Venus Williams Is An Idiot

Venus Williams, a professional athlete who has made millions of dollars due to her God-given ability to hit a yellow ball with a tennis racket, is complaining about female tennis players not making the same amount of money as their male counterparts at Wimbledon.

Says Venus:

``We're the premier sport for women,'' Venus Williams told reporters the other day. ``We would like to empower women around the world by showing that we are willing to fight for equality.''

I'm all for equal pay for equal work, but here's what the libs and Venus refuse to acknowledge: female tennis players don't put in the same amount of work as do male tennis players (the men play best 3-out-of-5 sets, while the women play best 2-out-of-3), thus, the men should be paid more. Plus, Wimbledon is the only major tournament in tennis that pays the men's champion more than the women's. And, it should also be noted that many female athletes have been able to take advantage (despite their skills) of their looks (think about the now-retired Anna Kournikova who made millions in endorsement deals while playing despite the fact that she was a poor player) as opposed to men. Include other moneymaking factors such as charm, popularity and general accessibility to the press & fans, you have female tennis players ending up with more money on an annual basis than their male counterparts do anyway.

But idiots like Venus are too blinded by their wannabee feminist-posturing to see all of that.

Star Jones Deserved Better

Mind you, I've never been a big fan of Star Jones and all her self-indulgence, but to be treated the way she was this week by her now former-boss at "The View", Barbara Walters, was not only downright wrong, but possibly racist.

Says Shavar Jeffries at the Blackprof.com:

On Tuesday, Star Jones of ABC’s television show “The View” announced that the network had decided not to renew her contract and that her nine-year tenure with the show would end by mid-July. On Wednesday’s telecast of “The View,” Star was — literally — nowhere to be found. Not only was she conspicuously absent from the host’s table, but also her name and picture had been removed from the introductory credits. Co-host Barbara Walters announced that Star was expected to announce her departure on Thursday’s show, not Wednesday’s, and that unexpected occurrence caused the network to determine that she should leave immediately.

Later on Wednesday, People Magazine reported that Walters was also upset with Star because in an interview with People, Star had told the magazine that her contract had not been renewed, and that she felt like she had been fired. Walters claimed that these statements to People constituted “betrayal,” as Star was told that she could leave on her own terms, announcing any reason of her choosing for her departure — by which Walters apparently meant any reason other than the truth that she had been fired. Closing the loop, on a Thursday night telecast of “Larry King Live,” ABC took things further, publishing a long list of critiques of Star’s job performance — from claims that Star had wrongfully used her celebrity to obtain wedding services to contentions that Star had misrepresented the way in which she had lost large amounts of weight.

It is difficult for me, and likely most people of color, not to wonder whether the abrupt dismissal of Star is motivated, at least in part, by race — if not the co-mingling of race and gender. Star served on “The View” for nine years; her contributions so significant that Walters herself acknowledged that she was indispensable to the show’s success.

While it was surely inappropriate for Star to announce her departure two days early without informing her boss beforehand, that indiscretion does not justify the abrupt and unceremonious cold shoulder she’s received since. First, her statement announcing her departure was highly dignified. She thanked Barbara and the show for the opportunity, discussed her love for the show and its co-hosts, and wished everyone well. Second, though she did announce that her contract had not been renewed, what’s the rub? Again, Star was told she could describe her departure on her own terms, and, moreover, she had never agreed to misrepresent the facts of her departure. Even more, the costs of truthful disclosure would seem to be experienced more by Star than the network: It’s more harmful to Star than ABC for the public to know her departure stems from the network’s perceptions of her performance.

And why would Walters go out of her way to hire an ugly woman, Rosie O'Donnell, who's done nothing but lambast and ridicule Star from afar while Jones serving as a co-host for 9 years helped to make "The View" so popular?

If I was Star Jones I wouldn't go down without a fight either.

Prosecute The New York Times

So Says Congressman Peter King:

A Republican U.S. congressman wants The New York Times to be prosecuted for publishing details of the government's anti-terror bank monitoring.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, made the call on "Fox News Sunday," saying the newspaper crossed the line on its story on Friday. "By disclosing this in time of war, they have compromised America's anti-terrorist policies," King said.

"Nobody elected The New York Times to do anything. And The New York Times is putting its own arrogant, elitist, left-wing agenda before the interests of the American people."

There was no comment from the Times, but Editor Dean Baquet of The Los Angeles Times, which also ran the story, defended the decision, saying "it is our job to publish what we know about the government's role."

King did not have unanimous support among Republicans, The Los Angeles Times said.
"We have seen the newspapers in this country act as effective watchdogs," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said on the same program.

For the liberal media the safety of our nation can always be compromised for the gleeful regurgitation of slamming anything Bush.