THIS THURSDAY IS SEEING HERE IN THE MINNWISSIPPI REGION WHERE YOUR CORRESPONDENT RESIDETH a rather nice day approaching the Mother's Day weekend--not to mention that marking the 150-year anniversary of Minnesota Statehood, the actual anniversary thereof occuring Sunday.

Isn't that something of a coincidence?

Heading into the weekend, expect there to be a rather showery period through the weekend into early in the week ahead up this way. The fact of which was enough to prompt moi to, following his morning's service @ the motel here in Winona, do a little stocking up (as it were) on laundry detergent (Watkins Lemon Liquid, a super-concentrated affair as works rather well), liquid Calgon water softener (a necessity, considering where the water in these parts is hard and can do a number on laundry) and a few stamps to get ready for the increase in letterpost rates to 42¢ come Sunday.

(Incidentally, if you still have mail stamped with 41¢ such as is going out either Friday or Saturday, rest assured that such will be delivered without the postman asking for postage due on the receiver's end.)

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THOSE OF YOU STILL HARD-WIRED IN YOUR ZEALOTRY AND TRUE BELIEF AS A GOOD CHRISTIAN FOR THE TERRIBLE-TEMPERED MR. BANG in Indecision 2008 might want to reconsider after seeing this video of TTMB's "other" Spiritual Advisor, Rev. Rod Parsley, calling for nothing short of RAHOWA (as it were) against Islam, and excusing such as America's Predestiny:

Cf. Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli, vintage 1797, which itself has been the subject of dispute and overzealous interpretation in Certain Less-Enlightened Circles (thanks to Wikipedia for the text):

As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

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COME TO THINK OF IT, YOU HAVE TO WONDER IF THE TERRIBLE-TEMPERED MR. BANG'S SEEKING OUT THE ELMER GANTRY ELEMENT as a way to pacify the Religiopolitical Right amounts to a show of serious desperation for the GOP.

I say "serious desperation" inasmuch as they're experiencing serious financial as much as morale problems of the highest sort heading into Indecision 2008's campaign becoming dead earnest. Problems which are no doubt sure to scare off any semblance of financial support from "angels" among the ranks of "the Four Hundred" in particular as would be their Last and Only Hope for Salvation.

Problems which, beyond any doubt, could mean that the GOP will likely be asked to have their advertising buys paid for in cash; likewise with those involved with their 2008 National Convention in the Twin Cities after Labour Day from the standpoint of electronics, lighting, audio/visual, logistics and related matters. 

Come to think of it: Might I suggest that the GOP place themselves under administration per the same restrictive bankruptcy laws they pushed for a few years back; the better so they can find out what it feels like to be put under administration?

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ESTIMATES OF THE DEATH AND DEVASTATION FROM THE RECENT CYCLONE AND TIDAL SURGE AFFLICTING THE SO-CALLED "UNION OF MYANMAR" have now been dramatically raised higher--as in some 100,000 dead and over one million displaced or left homeless.

Aid shipments arriving, yet subject to delay by the military regime's insisting that entry visas be "in proper form" (or so the junta's "inside of the inside" thinks), particularly among those with international relief agencies.

Not to mention fresh reports emerging that the regime failed to issue proper or timely warnings beforehand, nor conduct any evacuations from areas of the Irrawaddy Delta as were especially prone to devastation, thus worsening the casualty numbers. Let alone the prospect of the regime's "inside of the inside" watching "elegant poornoo" in their bunker while death and destruction held high carnival, oblivious to what was going on in The Real World.

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HILLARY RODHAM-CLINTON'S LATEST PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN GAMBIT, NOTWITHSTANDING HER CAMPAIGN'S SERIOUS FINANCIAL DESPERATIONS, is to have Congress declare the ilk of OPEC as Illegal Cartels Contrary to Public Interest--let alone American Energy Self-Reliance based on North Korea's juche model, with necessary adaptations to conform to free-market capitalist models and paradigms.

Regardez: It's my understanding that consumer-protection advocates in Louisana won default judgement against OPEC a few years back on charges of Antitrust Law Violations.

The which, like The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang's delusion of a gas tax holiday over the summer, is "good concept, but no sense"--which, in this case, amounts to nothing short of licence to engage in wasteful and potentially counterproductive exploratory drilling in especially such areas unlikely to have commercially viable crude oil deposits worth extracting in profitable quantities. Besides, virtually all the major oil fields in the major oil-producing regions (as in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Louisana and California) are past their prime in terms of production, requiring costly and potentially harmful extraction methods to maintain any semblance of useful production ... and, even with the discoveries in the Bakken fields of northwestern North Dakota into eastern Montana, such may not be enough to adequately meet American oil and gas requirements until such time as decent infrastructure (pipelines and storage facilities in particular) can be set up.

That, and asking whether His Fraudulency's Great Within may secretly be paying oil companies to take refineries out of production just to keep supplies low and prices high--and maximise the value of any futures contracts they may secretly be investing in.

What stands in the way of such a possibility being looked into?  

ITEM FROM CONWEBBLOG as makes note of a job vacancy @ the conservative "news portal" WorldNetDaily:

A May 5 WorldNetDaily job posting for a "highly motivated editor-writer" begins: "Do you have what it takes to be part of the WND editorial team?"

While the posting lists only "demonstrable experience in reporting and editing" as a requirement, there's another important part of "what it takes" that's not mentioned: a desire to slant the news to the right, unfairly depict those you don't agree with and frame their claims through the eyes of their critics, and to portray conservative and/or right-wing Christians and Jews as positively as possible while refusing to report any criticism of them (or, if it is reported, not treat it as legitimate).

Well, that's obviously how folks like Aaron Klein and Bob Unruh got their WND gigs. Joseph Farah wouldn't have hired them if they didn't.

Which, in effect, raises a point of the offering being misleading by omission or obfuscation of material facts, in violation of Basic Principle 3 of the Better Business Bureau Advertising Code ("An advertisement as a whole may be misleading although every sentence separately considered is literally true. Misrepresentation may result not only from direct statements, but by omitting or obscuring a material fact").

In other words, only hard-core goodthinkers need apply.

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FOR YEARS, YOUR CORRESPONDENT HAS HAD THIS RATHER SUBTLE SUSPICION that the British Sunday gazetta known as the News of the World is perhaps the most ironic name for a gazetta anywhere in the world.

Never mind that it began publication in 1844, thus translating into a long-established reputation for sensationalised excess, particularly when it came to reporting court cases in rather lurid and tasteless detail--so lurid, in fact, that Parliament passed the Judicial Proceedings Act 1926 to put controls on its reportage of especially lurid murder and sex crimes.

A reputation which was already well established when a certain Keith Rupert Murdoch acquired News of the World in 1967, quickly earning Murdoch the well-deserved nickname of "the Dirty Digger" (by way of the satiric journal Private Eye, taking advantage of Murdoch's Australian origins)--and making it even more lurid and tasteless, not to mention racist and jingoistic, qualities which would be carried over into Keith Rupert's next Fleet Street trophy, The Sun, after his acquisition thereof in 1969.

In any case, News of the World still ranks as the top-selling Sunday gazetta between Land's End and John O'Groats, attracting some nine million readers Who Should Know Better with a rather pornographically tasteless mix of sleaze and scandal packaged as "responsible journalism," not to mention the lure of Big Big Money to readers willing to provide some especially juicy scandal as can make or break reputations, bring down governments or send The City into sheer panic.

And its journalistic focus, alas for it! still seems to be confined to England's Green and Pleasant Land, with little else in the way of world news coverage, if @ all; hence, the very name News of the World quickly becomes its own worst joke @ the expense of its readers among the ranks of the EastEnders/Coronation Street crowd, by and large.

The kind more than likely to take their summer's holidays in the likes of Blackpool or, worse yet, Butlin's Holiday Camps ... do their shopping @ ASDA (the British affiliate of Wally World, in case you didn't know), Tesco or Marks and Sparks just because prices are lower there ... and tend to watch FreeVee, even if it means having to pay an annual licence fee while News of the World rails against suspected "elitism" in BBC programmes in the hope of forcing more American-stylee programming on the likes of ITV, Channel 4 and 5.

What could be more ironic than to name a rather narrowly-focused gazetta (and a Sunday gazetta in particular) the News of the World, even without "the Dirty Digger" controlling the strings from New York?

And BTW: Are there any of you blog readers from between Land's End and John O'Groats who concur with these comments? Comments always welcome.

• Memories of abuse, cruelty and maltreatment, not to mention an upbringing revolving, for the most part, around institutional and foster care.
• Items I come across on the news, especially so BBC News ("it's a small world, after all," folks), but also CNN while watching same during my morning rounds @ a certain motel here in Winona, MN (details on request).
• Allusions to old-time radio programmes, Hanna-Barbera animations and other TV shows and movies I find interesting.
• "Engrish" @ its finest.
• The mundane(?) details of the everyday routine I live in spite of myself and my dyslexic condition, as well as contacts with Mein Innkeeper Friend (who, without a doubt, has influenced, in a way, my Secular-Progressive leanings which can be evident in this blog).

Does this answer your question, readers?

But then again, I think English novelist Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966) had the best answer to how a blogger words: "I just write the words down and then push them around a bit."

YESTERDAY AFTERLUNCH INTO EVENING GOT QUITE RAINY TO THE POINT OF THREATENING here in the Minnwissippi--so much so that a Tornado Warning was posted for around the dinner hour yesterday evening here in Winona County.

Whether a tornado actually touched down or no is not known to Your Correspondent; nonetheless, sirens were wailing in and around Winona @ the dinner hour as a potent storm passed this way.

And its effects can be felt as I write this: The rain has moved on, with cloudy skies and cooler conditions prevailing.

And staying in Winona for the moment, the town could be heading for a brief period of quiet with last week's commencement exercises @ Winona State University followed by those of St. Mary's University of Minnesota this Saturday and, before too long, those of Minnesota State College/Southeast Technical's Winona campus. I say "brief," readers, inasmuch as we will be seeing the Minnesota Beethoven Festival and the Great River Shakespeare Festival later on this summer for the culturally-sophisticated ... and Steamboat Days for the Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin types.

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NOW TELL ME THIS ISN'T THE KIND OF REPORT that the GOP's super-secretive "dirty tricks" squad would love drooling(!!!) over for cheap and cheerful ways by which to:

• intimidate especially lower-income and National Minority groups from voting in November, especially considering the recent Supreme Court ruling allowing states to mandate photo-bearing identity documents being shown as part of the electoral process; and
• ensure "guaranteed" victory for The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang among the "right-thinking" sort of voters (read: White Male Christian Freeholders) on Election Day.

Especially when you have the ilk of "citizen militia" and "lone wolf" operatives who can be trusted to do the pis aller all along ... and, @ the same time, can be trusted to keep quiet about the whole being for G-d and Country in exchange for substantial payments from super-secret "pure trusts" based offshore.

Know-Nothings, in other words, expected to know all along that they are acting in the GOP's name and behalf, all along walking a tightrope known as doublethink.

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WITH NEW RUSSIAN STATE PRESIDENT (AND DROOG OF THE PREVIOUS SUCH, VLADIMIR PUTIN) DMITRI MEDVEDEV HAVING TAKEN OFFICE, perhaps it was time to start asking if Mr. Medvedev is the real McCoy when he speaks about liberalising business and socioeconomic policies and easing restrictions on media freedom and freedom of speech as part of his agenda.

Or whether he's really the Charlie McCarthy, as it were, to Putin's Edgar Bergen.

"Actions speak louder than words," President Medvedev....

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SOMETHING FOR THE ZEALOTS AND TRUE BELIEVERS IN THE PHONY KULTURKRIEG SERVING NO USEFUL PURPOSE but fuelling the Dark Satanic Mills of Conservative Propaganda, by way of Yahoo News (ultimately via Agence France-Presse):

Singer Cliff Richard was robbed of victory in the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest because Spanish dictator Francisco Franco rigged the vote, a documentary to be aired Thursday claims.

Richard's song "Congratulations" was the runaway favourite but was beaten in the contest, held that year in London, by just one point by Spanish contestant Massiel, who sang "La La La".

According to the documentary, music and television executives sent by Franco bought the rights to series that never aired and signed little-known acts in other European nations in return for Eurovision votes.

Spanish public television journalist Jose Maria Inigo told the documentary that the Franco regime "had a great need to win recognition, even if it was only in one area."

The documentary will be aired on Thursday night on La Sexta channel but excerpts were available on the Internet.

At the time, the winner of the competition--in which musicians from nations across Europe compete each year--was decided by a jury comprised of members from each of the participating countries.

Richard said he was pleased at the possibility of being declared the winner four decades later.

"If, like they say, they believe there is evidence that it was I that was the winner, there won't be a happier person on the planet," he told newspaper the Guardian. "It's never good to lose, never good to feel a loser."

"I've lived with this number two thing for so many years, it would be wonderful if someone official from the contest turned around and said: 'Cliff, you won that darn thing after all,'" he told the Guardian.

"Congratulations" topped the charts in Britain and several other countries, selling over one million copies.

Eurovision, launched in 1956, has evolved onto an annual music extravaganza with a television audience of 100 million. The contest has helped lift artists from obscurity to celebrity.

Swedish band Abba won in 1974 with "Waterloo" setting them on the path to global stardom. Canadian singer Celine Dion's win in 1988 for Switzerland, singing "Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi" or "Don't Leave Without Me", helped to launch her career.

The winner of the contest is now selected by votes cast by telephone and text messages by television viewers. 

As reminder, folks, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is STILL dead!!!

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CALL ME A BIT SCREWY, READERS, but for some reason or another, I was imagining the other day what it would sound like if the slogans of Homer D. Poe's ("You can do it. We can help.") and Lowe's ("Let's build something together"), the two biggest of the "big box" homecentre chains, were translated into Engrish.

And thanks to PigeonD.net's wonderful English=>Engrish Translator, Homer D. Poe's "You can do it. We can help" becomes "It is possible to do that. As for us it is possible to help."

And Lowe's "Let's build something together" becomes "What probably will be made together."

EDITORIAL FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES (HAT TIP TO BARTCOP E!) as needs no further elaboration, yet deserves to be shared among the "right-thinking" among you blog readers out there across the Information Stuporbahn:

Americans don’t have to wait for the statistics to know these are very hard times. For the fourth month in a row, the economy lost jobs in April. The economists said the contraction was not as bad as expected—20,000 jobs were shed versus an anticipated loss of 75,000. Not as bad as expected is cold comfort.

The latest employment report shows other deepening problems for American workers, including slower wage growth, cutbacks in hours, a sharp increase in the number of part-timers who would prefer full-time work and lengthening spells of unemployment.

The White House response to the pain is to wait and see if things get even worse before calling for help for the unemployed. On Friday President Bush said that his administration had anticipated the slump and would combat it with tax rebates that were passed last February as part of the economic stimulus package.

There is no guarantee, however, that the rebates—which are just now being distributed—will spur the economy as hoped. Rather than spend the money, many indebted consumers are likely to use it to pay down debt, and some people, justifiably fearful of job loss, are likely to save it.

Besides, there’s no more time to wait and see. In April, the number of Americans who had been out of work for at least 27 weeks (26 weeks is when unemployment benefits run out) rose to 1.35 million workers. In the past year, 2.74 million jobless workers have exhausted their benefits.

Job loss is clearly a hit to families’ finances and, in the aggregate, to consumer spending and economic growth. Job loss coupled with the exhaustion of unemployment benefits leads not only to personal desperation, but will further damage consumer confidence, already sorely tested by the housing bust, the credit crunch and soaring prices for food and gasoline.

What is needed—now—is for Congress to extend jobless benefits for people who exhaust their initial 26 weeks of payments. Research is unequivocal that bolstered jobless benefits are more effective stimulus than tax rebates. They also have the advantage of being targeted to people in need.

The extension could be attached to the supplemental spending bill for the Iraq war, which may come before Congress as early as this week. Predictably, President Bush is balking, mainly because of his wrongheaded belief that tax cuts are the best solution to all problems.

The White House has also asserted that with the overall unemployment rate hovering around 5 percent, joblessness is not yet bad enough to warrant an extension of unemployment benefits. But in prior recessions, benefits had already been extended when long-term unemployment reached the current level. And in recent recessions, the unemployment rate didn’t peak until the recession was basically over. Waiting for the rate to rise before extending benefits is almost sure to result in offering too little help, too late—deepening the pain of the recession.

Congress erred by not extending unemployment benefits in last February’s stimulus package. Lawmakers and Mr. Bush now have a second chance to fix that mistake. They must not squander it.

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YOUR CORRESPONDENT SAYS GOODBYE TO IRVINE ROBBINS, who was responsible for making quirky ice cream flavours like Pralines and Cream, Rocky Road, Jamocha Almond Fudge and Here Comes Da Fudge household staples from Maine to Mauna Loa, Point Barrow to Key West by way of Baskin-Robbins, the chain of ice cream shops which were founded when ice cream shoppes owned by Robbins and in-law Burton Baskin merged in the early 1950's.

In the process, creating the famous "31 Flavours" gimmick ("a flavour for every day of the month," as it were) which, officially, has translated into some 1,000 such in its 63-year history.

I will admit to having had a fetish for Baskin-Robbins back around the age of six, during residency @ Station 64 of University of Minnesota Hospitals; there was a Baskin-Robbins shop close by the hospitals, and it was not uncommon for case workers to occasionally take me over there for a cone. (The site is now occupied, it turns out, by Wangensteen Hall, which houses the U's School of Medicine.)

It must've been years since Your Correspondent last stepped foot in a Baskin-Robbins, in all honesty; probably because there aren't any such near Winona.

Rest in peace.  

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CERTAIN PEOPLE OF MY ACQUAINTENANCE ARE OF THE OPINION THAT, WHEN IT COMES TO THE CONSERVATIVE PROPAGANDA MASHEEN and its perpetrators, it may actually be better to simply ignore them and not respond @ all; the argument here being that the Rush Limbaugh/Fox Prolefeed/Chris Matthews crowd gets their jollies from all manner of attacks and criticism so directed, forcing them to "push their buttons" and intensify their attacks every time fresh criticism is so directed.

On the other hand, so this line of thinking goes, simply ignoring them and their line of propaganda will, in due course and measurable distance, only frustrate the messengers to the point of paranoia for want of response or attacks.

Which begs the question of whether this means we should essentially act village-idiot-stylee stupid (howbeit as a "protective cover," we should explain), or otherwise pretend to stupidity or disinterest in current events.

Otherwise known in Orwellian Newspeak as "goodthought" (i.e., an unswerving and unyielding orthodoxy, practiced as it were second nature, accepting the Prevailing Official Line without question or reservation).

Which begs the question of whether acting "village-idiot-stupid" is any way to respond to the Religiopolitical Right's propaganda, and its channels therefor. Which, come to think of it, runs counter to the argument of "silence=acceptance."

YOUR CORRESPONDENT WAS PERHAPS ONE OF THE FIRST TO QUESTION THE TERRIBLE-TEMPERED MR. BANG'S SUGGESTION of a summer suspension of the Federal gas tax to bring down gas prices, and the illogic thereof.

As in "good concept, but no sense"--which, in case any of you ask, was inspired by something read on Engrish.com recently about humourous Japanese T-shirts with English-language messages.

And it seems there is emerging editorial, as much as political, opposition to such a concept, considering where the Federal Highway Trust Fund is financed from gas tax revenue. In the former instance, Dave Zweifel, Editor Emeritus of The Capital Times in Madison, WI, as just last week "went virtual," had this to say--and ponder over:

It's one of the dumbest ideas to come down the pike in a long time.

I'm talking about John McCain's plan to give America a summer-long gasoline tax "holiday" to ease our pain at the pump.

Republican McCain would have the U.S. stop collecting the 18.4¢-per-gallon excise tax, ostensibly to make it "cheaper" for all of us to jump in our cars and go traveling this summer. That Democrat Hillary Clinton would buy into this scheme speaks volumes about her priorities as well.

The United States has already fallen dangerously behind in maintaining its infrastructure. Interstate bridges are falling down, highway maintenance is far behind schedule, and mass transit is being starved for funds. This is hardly the time to put a bigger dent in the country's ability to fund transportation needs.

To his credit, Barack Obama has called the McCain plan a terrible idea. It's so bad that it ranks right up there with George Bush's tax cuts for the rich, which McCain once opposed but now favors. Those cuts have served to starve much-needed domestic programs while doubling the national debt, which the country will have to face up to sometime in the not-too-distant future.

Clinton defends her support of McCain's tax holiday because she would balance the loss in revenues by enacting an excess profits tax on oil companies. Admittedly, that's a bit more responsible than McCain's proposal, but it fails to address the real issue. We ought to be discouraging the consumption of gasoline and oil, not encouraging people to use more. Besides, good luck getting that excess profits tax through the current administration.

It would be far better to enact an excess profits tax to fix those cracks in the highway bridges and to improve mass transit so Americans don't have to buy so much $3.60-a-gallon gasoline.

Those who keep tabs on the oil industry are convinced that the price is actually going to be four bucks a gallon by the height of the summer travel season. That 18.4¢ "savings" would quickly be swallowed up by the oil industry.

Meanwhile, we would fall further behind not only in fixing our highways, but in doing what we should have been doing for decades now: finding ways to use less gasoline.

Good concept, but no sense reaffirmed.

Pass this along to all you know online....

BLAME IT ON THE INFORMATION STUPORBAHN AND SATELLITE RADIO, AMONG OTHER FACTORS: Shortwave radio broadcasting is about to become an endangered species.

And newer technologies, such as online and satellite radio stations, are dooming shortwave to the point of its becoming a museum piece before too long--a novelty, come to think of it.

I bring this up in the wake of news that the BBC World Service, one of the more famous worldcasters, is gradually abandoning shortwave radio broadcasting in favour of rebroadcaster affiliations with local broadcasters (who would receive the signal via satellite), online radio and satellite radio services; BBC World Service discontinued shortwave transmissions to North America in 2001 and just recently ended shortwave broadcasts to the Caribbean and Central and Eastern Asia.

And it's not just the BBC World Service as has abandoned shortwave:

• Around 1995, the Voice of America shut down the last of its shortwave transmitters, replacing shortwave broadcasts with transmission over local broadcasters.
• Swiss Radio International moved its worldcasts to online and satellite radio in 2004, and replaced their traditional shortwave service with the online portal SwissInfo.org.
• Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty have left the air, their shortwave transmitters long silenced.
• German worldcaster Deutsche Welle has reduced its shortwave throughput and is moving to online radio and affiliations with local broadcasters.
• Public broadcasters in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Japan, Finland, Korea and Portugal have phased out shortwave broadcasts altogether.

As for shortwave broadcasters from the United States, the lion's share tend to be of a non-commercial religious nature (Adventist World Radio, WWCR Nashville and Fundamentalist Broadcasting Network come to mind), mostly because of FCC objections to shortwave radio broadcasters targeting stateside audiences for the most part. Not to mention stateside shortwave broadcasters' lineups getting rather weird, as the industry paper Radio World noted a few years back:

Without ratings, it is difficult to impossible to sell commercials. As a result, profit-minded U.S. SW stations make their living by selling airtime to whoever wants it. Typically, this tends to be religious or political groups.

The religious programmers run the gamut from mainstream to fringe, while political programmers range from Cuban dissidents to right-wing militia groups. In some cases these programmers work live in the station's studios. However, it's more typical for them to send in prerecorded programs on cassette, CD or MiniDisc, or to send in their shows by phone or, increasingly, over the Internet.

The cost? "We charge anywhere from $25 to $65 an hour, depending on the time of day and the number of hours purchased," said Allan Weiner, WBCQ owner and general manager. Based in Monticello, Maine, the station uses three converted commercial/military transmitters, some home-built antennas and a 1950s-vintage mobile home converted into a studio building.

At WRMI in Miami, Jeff White sells airtime for $1 a minute. Meanwhile, WWCR in Nashville, Tenn., charges anywhere from $15 for 4.5 minutes to $160 for 59.5 minutes, depending on whether you're buying on a one-day, weekly or Monday-through-Friday basis. With four 100 kW transmitters - a single 50 kW transmitter is considered to be the bare minimum by the FCC - WWCR has more reach and a more sophisticated transmission/production plant than WCBQ or WRMI.

Thus, given the FCC's restriction on domestic broadcasting, the issues of propagation, audio quality and static associated with amplitude-modulated shortwave and the lack of a measurable audience, the commercial SW market is not one for the faint-hearted.

Add the general public's lack of awareness of the medium - "People ask me all the time how they can pick up Radio Miami International on their AM/FM receivers," White said with a shrug - and one can see it's a tough business.

"The handful of truly commercial stations may generate anywhere from less than $200,000 a year to perhaps a few million," he added. "These are not Clear Channel-type operations."

Paying the bills

These broadcasters are willing to put up with poor production quality and content; this comes with the turf of selling airtime blocks. They can tolerate downright weird shows.

"I remember one show where the guy was doing a chant to the angels," White said. "He just kept chanting the same thing over and over again for 15 minutes."

In fact, U.S. SW broadcasters are willing to put up with almost anything from their clients, as long as they pay their bills.

"It is still a free country and they have a right to say a lot of things," said WWCR General Manager George McClintock.

"We pretty much let anyone say what they want," said Weiner. "Our listeners demand that we be as open and free speech as possible. They crave it. They demand it."

Besides, "The FCC doesn't really monitor the content on U.S. shortwave," White said. "I don't think they see that as their mission or concern. They are more worried about whether a station's technical parameters are correct."

That said, U.S. shortwave broadcasters often suffer grief from their clients' programming. Even radio's renegades have their limits.

For instance, WWCR learned that neo-Nazi Ernst Zundel was using his airtime to deny the Holocaust. "We threw the program off," said McClintock. Zundel had been broadcasting in German, and WWCR's operators didn't understand what he was saying.

Even so, many Americans associate U.S. shortwave with far-right broadcasts. This is ironic, given that most of what McClintock calls "militia money" stopped flowing to shortwave broadcasters when the dreaded year 2000 finally arrived. Apparently the New World Order's "non-collapse," in McClintock's words, severely hurt the militias' ability to solicit donations from listeners.

All in all, U.S. SW broadcasters operate in a strange, Twilight Zone kind of world, but one that they relish. Passport's Magne believes that U.S. shortwave broadcasters enjoy it so much that they don't want the FCC to loosen its archaic restrictions on domestic shortwave.

"The truth is that they like it the way it is," he said. "If the rules were changed, it could open the floodgates to more competition."

An unfair accusation? Not according to WRMI's White.

"We discussed changing the rules at the National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters' convention a few years ago," he said. "In fact, the FCC asked for our help in doing so. However, after some discussion, a lot of people came to Magne's conclusion: that we're all better off just leaving things as they are. After all, under the current regime, the FCC pretty much leaves us alone. If the rules were changed, then they might get serious about enforcing them."

"If it works for you, leave it alone," said McClintock. Granted, the FCC shortwave rules are "as loose as a goose," he said. But "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

And, of course, you've got pirate shortwave broadcasters all over the place....

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BUT THEN AGAIN, FOR THOSE OF YOU STILL LOOKING @ SHORTWAVE RADIO, check the following out:

THERE IS A BIT OF THE PERSONALLY EMOTIONAL IN WHAT I AM ABOUT TO DISCUSS: I have an older brother, by name of Doug, who resides outside Mobile, Alabama and has been retired from the Navy for almost 30 years now.

Who, in the last couple of years, came down with a form of cancer associated with exposure to asbestos or related products (e.g., asbestos insulation in water pipes aboard ship)--in medical terms, mesothelioma.

Which Doug thinks he picked up by way of his Naval service aboard the battleship USS Oklahoma during the Vietnam War period, what with the insulating pipes below decks especially having asbestos ... and for which he's receiving treatment @ the VA Medical Centre in Mobile.

The which was brought up recently in conversation with some close friends of mine discussing family developments ... in turn shifting to a broader likelihood of whether an entire generation or two of Navy veterans as served aboard ship (in particular below decks) may have unwittingly developed mesothelioma as a byproduct of Naval service thanks to exposure to asbestos-based insulating material dating to less politically- and medically-sensitive times.

Not to mention the possibility that Navy veterans with service @ sea for the most part may have higher-than-average rates of risk for developing mesothelioma cf. the general populace--or, for that matter, other occupations where risk of exposure to asbestos or asbestos-containing components was considered "part of the job" (among them plumbers, steamfitters, insulation contractors and heating/cooling-system contractors) and among the hazards of the game.

And whether Navy and Marine Corps veterans can apply for, let alone obtain, compensation for service-connected illnesses, injuries or disabilities thanks to asbestos exposure and ensuing mesothelioma.

Making you wonder if mesothelioma may rival veneral diseases as among the more common maladies of those serving @ sea, never mind the latter likely being contracted during shore leave liasons with Mrs. Warren's Profession and its practicioners.