Its official Fox News thinks that its viewers are stupid

Alright kids, you know I like to keep it pretty light here, mainly focusing on my chess misadventures, and for those few lost souls that are regulars here, it’s plain to see why, I suck;  after all, if I took chess really serious I would have to go sit in the corner and weep at how poorly I play. Occasionally things happen that cause me to break from the normal blah posting about chess and focus on something that is happening in the world other than chess. In the past I nominated a jackass of the month, I bristled when Sarah Palin didn’t think I was a real American (just because I’m from New York City), and other such nonsense. Recently events have transpired that compel me to post non chess related content once more.

Liquid Egg Product posted here about the uproar over a new Islamic center being built two blocks from ground zero in New York City. I have expressed concerns over the appropriateness of such a center but believe that this private group should be free to build where they want to. Now there is concern over where the money to fund this center is coming from. I will admit to being concerned over this for a bit then realized that it was nonsense. I mean are we to believe that if radical Islamists are funding a portion of the site it will be more likely that it is going to be a meeting place for terrorists? So it would be like a party hall, like an American Legion for bad guys???

Bottom line is if terrorists are going to meet and plan to do evil things they don’t need an Islamist cultural center to do it.  By all accounts the first WTC bombing wasn’t planned near NYC and the 9/11 attacks weren’t planned  at a nearby falafel stand.  They can plan anywhere and anytime they want, I mean by that reasoning should the mosque 4 blocks from ground zero be torn down?

Fox News however is running with this story for all its worth, or at least they were last week.

Turns out the Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the man behind the site is a moderate Muslim who has long worked to build interfaith dialogue and tolerance. By all accounts he is a good guy. The concern is over where his money is coming from; does he have ties to radical Islamist groups? Is Iran funding this site?

Turns out a group called the Kingdom Foundation has funded Imam Rauf in the past. It has funded less moderate factions of Islam in the past as well. Ok so it looks a little fishy, but…

Guess who is a part of the Kingdom Foundation? Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. Who’s that? Why, he’s just the largest shareholder of NewsCorp (parent company of Fox News) outside of Rupert Murdoch himself. So by Fox News’ insistence on fear mongering they have pointed the finger back at themselves. I guess the old adage is true, when you point a finger remember that you have three pointed back at yourself.

That was pretty funny, although what is not funny is Fox’s deliberate misrepresentation. I search the Fox News website and can’t get a hit for Alwaleed bin Talal, except in some older non related stories. The only recent story is an AP article that appeared in several media outlets which dealt mainly with Imam Rauf. The story that I saw (actually it was more of a clip) the Fox News people are mentioning the Kingdom Foundation, and the “guy” behind it and refer to Alwaleed bin Talal as “the same guy who tried to give Giuliani $10million after 9/11″. Are you serious? They did everything they could to avoid saying his name, which is blatantly holding back facts that don’t support the rancor they seek to stir up. Now being as this story is over a week so for all I know the folks at Fox News has set the record straight, and if they have, my apologies to them. However running the story initially in such a deceptive manner is dishonest and is one of reasons why the dialogue in this country has become so heated, vitriolic, fearful and angry.

Folks, can we all just sit down and have a civil discussion, and in the words of Oliver North, “Disagree, without being disagreeable”? Apparently we are losing our ability to do so.

I find this disappointing and very sad.

Yeah it’s a good thing I don’t take my chess too seriously; it would probably be more than I could bear if I did.

Have a good week folks.

Stuff I can do without

1. Adults over the age of 30 who still play drinking games
   
2. More junk e-mail promising to make my wang bigger
   
3. Friend requests on Facebook from young 20-something buxom blondes that I know I’ve never met. I assume it’s some sort of phishing expedition. They are trying to get my personal information to at worst steal my identity at best send me junk e-mail promising to make my wang bigger, see #2 above.
   
4. More retirement shenanigans from Brett Favre. Dude really?!? Just say you’re not interested in doing two a days in training camp, no one is going to blame you.
   
5. Tiger Woods stories
   
6. Ground Zero Muslim Cultural Center debate: Its over they have a right to build, its legal, you can’t point fingers at democrats/liberals and say how stupid they are for being so sensitive with words and that they are too politically correct when something as basic as freedom of religion and free enterprise are bothering you so much. I’m just looking for a little consistency.
   
7. Opening study
   
8. Open Sicilians
   
9. Closed Sicilians
   
10. Sicilians of any kind…

OK so I changed my theme…

I figured with a few of the folks on my blogroll bowing out and deleting blogs or making them private (Robert) I would spice things up a bit.  But alas like the marketers across this great country of ours I don’t have any content to give you so I’ll just give you the same ole’ crap in different packaging.  Actually this will be like the Ice Cream companies; new packaging and a lot less, as this post is done.

PS> If you are blind, not very observant or just don’t like ice cream much (if that’s the case, join your friends in Al Qaeda) it used to be half a gallon package when you bought it in the supermarkets, now its 1.75quarts even 1.5qarts, no your eyes haven’t deceived you, these things have gotten much much smaller in recent years.

PPS> Apologies to Craig Ferguson for stealing his joke.

PPPS> If you didn’t see the joke, don’t worry, people don’t normally laugh when he tells it either.

Training Update (Sort of) and proof that I’m getting old…

First off to respond to those of you who so nicely left comments on my last post.

LEP:

Your comments give me…well they…they make me want to cry even more than before I posted.  Yes I will take a picture of my graduation ring.

Tommy:
Great to hear, congrats on the new teaching gig! Yes he handled it poorly I sort of agree with that, but hey like you said about the loyalty thing.  Not sure about the c3 Sicilian either but that’s what this post is about.
Chesstiger:

Well the funny thing is now, since I am studying but I know I don’t have time to go to a tourney I am far more relaxed about my “study” I am actually enjoying it and its something I do for me, reading I do not because I have to, but because I want to.

LEP:
I thought I wanted to cry before….

OK, AS I WAS SAYING…

I have been looking through the forgotten others in my extensive chess library, which consists of books that I bought that were out of my range at the time, other books that I felt were about to go or were out of print or hard to find; and the occasional “what the hell was I thinking purchase”.

Then I happened upon a copy of Reuben Fine’s The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings. For whatever reason I bought this book and never read it, I think I meant to read it, but I was getting ready for a tournament so I couldn’t “waste” time by reading a general opening book I had to do work on my repertoire, especially my previously futile attempts to play against the Sicilian.

It then occurred to me that I have gotten around to an opening repertoire quite haphazardly.  When my uncle taught me chess so many years ago he taught me that 1.e4 is a good if not the best first move.  So I have continued to play it well into adulthood.

I play Alekhine’s Defense to 1.e4 because I like it, and I do well with it, although to this day I still don’t know more than 5 maybe 6 moves of theory in any given line.  This thing just fits me like a glove.  Unfortunately it hasn’t been that easy with my other opening choices.

Against 1.d4 I have tried the Semi-Slav which I have scored ok with, but you can’t really use it against the Colle, which some of my opponents used when I started playing competitive chess seriously back in 2007.  I tried the Dutch but the ideas are completely foreign to me, I never had success with it.

So I thought that I would try reading this classic and look at my white repertoire and my response to 1.d4 with fresh eyes and see what jumps out at me.  the book isn’t very big and not crammed with too many variations, so I should be able to finish it by the end of next week.

We’ll see how it goes.  I performed a similar reboot on my chess play as a whole back in Hawaii.  After a truly miserable showing in my first tournament I thought maybe I had learned chess incorrectly the first time around, so I went out and bought the Comprehensive Chess Course Vols. 1 and 2 by Alburt.  It opened my eyes to how truly bad I was at chess, and gave me a better foundation than the one I had.

I studied some basic strategy books and tactics books and even elementary end game books, but I never read an elementary opening book.  I mean I did read Mastering the Opening by Byron Jacobs, but I didn’t find it to be a cover to cover read.  I used it as a basic reference manual for my repertoire or to explore some basic openings.

The ironic thing is I didn’t study openings because I was following good advice, or so I thought.  Conventional wisdom stated that I was a patzer and I didn’t need to spend much time on openings.  But I was a dumbass and spent no time on openings, so after some painful and crushing minatures, I thought that the conventional wisdom and logic of noted chess players and coaches was wrong.  These well meaning souls obviously didn’t know how terrible I was.

So I started “working” on a repertoire, meaning I bought books of specific openings and a few repertoire books, some good, some so bad as to be epic, but mostly I wasted a lot of time.  I naturally chose to stick to 1.e4 but I never even explored the possibility of playing 1.d4 or 1.Nf3 or 1.c4.  I never thought to examine these options because I never approached it with an blank slate mentality, I just assumed I was an e4 player.

My neglect of opening study (note I’m talking about actually studying the opening not attempting to get a repertoire) probably explains why I have struggled against 1.d4.  I don’t see it as often and I don’t really understand what is going on.

Some time invested early on in a general opening book in an attempt to create an opening repertoire from scratch probably would have prevented me from my current opening repertoire quagmire.  Maybe its not too late.  At any rate I’m going to give this small rather unassuming book a go, I mean how much worse can it get?

As for me getting old…

Mrs. Wang and I went out to a movie yesterday afternoon, we saw the Other Guys.  Overall pretty good, I laughed and was entertained for 90 minutes, the movie accomplished its mission in my eyes.

Afterward, Mrs. Wang and I decided to get a bite to eat.  Now as we have gotten older and both gotten better in the kitchen eating out has become more a convenience thing rather than a treat thing.  Most of our dining out experiences occur as a need to satisfy biology (It’s Tuesday night and neither of us feel like cooking so we get a quick bite to eat).  So most of the time it’s Chinese take out or one of two national delivery pizza chains, with an occasional trip to Denny’s.

Yesterday was a bit different I was feeling a little crazy, and there was a national chain restaurant whose title extols some day of the week.  We hadn’t been since we moved to Arizona, no kidding in 5 years!  So we decide what the heck and go on in.

Ok kids maybe I’m just out of touch with what shit costs nowadays but when did these cookie cutter chain restaurants become $22 a plate places?  I mean for God’s sake, it’s a step, maybe two up from a freaking McDonalds!  Yes you have waiters, slightly better restrooms, and a bar, but c’mon!

Now don’t get me wrong I’m not a cheap bastard, I’m really not.  I’ve spent $300 on a dinner for me and the Mrs. and been happy to pay it, I’ve spent $20 bucks and felt ripped off.  I just felt that the quality food that we received and price we paid were simply disproportionate to one another.

We should have gone to the Denny’s a block away.  I would have spent half as much and been happy to pay it.  These folks are at least in touch with where they sit on the food chain of restaurants so to speak.  You want a T-Bone steak?  It will only cost you $13.  Of course it will be a $13 dollar T-Bone so don’t expect the steak experience of your life, it’s still just a cheap steak.  I think it just speaks to honesty and knowing what and who you are.
Have a good week folks.