I used to hate Andy Rooney

He was a crusty old man who was very anti gay and often insulted minorities. Now he is anti war and has turned the corner on minority issues. Andy I am not sorry I hated you before but I sure like you now. Great job recently.

not that he means to be. You've got to love a cranky old man complaining about medicine and how confusing labels on food are or how he doesn't like new-fangled gadgets. so funny

WSPA Channel 7 in Spartanburg SC blocked out this piece. It just went off the air!

They should be picketed tomorrow.

Their transmitter was taken off the air by a lightning strike.

Perhaps we could work on them the way we did with Siclair. Unless of course they are Sinclair themselves...

nfm

for me made the opening scene of Platoon my all-time favorite of any movie, any time. I found that music, esp. as used, so profoundly moving that after hearing it in Platoon and much later hearing it played and identified on a classical music station, I went out and bought it. It's Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings.

I guess it wasn't long enough for that many photos...

at least as it was used in both Platoon and Lorenzo's Oil. It was closing in on 11 minutes in each case.

They'd have to be going ridiculously, noticeably slow to stretch it to 11 minutes. I suspect (and condone) repeats.

Hogback Mountain, near Tryon, the site of WSPA's transmitter, has been getting blasted by a severe thunderstorm for the past 40 minutes. Their transmitter got hit by lightning. They did get the audio transmitter going again (video and audio are separate transmitters on different frequencies) but could only get out a very weak video signal. This is a typical sign of the what's called the "final amplifier" getting knocked out - the weak signal was from what's called the "exciter" - it provides the signal to the final amplifier and can be routed to the antenna when needed, but it won't carry very far.

They did get everything back on around 7:10 PM.

They didn't do this on purpose.

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

of freepers. it's a bird board, where i have a lot of friends, but i mostly don't go there any more, cuz i couldn't take it any more. but who can dismiss him as a liberal nut? none of the freeps could think of anything to say about it.

Transcript of Andy Rooneys commentary from last week-

If you were inclined to make a list of the great times in American history, you’d start with the day in 1492 when Columbus got here. The Revolution when we won our independence. Beating Hitler, putting Americans on the moon. We’ve had a lot of great days. Our darkest days, up until now, have been things like presidential assassinations, the stock market crash of 1929, Pearl Harbor and 9-11 of course. The day the world learned that American soldiers had tortured Iraqi prisoners, belongs high on the list of the worst things that have ever happened to our country. It’s a black mark that will be in the history books, in a 100 languages, for as long as there are history books. I hate to think of it. The image of one bad young woman with a naked man on a leash did more to damage America’s reputation than all the good things we’ve done over the years ever helped our reputation. What were the secrets they were trying to get from captured Iraqis. What important information did that poor devil on the leash have that he wouldn’t have given to anyone in exchange for a crust of bread or a sip of water? Where were your officers? If someone told you to do it, tell us who told you. If your officers were told, we should know who told them. One general said our guards were untrained. Untrained in what? Being a human being ? Did the man who chopped off Nicholas Berg’s head do it because he was untrained? The guards who tortured prisoners are faced with a year in prison. Well great. A year for destroying our reputation as decent people. I don’t want them in prison anyway. We shouldn’t have to feed them. Take away their right to call themselves Americans. That’s what I’d do. You aren’t one of us. Get out. We don’t want you. Find yourselves another country or a desert island. If the order came from someone higher up, take him with you.

In the history of the world, several great civilizations that seemed immortal have deteriorated and died. I don’t want to seem dramatic tonight, but I’ve lived a long life and for the first time in my life I have this faint far away fear, that it could happen to us here in America as it happened to the Greek and Roman civilizations

Too many Americans don’t understand what we have here or how to keep it. I worry for my grandchildren, my great grandchildren. I want them to have what I had, and I sense it slipping away. Have a nice day.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/20/60minutes/rooney/main618783.shtml

Andy sure has come around lately!

He called Mel Gibson a weirdo. And remember how he poked fun of Pat Robertson saying that "God told me Bush would win in a walk". He is also an atheist. Granted you may not agree with him on some issues, but there are many more to agree on.

he did where he made fun of a fat kid. It was quite some time ago but I still remember it. The kid was like 12 or so and with a full video of him Rooney called him fat for the nation to see.

Several minutes of pictures of the fallen soldiers of from Iraq. Didn't get the exact quote,but paraphrasing "people wonder about the face of US.There it was. And they are all dead."

That was a very long 11 minutes. And very sad. I wanted to tell each and every one of them, "I'm sorry -- so sorry we couldn't stop this illegal, immoral, unjustified and unjustifiable war." But at least we tried.

to someone what Americans look like, because they are all so different. He then said something like, "but this is what they look like - and they are all dead." Very succinct, raw, and poignant (I thought).

he's always been anti-war.

Didn't know he was anti-gay and insulted minorities... good to hear of the change.

the idea he could be more patriotic by showing the faces, but he got slapped down by the shrub machine so he's on a little self aggrandizing mission to promote himself. He hates gays, blacks, Hispanics, Arabs and anyone who doesn't fit in his white bread fascist little world. Just because he has done this don't forget his past because he hasn't changed a bit. It's like McCain every time he says something people go "way to go" and forget the years he's been fighting against progressive ideas and basic human rights.

He gave a commentary in favor of same sex marriage not to long ago. We should reward change but as you point out it is hard to know if it really happened.

he's a THREAT to COMMON DECENCY!