth is, buy some newspapers (or start some) and pay "professional journalists" what they're worth. Since that's never been done before, it seems an innovator like Brin would be eager to dive right in and try.

More on "pilotless drones"

This from the Freakanomics blog. Interesting theory. Doesn't make the call any less funny.

"Correct me if I'm wrong..."

This is beyond fantastic. It's the funniest thing I've heard since I was reporter and got calls like this on my voice mail. I hope the Chron continues to put these online on a regular basis.

Studio 60

Danny's obsession with Jordan: sweet or spooky? The jury's still out...

24 SPOILER ALERT

In five seasons of 24 we've never heard peep about Jack's family (other than wife and daughter) and now Evil Bluetooth Man is his brother? And Jack used to bang his wife? Um, ok.

As for the previews for next week, why couldn't they get Donald to play Jack's dad??

Pressure -- pushin' down on me, pushin' down on you...

Pressure -- of kids' birthday parties, that is. Kudos to these parents for starting this organization, but it's kind of disturbing that there is a need for it. Parents shouldn't have to be told that they don't have to have a better birthday party than the last one they attended. All that said, the website is kind of entertaining, especially the quiz and the examples of out-of-control parties.

Quite a gaffe, Mr. Morford

Mark Morford is one of the more, um, interesting local newspaper columnists. I subscribe to the email feed of his twice-weekly column. This week there was something more interesting to his writings than the usual references to nipples and bodily fluids. Morford's Wednesday column linked to this press release. At least, the first version, which was emailed to me, did. Since I subscribe, I get it before it even goes on the Web site. I read the column as it appeared on the web site in the morning, when it was called "9 Uncommon Ways to Keep Warm." I also clicked on the link to the press release, but didn't have time to read it until much later in the day. When I read the release, I realized that, instead of being about rangers being gagged on the evolution topic, as I had believed after reading the column, it was about a single book for sale in the visitors' center book store. I went back to the Chronicle web site, hoping to clear this up. That's when I realized the column had been edited on line to eliminate that item and was now called "8 Uncommon Ways to Keep Warm." Apparently someone had finally gotten around to editing the column. I haven't gotten around to searching for the paper version, if the column even ends up in there...