Freeline Skates - or - I'm not crazy... Really!

So a few weeks ago, bored and surfing the web, I happened across a youtube vid of a guy on some new skates. I can't really do justice to the vid in a simple description, but I was astonished at the freedom of movement displayed by the skater, as well as the incredible design of the skate.

Having been a bit of a skater in my rugrat years (shout out to Little Ben my skate partner in crime) I was immediately intrigued.

To make a long story short, I had some birthday cash hidden under the ol mattress, and I had a decision to make. More woodworking tools (I still need to finish my nightstands...) or dedicate some time on the street with my son Greyson, learning to "skate" while he does tricks on his trike.

The adrenalyne junky / good father in me won out. Enter the skates. They arrived the DAY I came down with the worst strain of the flu I have ever had. I was down a full week. Skating was right out.

Still, pride in ownership right? Greyson calls these my "wheels" and I have to admit they look pretty snazzy. Shown is the box as well, skates side profile, and then top down bottom up shot.





One week later, 12 lbs. less, (yup, nothing like having a throat so sore you can't swallow food to lose big weight!) I was ready to try them out. I had done considerable reading onthe difficulty of learning to ride on these skates, and went out with a realistic thought that it was going to take me a week or two to get proficient on these babies.

So to follow is my experience learning to ride freelines, with more posts to follow as I have progress to report.

I spotted a place right in front of our house to begin. A nice ribbed light post, new asphalt, and a slight slope formed the perfect combination for the push off.

So I lined up the left and right skates in front of the post. One foot up at a time, while keeping a death grip on the light post with my right hand. First discovery, those wheels look big, but they in no way provide a perfectly stable surface. There is a tendancy to tip front or back out of the gate... my first push off I made it about 4 feet before stepping off the skates.

The good part, even after only 4 feet I had this HUGE smile on my face. These skates are going to be FUN.

I was out in the street for a good half an hour, and I had a huge smile pasted on my face the whole time. I even *shhhh* giggled a number of times... actually, probably every time I stepped off the skates.

Towards the end of my 30 min training session I was regularly going 15 feet or so before stepping off, I had a few good 30 foot runs, and one run everything came together and I was 40 feet out and gaining speed. Mind you, I know very little useable technique at this point, I have by no stretch of the imagination gained skill with the skates yet, and yes I was picking up speed... so I stepped off the skates.

Yup, not one fall, not one embarrasing moment (unless you count only going 4 feet embarrasing, I thought it was fun lol).

So verdict day 1. AWESOME.

Tune in later for more updates!

Do you read?

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?
Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read.
2) Add a '+' to the ones you LOVE.
3) Star (*) those you plan on reading.
4) Tally your total at the bottom.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen X
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien X+
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte X
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling X+
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee X
6 The Bible X
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens X
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott X
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller X
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien X+
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams X
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh*
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck X
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll X
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame X
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy*
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens *
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis X
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis X
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne X
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell X
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown X+
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding X++++++++ (just kiddding... Hated it - have a good story about it btw)
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen X
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens X
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez *
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck X
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas* X++ (really DID love this one!)
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville X
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens X
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker X
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett X
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath *
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray *
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens X
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker * X
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White X
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle X+
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery X
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas * X+
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare X+
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl X
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo X



Funny, not a lot of my favorite books on the list here. In fact some of them I hated / threw things at the people/teachers that made me read them. If you haven't heard my Lord of the flies story, its worth a run through!

48 questions. Got tagged enough that I had to post SOMETHING.

48 Questions...

Here are the rules – There aren’t any. Those of you too structured to accept that… learn to cope.

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
Yes. Benjamin after the man who married my parents, Brent after my dad. Griffiths after a long line of distinguished Europeans that have mixed over the ages. I think I relate most to the Welsh / Dutch lines.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
Had to start out with the tough one huh? I think it was when I felt really moved to tell my little brother Sam something he needed to hear a couple of weeks ago. You know those times when you have been prepared to help someone else, and the knowledge of that preparation catches you by surprise, and it is overwhelming?

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
It isn’t too bad, my signature is amazing though.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
Pepper Chicken, hands down.

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?
Yes, 2 boys. Greyson turned 3 yesterday, Lincoln turns 1 in a couple of days. Both chips off the old block – totally adorable!

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
I absolutely love playing board games / card games… at least someone would be able to keep up for a change! (my wife is going to wipe the floor with me this Friday night now… she is WAY too lucky for my own good)

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM?
Who?

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?
Nope, had those out a decade ago… ish. At least I lost those stateside. My Appendix wasn’t so lucky.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
Absolutely. None of that pansy ‘It’s SO high!’ stuff from me! I'm a fear factor wannabe (minus the food, some things just ain't worth it)

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?
Frosted Flakes, but my wife won’t buy them (too sugary) so I make do with mini wheats and cheerios!

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
I am a little TOO lazy for that one. I figure, buy shoes with the stretchy laces that don’t come undone, save yourself the trouble and just slip em off.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?
It is a tie. Cookie Dough or Fish Food. (The only eternal dilemma)

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?
Pretty much anything weird or out of place. Sometimes it sucks being observant – ‘nuff said.

15. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?
Those extra 10 lbs are starting to bug me!

16. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?
My family while I’m at work ALL DAY LONG.

17. WHAT DO YOU WISH YOU COULD DO MORE OF?
I think this is a trick question. If they asked what would I do LESS of the obvious answer is WORK. But more of… hmm… that is a LONG list, and not everything on it can be posted here, so I will just leave it at that.

18. WHAT STOPS YOU FROM DOING MORE OF IT?
Another potentially TMI question. But I’m going with the easy out here. WORK.

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
Blue jeans and my non lace up, soft rubber, hiking shoes made by Merrill (I have 3 pair).

20. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE THING TO LISTEN TO?
My kids and wife laughing or telling me that they love me!

21. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
My wife.

22. WHAT'S THE BEST THING THAT COULD REALLY HAPPEN TO YOU RIGHT NOW?
Lottery? No more taxes for small businesses? A REAL stimulus package for the middle class?

23. WHAT'S THE BEST THING THAT HAS HAPPENED TO YOU TODAY?
My wife and kids brought me lunch! THEY ROCK!

24. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SONG?
Today? Angels on the moon by Thriving Ivory – BTW that is the sweetest band name ever. Tomorrow it will be different.

25. WHAT PLACE WOULD YOU LIKE TO VISIT THAT YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN?
I’m doing ok on this one as I get to travel quite a bit- but I can’t narrow it down. I’m game for travel anywhere that isn’t Hades or a trash dump lol (Although I have seen some good trash dumps / barrancos; viva Guatemala!)

26. WHAT PLACE HAVE YOU ALREADY BEEN TO, BUT WOULD LIKE TO VISIT AGAIN FIRST?
Istanbul? Barcelona? Guatemala? Let’s just say those are my top 3, I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.

27. HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN SINCE YOU WERE WITH YOUR FAVORITE PERSON?
Lunch.

28. IF YOU COULD RID THE WORLD OF ONE EVIL, WHICH WOULD YOU CHOOSE?
If I say the stigma against video games, my wife will shoot me, so I’m going to stick with corn syrup. Sugar is SO much better, especially in soda!

29. DOES YOUR BEST FRIEND KNOW THEY ARE YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Absolutely.

30. HOW MANY CELL MINUTES DO YOU USE?
1002 last month

31. HOW MANY SMS?
unlimited but I don’t text much.

32. WHOM DO YOU ADMIRE?
My wife, family, and friends. All for different reasons.

33. WHAT WAS THE BEST NEWS YOU RECEIVED RECENTLY?
I wasn’t president. That's a bit cryptic though, so lets say, sales in January were up!

34. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
I’m going to modify the question. Sweetest movie I have seen lately? EAGLE EYE.

35. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
Olive Green.

36. SUMMER OR WINTER?
Summer.

37. HUGS OR KISSES?
Both?

38. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?
Right now I'm not reading a book, I'm writing a freaking novel for these 48 questions! Speaking of the whole book thing though, I think I have read 3 books this week, and 3 last week… I did just finish an incredible fantasy series by Jim Butcher called the “Furies of Calderon”. I highly recommend it!

39. WHAT IS YOUR SCREENSAVER?
www.digitalblasphemy.com Yes, worth the lifetime membership in my humble opinion.

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
We don't need no stinking mouse pad. Real men don't use mouse pads. OK, insert inane cliches here.

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT?
Leverage.

42. GMAIL OR HOTMAIL?
Hotmail for junk mail and facebook, Gmail to my cell, Work email for the few privileged souls.

43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES?
Who cares?

44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?
Istanbul I think (have to check a globe to make sure I was still going AWAY from home at that point, and not coming back around the other side…)

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?
Singing, Speaking, Writing… mostly communication/imagination/logistics based here.

46. WHERE WERE U BORN?
Canoga Park, Los Angeles, California, USA

47. HOW DID YOU MEET YOUR SPOUSE?
Natalie’s roommate was in my a cappella group in college, and we practiced at her apartment.

48. WHAT ARE YOU MOST THANKFUL FOR RIGHT NOW?
The end of my work day.

Truck Trouble...

So we have a pretty old work truck. Fact is, I'm not sure that keeping it running is any cheaper than buying a new truck, but you know how that goes.

So the latest escapade in our truck breakdown saga happened today. One of my guys calls me from 15 miles away and lets me know he cant drive the truck back cause it's broke. One of the pulleys on one of the belts is moments away from giving up the ghost - it was the death squeals that brought it to his attention...

So I flew on down there and took a look. Here is what I found.


That first picture is a little bit confusing for some, so here is one that shows the damage a little clearer...



So now we can either gamble our truck engine along with various other (belted together) parts, or we can play our AAA card. We told them what truck we needed towed, and they showed up in what looked like a totally miniature towtruck. Not to be scoffed, our towmaster Farooq actually got our truck up onto his (barely) and he and I chatted all the way back to our hometown.

Just so you could fully appreciate the audacity of the situation.... I took a photo :)






Truck anyone?

Woodworking v. 2.0.0.8 Cabinet w/ Doors *whew*

This will be a short little update. Thought I would throw in a couple pics of the kids while posting the progress I have made on the nightstands I am making!

Lincoln and I Christmas Shopping (Natalie is SO happy).

Greyson sleeping in the car - masterful camerawork if I do say so myself! We were parked while Natalie ran into a store and I took this "no look" shot.


Ok, here come the cabinets. The first shot is of a raised panel door frame and will give you an idea of how complicated some of this joinery can be. The difficulty here is making all the parts so that they fit together tight enough that they don't slip even without glue, yet you can pull them apart once you put them together. Time lapse from the first pic to the last pic is about 10 hours of wood trimming, gluing, and more fitting.







So the doors are perfectly fit now (as in less than a 64th of an inch gap - they stay in by themselves). Saturday I will work on the tops and the drawers- Monday I finish hanging the doors. Hopefully I can get these things finished... CHRISTMAS IS COMING lol.

A quiet voice of logic amidst the clamor of Intolerance

Everyone in the United States is aware of the battle that raged during the elections over Proposition 8 in California. It was a much debated, much reported, and much anticipated vote.

When the votes were counted, the California Constitution was amended to affirm that marriage would only be recognized between a man and a woman... by only 4%.

Did people on both sides conduct themselves perfectly during the democratic process? No. Are there instances documented where things got out of line? Yes. One would think that the majority decision would subdue the passion of both sides, that the losing side would concede and eagerly begin plans to overturn the decision in the next election...

As many of you know, I have bought my way into our family business that my father built over the last 29 years. Our reputation is our most cherished asset, and we protect it carefully.

During the recent campaign, my father made a private donation of $1000 to the "Yes on 8" effort. Though we have very strong beliefs as business owners, we respect the right for others to express their opinions and through our business we cater to individuals of every race, religion, economic status, and lifestyle. We provide the same specified level of service regardless of those very same descriptors, and always have.

Since the election, we have received several abrupt anonymous phone calls deriding my father for his contribution; The business has been listed on anti-gay websites, and anonymous mail has arrived criticizing our company for its stance on this issue. In every case, the people calling made no effort to speak with the owners, and would not leave a name or a phone number for a return call. The letters likewise avoided accountability through anonymity.

While many who are of the same opinion as these commentators may applaud their efforts to 'make a difference' by trying to forward their agenda, as a human being I can only marvel at the disrespect, cowardice and intolerance that is being demonstrated by such communications - as well as the negative impact incurred.

Let me delve deeper into the reasons why I presume make such harsh accusations.

First and foremost, this country is founded on principles that allow people to maintain their own perspective and opinion. Anything other than a reasonable discussion about opinion is futile, in most instances resulting in an agreement to disagree. Fundamental differences in belief or opinion by nature cannot be instantly resolved to the satisfaction of both parties, especially where such profound ramifications are in the balance.

Recognizing that there are differences that can never be mended, anonymously disparaging the opposing opinion can only be considered the epitome of cowardice and disrespect. Furthermore to demand tolerance with one hand while writing criticism of opinion with the other is the worst type of hypocrisy.

Perhaps the greatest irony of all in this situation is the propensity for friendly fire. While boycotting businesses using as criteria the opinion of its owners might seem just, it is tactically the most damaging behavior possible (short of vandalism and violence). Each business employs people of diverse belief systems and backgrounds. How well do you presume to know the employees of any company? Out of the more than dozen direct employees and the 20 other licensed contractors that we use to install our flooring how many voted either side of this issue? I cannot speak for other companies, but our employees are sickened by the commentary that is flowing into our business regardless of their stance on these issues. One person has communicated to me that they felt ashamed to be associated with these people by virtue of their no on 8 vote.

As their employer, I can assure you that I do not know how many of my employees voted against me on prop 8, nor would I ask or even intimate that it is any of my business. We all have different reasons for voting the way we do - and our vote might be for very different reasons than the most obvious.

I respect your right to boycott my business. I respect your right to have an opinion that is not congruent with my beliefs. However, I refuse to respect the cowardice the urges people to behave in a manner unbecoming a citizen of our country. Do not think to join the ranks of the great dissidents who have gone before us if you can but protest the rights of others to have an opinion, a cause, or a belief.

I find it fascinating when people let down their guard and communicate what is in their hearts. As a people watcher, the moments when people open up and show their true colors reminds me of finding a perfect sand dollar on the beach as a child - for a moment time stands still and I can only marvel at the depth and complexity of the moment as it rests in my hands.

But as I examine the true colors of what lies before me today; I can see that while some considered this issue to be about rights, families, tolerance, and equality - It has been reduced to violence, selfishness, disrespect, and yes even discrimination towards anyone that will not lie down and agree.

True colors have never been such a disappointment.

Honesty in Journalism! (Not written by a reporter of course)

Alert! Due to the popularity of this article on the Rhinoceros Times, we have moved it to a static HTML format. After reading this article, if you would like to visit our Web site, greensboro.rhinotimes.com, Click here.

(EDIT: Orson Scott Card is a democrat and a newspaper columnist)

Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?

by Orson Scott Card

October 20, 2008
An open letter to the local daily paper -- almost every local daily paper in America:

I remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's journalism. You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know.

This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration.

It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans.

What is a risky loan? It's a loan that the recipient is likely not to be able to repay.

The goal of this rule change was to help the poor -- which especially would help members of minority groups. But how does it help these people to give them a loan that they can't repay? They get into a house, yes, but when they can't make the payments, they lose the house -- along with their credit rating.

They end up worse off than before.

This was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it. One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried repeatedly to tighten up the rules. The other party blocked every such attempt and tried to loosen them.

Furthermore, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were making political contributions to the very members of Congress who were allowing them to make irresponsible loans. (Though why quasi-federal agencies were allowed to do so baffles me. It's as if the Pentagon were allowed to contribute to the political campaigns of congressmen who support increasing their budget.)

Isn't there a story here? Doesn't journalism require that you who produce our daily paper tell the truth about who brought us to a position where the only way to keep confidence in our economy was a $700 billion bailout? Aren't you supposed to follow the money and see which politicians were benefiting personally from the deregulation of mortgage lending?

I have no doubt that if these facts had pointed to the Republican Party or to John McCain as the guilty parties, you would be treating it as a vast scandal. "Housing-gate," no doubt. Or "Fannie-gate."

Instead, it was Sen. Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, both Democrats, who denied that there were any problems, who refused Bush administration requests to set up a regulatory agency to watch over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and who were still pushing for these agencies to go even further in promoting subprime mortgage loans almost up to the minute they failed.

As Thomas Sowell points out in a TownHall.com essay entitled "Do Facts Matter?" (http://snipurl.com/457to): "Alan Greenspan warned them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President. So did Bush's Secretary of the Treasury."

These are facts. This financial crisis was completely preventable. The party that blocked any attempt to prevent it was ... the Democratic Party. The party that tried to prevent it was ... the Republican Party.

Yet when Nancy Pelosi accused the Bush administration and Republican deregulation of causing the crisis, you in the press did not hold her to account for her lie. Instead, you criticized Republicans who took offense at this lie and refused to vote for the bailout!

What? It's not the liar, but the victims of the lie who are to blame?

Now let's follow the money ... right to the presidential candidate who is the number two recipient of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae.

And after Fred Raines, the CEO of Fannie Mae who made $90 million while running it into the ground, was fired for his incompetence, one presidential candidate's campaign actually consulted him for advice on housing.

If that presidential candidate had been John McCain, you would have called it a major scandal and we would be getting stories in your paper every day about how incompetent and corrupt he was.

But instead, that candidate was Barack Obama, and so you have buried this story, and when the McCain campaign dared to call Raines an "adviser" to the Obama campaign -- because that campaign had sought his advice -- you actually let Obama's people get away with accusing McCain of lying, merely because Raines wasn't listed as an official adviser to the Obama campaign.

You would never tolerate such weasely nit-picking from a Republican.

If you who produce our local daily paper actually had any principles, you would be pounding this story, because the prosperity of all Americans was put at risk by the foolish, short-sighted, politically selfish and possibly corrupt actions of leading Democrats, including Obama.

If you who produce our local daily paper had any personal honor, you would find it unbearable to let the American people believe that somehow Republicans were to blame for this crisis.

There are precedents. Even though President Bush and his administration never said that Iraq sponsored or was linked to 9/11, you could not stand the fact that Americans had that misapprehension -- so you pounded us with the fact that there was no such link. (Along the way, you created the false impression that Bush had lied to them and said that there was a connection.)

If you had any principles, then surely right now, when the American people are set to blame President Bush and John McCain for a crisis they tried to prevent, and are actually shifting to approve of Barack Obama because of a crisis he helped cause, you would be laboring at least as hard to correct that false impression.

Your job, as journalists, is to tell the truth. That's what you claim you do, when you accept people's money to buy or subscribe to your paper.

But right now, you are consenting to or actively promoting a big fat lie -- that the housing crisis should somehow be blamed on Bush, McCain and the Republicans. You have trained the American people to blame everything bad -- even bad weather -- on Bush, and they are responding as you have taught them to.

If you had any personal honor, each reporter and editor would be insisting on telling the truth -- even if it hurts the election chances of your favorite candidate.

Because that's what honorable people do. Honest people tell the truth even when they don't like the probable consequences. That's what honesty means. That's how trust is earned.

Barack Obama is just another politician, and not a very wise one. He has revealed his ignorance and naivete time after time -- and you have swept it under the rug, treated it as nothing.

Meanwhile, you have participated in the borking of Sarah Palin, reporting savage attacks on her for the pregnancy of her unmarried daughter -- while you ignored the story of John Edwards' own adultery for many months.

So I ask you now: Do you have any standards at all? Do you even know what honesty means?

Is getting people to vote for Barack Obama so important that you will throw away everything that journalism is supposed to stand for?

You might want to remember the way the National Organization of Women (NOW) threw away their integrity by supporting Bill Clinton despite his well-known pattern of sexual exploitation of powerless women. Who listens to NOW anymore? We know they stand for nothing; they have no principles.

That's where you are right now.

It's not too late. You know that if the situation were reversed, and the truth would damage McCain and help Obama, you would be moving heaven and earth to get the true story out there.

If you want to redeem your honor, you will swallow hard and make a list of all the stories you would print if it were McCain who had been getting money from Fannie Mae, McCain whose campaign had consulted with its discredited former CEO, McCain who had voted against tightening its lending practices.

Then you will print them, even though every one of those true stories will point the finger of blame at the reckless Democratic Party, which put our nation's prosperity at risk so they could feel good about helping the poor, and lay a fair share of the blame at Obama's door.

You will also tell the truth about John McCain: that he tried, as a senator, to do what it took to prevent this crisis. You will tell the truth about President Bush: that his administration tried more than once to get Congress to regulate lending in a responsible way.

This was a Congress-caused crisis, beginning during the Clinton administration, with Democrats leading the way into the crisis and blocking every effort to get out of it in a timely fashion.

If you at our local daily newspaper continue to let Americans believe -- and vote as if -- President Bush and the Republicans caused the crisis, then you are joining in that lie.

If you do not tell the truth about the Democrats -- including Barack Obama -- and do so with the same energy you would use if the miscreants were Republicans -- then you are not journalists by any standard.

You're just the public relations machine of the Democratic Party, and it's time you were all fired and real journalists brought in, so that we can actually have a daily newspaper in our city.