I'd do it in a heartbeart

This story from the Plain Dealer tells us the Browns may be considering trading Braylon Edwards to the New York Football Giants for a second- and a fifth-round ddraft pick.
I don't think I'd think twice about it. I'd trade him. He drops too many passes to be a really good number one receiver. The Browns could probably sign one of a dozen free agents who would not catch passes that hit them in hands.
I'd also do any kind of deal that would involve anything up to a mid-first round deal for Brady Quinn. They already have three picks in the first two rounds. Why not stockpile them and, with an Edwards and a Quinn trade, get five?
If I were running the Browns, I'd make those trades and draft defensive players -- linebackers and cornerbacks. The Browns need playmakers on defense. They have a decent offensive line and could win games by just eating the clock and grinding out yards on the ground. With a good defense, that strategy quickly can make a mediocre team a playoff team.
Here's my pie-in-the-sky fantasy football wish: Wouldn't it be awesome if the Browns could draft somebody really high with the number five pick, and with the other later picks also get Clay Matthews III, the son of the former Browns linebacker, and James Laurinitis from Ohio State?

(By the way, this is the first post from my new iMac, which I got yesterday. You probably don't see much difference from that end, but I sure can tell.)

For those of you who don't get to see the Watchmen movie ...

Take a gander at the "motion comic," available on DVD and Blu-Ray. It may be cooler than the movie.

Fair and balanced?

Somewhere in the Bible, there are four sequential words that say, "There is no God."
Surrounded with the words they are supposed to be surrounded with, that phrase has a totally different meaning.
In that vein, I find this really alarming, especially for a major news network.

Summary: Fox News' Martha MacCallum claimed that "after weeks of economic doom and gloom, the Obama administration is now singing a slightly different tune. Take a look at what was said in recent interviews this weekend." Fox News then aired clips of administration officials purportedly giving an optimistic view of the economy, which included video of Joe Biden stating: "The fundamentals of the economy are strong." However, Biden did not make those remarks during an "interview[]" over the past weekend; he made those remarks at a September 2008 campaign event in which he criticized statements by John McCain.

Every news organization should take pride in their credibility. It only reinforces Fox's perspective if its reporters and pundits tell the truth. Things like this .. well, make me want to watch C-Span or BBC or Comedy Central something.
No matter what our political leanings are, we should all condemn misleading "news" segments like this one.
Here's what Fox later had to say about it.

On Tuesday, (Martha) MacCallum said it was an honest mistake.
"We inadvertently used a piece of video of Vice-President Biden saying the 'fundamentals of the economy are strong'," she said.
"This video was from the campaign trail, when the vice-president was a candidate, and was actually quoting Senator John McCain."

Oh, and by the way, you'd probably like to see Biden's full quote, if you haven't already:

Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that's why John McCain could say with a straight face, as recently as this morning -- and this is a quote: "The fundamentals of the economy are strong." That's what John says. He says that "we've made great progress economically" in the Bush years.

I'd say even a seasoned TV producer would have to try pretty hard to find a real six-month-old quote from Biden supporting the Bush administration, but it's downright malicious to take this clip and edit it down to the point where the original meaning was completely reversed.
Somebody had to watch the whole clip to find that sentence and then edit the clip. There's almost no way to do that without being aware of the few seconds of audio and video before and after the clip.
That's why I do not believe this was inadvertent. You couldn't try to be that stupid. Sorry, Martha, but I know the Emperor is nekkid. "Wardrobe malfunction," indeed!
Dan Rather lost his job for putting a story on the air without doing enough fact checking. Jayson Blair was publicly humiliated for, well, writing fiction in a newspaper.
Et tu, Martha?

An interview with one of our favorite cartoonists

How about speanding some time getting to know Jill Thompson a little better?

Glacier run in Kentucky?

Here's a link to a new exhibit at the Louisville Zoo. I doubt we'll get a membership this year after moving to Virginia, but I am kind of sad I won't be able to see it go up. It's being built where the polar bears used to be, in case you are curious. I bet polar bears hate living in Kentucky in August.

Terry Pluto's Talkin' (and you should be listening)

If you aren't reading these Sunday columns by our old buddy Terry Pluto (whom I have e-mailed with but never actually met), you should be.

Sorry I haven't been here

I have been awfully busy for the last week or so. I shall continue to be as busy for the next week or so. Please forgive me. I shall resume my regular irregular schedule of posting as soon as I can. Check back, because I have pre-set some things to pop up while I am gone.