More Media Wingnuttery

There are wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, bombing and violence quite a few places in the world, several other nations rebuilding from natural disasters, a world-wide food shortage, our national election and economic issues…

The San Diego Union-Tribune lead item on page one, banner headline, above the fold with large color picture is that California State Parks has decided to ban nudity on the beach at San Onofre State Park in northern San Diego County. This leaves the county with only one nude beach, the better known Black’s Beach just south of Torrey Pines. Nudists are, of course, outraged. I do not think that the news is, itself, wingnuttery, but putting it on page one strikes me as a bit strange.

The article says they are going to begin “issuing tickets to persons without pants” after a three month “grace period” to let people get used to the idea.
I can’t resist this – where is the ticketed person going to put the ticket? It also doesn’t say what is going to happen to a person of the feminine gender who is wearing pants but is not wearing a top.

The “grace period” is a bit difficult to comprehend. Signs are up now that state unequivocally that nudity is prohibited, so they are giving people three months to, what, learn how to read? Or three months to be sure they bring pants with them to the beach? How does that work if you are arrested in downtown Solana Beach for driving without clothes? “It’s okay officer, I’m going to a nude beach.”

The reason given by officials is a little weird, too. I can think of quite a few reasons for banning nudity at state parks (more than I can think of for a general ban), but to “protect state employees from the effects of nudity” would not have occurred to me. I don’t think state employees were required to be nude themselves, so the protection was apparently to… Oh, well.

ABC News continues to serve as a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Stupidity. A big story last night was all about how drug runners “have turned to using" submarines to bring drugs into the country, complete with pictures of said submarines running on the surface and DHS agents providing guided tours of them. Never mind that a semi-professional news agency Raw Story broke this item, complete with photos of those same submarines, in August of 2007. So ABC News is using DHS handout pieces that are no less than ten months old.

And finally, will somebody please educate our idiotic news media, all of them, as to the proper use of the title “President?” The title belongs to the office, not to the man. The man may not use it once his term has expired. This country has only one “President” and, unfortunately, his name is still Bush for another half of a year. Bill Clinton is “Former President Clinton” or “Ex-President Clinton,” but he is not and has not been for more than seven years “President Clinton” or, as MSNBC referred to him today just before his wife's speech, "the President." Idiots.