The Adventures of Juan Williams

Hey Kids!  Whatever you do this Halloween -- don't dress like a Muslim
around this man -- it makes him nervous and scared.

Dear Juan Williams – Enough already! 

Unless you have been living under a rock this last past week – NPR radio commentator Juan Williams was fired because of something that he said about Muslims on Bill O’Reilly’s Fox television show. 

You see, Bill O’Reilly appeared on “The View” recently to promote his new book “Pinheads and Patriots” and as they say, all hell broke loose and life in the free world has changed for all of those in Bill’s orbit.  One of the first things that O’Reilly said on “The View” was that Muslims (not Muslim extremists) flew the planes into the World Trade Center on 9/11 which infuriated Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar enough to walk off the stage in protest.  Minutes after that incident happened – it was replayed on every cable “news” outlet, local news broadcasts, the network nightly news, Entertainment Tonight, TMZ and who knows where else.  The sad thing is – Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar walking off their own show isn’t news – its show business.  The President signs a bill – Congress and the Senate vote to do nothing and then recess – The World has been proven to be flat – now that’s all news. 

O’Reilly loves to push people’s buttons and that is exactly what he did on the View and the walk-out only fueled the O’Reilly ego and has given him something to talk about for who knows how long.  I think that O’Reilly has asked just about every guest that he has had on since the View incident to give him their take on what happened.  Dennis Miller chimed in.  O’Reilly brought in ‘the body language’ expert for her take and then in comes Juan Williams.

When O’Reilly asks Juan Williams for his take on the View incident – Juan should have said nothing – because Juan is a news commentator and the View incident is not news – it’s show business – Bill was there promoting his book and he probably would have done a song and dance with the cast of the show if they’d asked him. 

But Williams responds to O’Reilly’s “Muslim” view of 9/11 by saying, “I mean, look, Bill, I'm not a bigot. You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

Oh, no, Juan, you didn’t say what you just said, did you?  Any time you start out a sentence and say “I am not a (fill in the blank)” and continue on by saying the total opposite of what you said you aren’t – you have just stepped in shit and there’s no way out and this time Juan, your main employer National Public Radio said enough is enough.  Commenting that you get nervous and worried when you see Muslims in full garb at an airport isn’t commenting on the news it’s admitting your racism to Fox News Channel’s biggest show business personality (not newsman) Bill O’Reilly.

I have been fired Juan and sometimes its not pleasant – but you are lucky that you have friends at Fox watching your back.  Yup, leave it to Fox News to take what is essentially an employee/employer issue and turn it into a free speech campaign and vehicle to take government funding out of public broadcasting and you Juan are a willing pawn in the Fox News game (willing because you gladly accepted that $2 million dollar contract on Friday from them).

Juan Williams being fired by NPR is not a free speech issue. Juan Williams is free to talk about all of the fears that he has in life from people in Muslim garb to some poltergeist inhabiting his kitchen cupboards all that he wants, because he was fired because his employers felt he overstep the boundaries of that of a news commentator.  I’m sure there are other news organizations that would have done the same thing that NPR did had they been put in the same situation – Fox News doesn’t feel that way – because as we all know – Fox News is a news organization much like I am a nutritionist.  

Tuesday Morning Frost Bites

The Palms Krystal Bar in Port Huron is one of the few places where you can

get chicken gizzards and gravy.

In the time honored dot-dot-dot tradition of the late Bob Talbert of the Detroit Free Press and Larry King’s of USA Today – I now present a few quick takes on things with Frost Bites:

I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to winter ending and soon. I know that we here in the Port Huron, Michigan area have not had to deal with an over abundance of snow and the temperatures really haven’t been that bad – but enough is enough already! When you have people posting on FACEBOOK how many days are left until the start of Tiger baseball spring training, you know that there are other people out there who are enjoying this winter just about as much as I am…..When I have an urge for a candy bar – it’s usually a battle between Snickers or Kit Kat….The power of the internet always surprises me. The only reason that I signed up to have Google place ads on my blog was so that I could see if there’s anybody that reads this blog and lo and behold after just five days Google Adsense is telling me that nearly one hundred impressions have been made to this site. One hundred impressions – that tells me that people other than my friends are actually reading this. Incredible.

Is it just me – but is there some real tension on the set of “The View” between Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Whoopi Goldberg? Some of the confrontations between the two in the last couple of months have been pretty heated and it looks like Whoopi wants to jump over the table and give this young Republican a “reality adjustment”….Looking for a good burger? The people in my hometown of Flint, Michigan would direct you to a Bill Thomas Halo Burger for one of their Olive burgers or a Halo Supreme. My allegiance to Halo Burger is not as strong as it once ever since I discovered the burger at the Palms Krystal Bar in Port Huron. Who would have thought that the addition of sweet relish along with the usual ketchup and mustard could tip the scales to make this one of the best damn burgers you’ll ever taste. Way to go, Palms!!!.....There are two Beatle songs that can bring a tear to my eye nearly every time that I hear them and I don’t know why. The songs are “In My Life” and The Beatles version of the Motown classic “You Really Got A Hold On Me”.

I have put it off long enough – but I’m going to have to go in soon and get my eyes examined for a new pair of glasses…..When it comes to peanut butter – forget the name brands like Jif, Skippy and Peter Pan – and grab a jab of Kroger’s honey roasted peanut butter off the shelf. It taste great on an English muffin or bagel hot from the toaster or combined with your favorite jelly for a good ole traditional p-b-and j. Not only is this peanut butter delicious – it’s a lot cheaper than the name brand and sometimes Kroger’s has it on sale during one of the 10-for-10 sales…..It’s a toss-up for me when it comes to who’s face on the TV screen will have me reaching for the remote quicker – Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi or that dynamic duo in the Senate – John McCain and Joe Lieberman.

You can beat a book for a buck and some of the more entertaining books that I have read recently have only cost me a dollar at a Dollar Tree store. If you ever see me coming out of Dollar Tree store – the odds are pretty good that I was there to see if they have added any new dollar books to their selection…..It’s always amazes me how people want to share their faith in Jesus via their latest e-mail to me. I can accept that the people who send these e-mails are sincere when it comes to their faith – but I find it somewhat weird that they try to get me to believe the same way that they do when they turn their e-mail into a chain letter. The wrath of God and all of his followers will be on my head if I’m not one of the people who send the e-mail off to ten other people – it’s kind of a weird way to share God’s love, isn’t it?….I wish that more places that sell fountain soft drinks had Coke Zero as a drink choice. To me it’s a better tasting diet cola than their Diet Coke and it beats Diet Pepsi…..You can count me in as being one of those people that is looking forward to February when comedian Ellen DeGenerees joins the judges table on Fox’s “American Idol”. Imagine a whole season of “American Idol” without Paula Abdul’s lame ass “that’s pitchy” comments….And if you’re ever near a “Sonic” drive-in restaurant – forget about the burgers, the chicken sandwiches or hot dogs and grab a large order of their onion rings – you’ll thank me for it later.