RIP, Andrew Olmsted

I never knew Andrew Olmsted. Many readers did, and many soldiers are now without a fine officer. He wrote an amazing prescient epitaph. Get out your Kleenex before reading it. You won't need onions, and after reading it, you'll know why.

Bring Back Rob Schilling (Re)Revisited

Leave it to the local mainstream media, this time courtesy of Bryan McKenzie at the Daily Progress, to depart from a newspaper's main job of reporting news and to jump into the deep end of biased opinion pushing. According to McKenzie, Schilling could "push the P.C. [note: I've never pushed a personal computer out of someone, but this is what McKenzie claims Schilling could do] out of a Charlottesville liberal and leave her/him screaming vague improprieties."

Perhaps Mr. McKenzie thinks that the voice of the people, those same people, who, according to Mr. McKenzie, "called, cajoled, and even blogged the station" is not nearly as well-informed as a reporter who fails to distinguish between facts and opinions and slathers a factually-based article with ill-informed opinions. I daresay that if there were such an outcry to get more Alan Colmes, James Carville, or even Kristen Powers, the whiny name-calling would not appear in Mr. McKenzie's articles.

Is it any wonder that the Daily Progess's website shows a declining readership over the past year? If staff members like Mr. McKenzie could stick to facts and leave editorial comments to the editorial pages, then perhaps that trend would change. Then again, perhaps the traffic surge and decline to WINA's site during Mr. Schilling's time on air is solely coincidental.

Emotional Clinton Against Islamic Terrorists?

To cry or not to cry? That is the question.

Shedding a tear grieving over the loss of innocent Americans is one thing. Crying because you got emotional about a question is another. Campaigns are tough. Being President of the United States is even tougher. Don't think that crying because "it's tough" when you're the commander-in-chief will elicit paeans of empathy from Islamic terrorists. It also won't cause the Senate to reconsider a bill that you want to pass. It won't cause lobbyists to go soft on you. It won't make the Secret Service have to work less to protect you. Being President is tough, the toughest job in the world.

If Senator Clinton isn't ready to handle the difficulty of a campaign, then she certainly is not ready to handle the exponentially more difficult task of leading the country.

Are the Iowa Caucuses Typical of Democratic Thinking?

Democrats in Iowa have to go through a two stage process to cast their votes, with the process of picking delegates taking hours.

Republicans cast a secret ballot vote, much like you do in any other election.

Does this line of thinking parallel the way that the two parties govern?

If you need a primer, look at this article.

Bring Back Rob Schilling Revisited

Sometimes business sense wins out over political leanings. Ronald Reagan said that he became a Republican once he realized that he was having to pay an exorbitant percentage of his earnings in taxes. It makes me wonder how anyone in business could ever vote Democrat. In this case, it appears that WINA finally had to heed its listeners and return a Charlottesville voice of reason to the airwaves.

Here's the announcement of the great news about Rob's return. Congratulations to WINA for showing some business savvy and acumen. Congratulations to the listeners of WINA who get to have a dose of locally relevant discussion held by a host with well-grounded beliefs and ideology.