This week, Tom Van Howe unloads on the Florida preacher who threatened to burn a bunch of korans on 9/11. This time, there were two things I really liked, and only one I didn't. First, Tom turns the guy into an object of ridicule by listing all the stupid stuff he's already done. Second, he never mentions the guy's name or the name of his church. This implies a critique of the media that he never unpacks. Why has this guy been front page news on every major outlet?  One preacher, with a church of 50 decides to do something stupid and we make sure the entire universe hears about it?  How is that helpful? How is that even news?

Now we get to the part where Tom and I disagree. He says:

We are told repeatedly that he has the right to burn the Koran if he wants to. Why? Free speech does have limits. You can't stand up in a theater and shout fire. What's the difference here?

The difference is huge. One is a protest designed to piss people off, the other is prank designed terrify, injure or kill. Both might end in people getting hurt, but they are in NO WAY the same thing. If I say something truly vile about your mom and you punch me in the nose, I'm not going to jail for assault.  What he was about to do is morally suspect, politically stupid, and considering the situation our troops are in, potentially dangerous. Given that, the worst you could get him for is inciting a riot. But that only works if we keep putting him up on the world stage. Without minute-by-minute media coverage, he's not inciting a riot, he's preaching to his 50 person choir.

Sometimes, even Tom Van Howe misses the mark. In this episode of Tom's Corner, he unloads a bit on the Michigan Oil spill. If you're from out of town, we had a fairly nasty one up here, while the monster one down in the gulf was still gushing. When he wrote this post, it was still up in the air when they might be contained. To this day, it's still up in the air how much damage was done. He mentions oil addicition and even presents possible evidence of negligence.  But when it comes down to the what-should-we-do-about-it, he pulls the punch. 

Here's the quote:

So what can we do? Put the right amount of air in our tires, drive less, use less air conditioning, turn lights off, accelerate research into alternative energy. That's about it.

That's about it?!  That's not in any way "it".  We can start by holding the people responsible accountable, not just the business that blew it, but the inspectors that should have caught it. This problem is too bid and too important to imagine that properly inflated tires is "it".

Here's the text, in case the video isn't working.

Heya Folks,

I'm not Tom Van Howe, nor am I paid by or related to him, but I have met the guy. I enjoy his work. So I figured I'd put up a few posts to make sure his work is getting the attention it deserves. If you enjoy it, great. If not, go find someone else to bug. Life is too short to spend it being cranky.

We'll start things off with a link to my favorite piece from his Tom's Corner series. The catchline is simple: move your money.  If I can figure out how to embed video from their site, I will. Until then you'll just have to settle for a link to the man himself: Tom Van Howe

Peace,

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