Anniversaries

Well, I almost made my noon posting deadline. But Hey! deadlines are oh-so-arbitrary these days.

Reader Bec dropped a link in the comments to The NYT's Defeatism that should be on EIP’s front page. So, herewith is the link to “Here is the news (as we want to report it),” from The Telegraph. The subject is a recurring meme here at EIP…BBC bias. The article is written by former BBC producer Antony Jay, and is an abridged extract from 'Confessions of a Reformed BBC Producer,' which is due to be published in Britain today. Here’s Mr. Jay’s conclusion:

Media liberal pressure has prompted a stream of laws, regulations and directives to champion the criminal against the police, the child against the school, the patient against the hospital, the employee against the company, the soldier against the army, the borrower against the bank, the convict against the prison - there is a new case in the papers almost every day, and each victory is a small erosion of the efficiency and effectiveness of the institution.

I can now see that my old BBC media liberalism was not a basis for government. It was an ideology of opposition, valuable for restraining the excesses of institutions and campaigning against the abuses of authority but it was not a way of actually running anything. It serves a vital function when government is dictatorial and oppressive, but when government is ineffective and over-permissive it is hopelessly inappropriate.

I can't deny that my perceptions have come through the experience of leaving the BBC. Suppose I had stayed. Would I have remained a devotee of the metropolitan media liberal ideology that I once absorbed so readily? I have an awful fear that the answer is yes.

I’ve given you the destination right up front but it’s the journey, Gentle Reader, that is illuminating and entertaining. Which is a left-handed way of saying the usual: “read the whole thing.”

Kris (in New England!) is celebrating her 24^th wedding anniversary today. Why don’t you take a minute and drop by her place to wish her a Happy? She has a beautiful wedding picture posted, too. Just another lil incentive, ya know…

A New Mexico claim to fame… Today is the anniversary of the first nuclear explosion in history, which happened on this day in 1945. Trinity occurred 35 miles southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, on what is now White Sands Missile Range. White Sands hosts an “open house” at the Trinity site twice a year; the next one is scheduled for October 6 of this year. I think I’m gonna go.

Today is also the anniversary of the installation of the first parking meter.

The world's first installed parking meter was in Oklahoma City, on July 16, 1935. Mr. Magee had been appointed to the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce traffic committee, and was assigned the task of solving the parking problems in downtown Oklahoma City. Apparently, folks who worked in the area were parking on downtown streets, staying all day, and leaving few spaces for shoppers and others who visited the central business district.

I don’t know which anniversary (of the last two...certainly not Kris'!) is the greater tragedy.

Today’s Pic: An SN3 baby pic from the archives. Taken by TSMP, the caption could be “Look Mom, I got one out for ya!”

Perinton, NY. June, 1998.