If you read this week's Editor's Note or Dan Gibson's blog post yesterday, you might have noticed that there appears to be a slight, uh, "disagreement" between local conservative talk show host James T. Harris and the editor of Tucson Weekly, a conclusion to which Harris is trying to duck like Floyd Mayweather did Manny Pacquiao.

Obviously, this is a thing I find completely hilarious for a number of reasons, not the least of which is Harris's somewhat deluded thinking that he's like Tucson's conservative, radio version of Jon Stewart (the catch, of course, would be that Jon Stewart is actually somewhat funny).

But Harris's sense of humor ("Obama is gay, lol") and obsession with making references to the Matrix aside (because there's nothing fresher than constantly making references to 14 year old films that influenced the half-baked philosophies of many a high schooler in the early 2000s), I've gotta say this:

The dude's fans are starting to pull out this weird fixation on race, apparently owing to the fact that Dan is a white male (shock!) and Harris is a black male (gasp!).

Starting with the Arizona Daily Independent, who mention the conservative conservatism of conservative Harris a few conservative times in accusing Dan of hating a conservative black conservative:

LuisCarlos Davis' first documentary, 369 Miles: Living the Border, was a well-received documentary that Davis put a lot of his heart into as someone who grew up on both sides of the border.

Tonight at 9 p.m. you can see Davis' next work, La Industria, which makes its online debut on his production company's YouTube channel, Fence Productions.

Synopsis of La Industria:

In many parts of Mexico, there's an informal industry sprouting perpetrated by organized criminals, extortionists, and kidnappers. This is a very lucrative industry relying on extensive kidnapping techniques. In many cases, if authorizes are warned or a family members make a wrong move, the prey never makes it back home. Victor, a local orange vendor receives a call letting him know that his wife Bea has been kidnapped and demanding that if he does not make a cash deposit within 20 minutes after the call, he will receive the head of his wife at his doorstep.

I'm really on a roll here with online feuds lately, strangely with two near-polar opposites ideologically ... first with the fine people of the anti-Monsanto movement, now with local afternoon talk show host, James T. Harris.

Here's the chronology as I see it:

1. On his blog, James T. Harris included the Weekly as conspirators ina Steve Kozachik-led "anti-Christian pro-homosexual assault" on Grand Canyon University at El Rio.

2. I commented on the post (no response) and then tweeted Harris to find out how exactly we were a part of such an assault with our two news items on the controversy. Frankly, we had a number of conversations about the whole situation, with a number of different opinions, but we're certainly not working for anyone in the matter.

3. Harris replied a few times, going back to his strange (to me) Matrix analogy, but never really answering the actual question. Why did he lump us in to a conspiracy we had nothing to do with?

4. So, listening to Harris' show a few times that week (during which I heard Harris claim that Obama is gay at least twice), I wrote in my Editor's Note this week that I didn't understand the guy's popularity, partially because he doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense ("RED PILL, PEOPLE") and partially because he's just irritating to listen to, stumbling over words on a regular basis and acting almost as a parody of right-wing talk radio, which I listen to far more than anyone would likely suspect.

5. First, (stealing a line from Brian J. Pedersen) my favorite writer at the Arizona Daily Independent, "Opinion," took up the case, seemingly accusing me of racism, because I don't like Harris' show or I can't understand that there are people of color within the conservative movement. Or at least that's what I think the unsigned writer meant. I'm a little unclear, but it is the Independent after all. Then, Harris took to Facebook to claim that my not understanding or liking his show means I "hate" him (actually, he said "Hate! Hate! Hate! Hate! Hate! Hate!"), followed by dozens of his listeners calling the Weekly "a rag." Really, it might be time for new insults. Just throwing that out there.

5a. A sidenote: Among talk show hosts in this town, it seems to be a funny bit to claim that I left Clear Channel under strenuous circumstances, that I fled because I was terrible at my job there. For the record, I left because the Weekly is a far better place to work and I got a five digit pay raise to become the editor. Pretty simple stuff.

6. Now another post on Harris' blog, where he claims I don't understand him because the show is funny (no), that he's an entertainer (no), like Jon Stewart (no), but without the staff (maybe). Also, apparently, the best way to understand me is to think of the character Simple Jack, from Tropic Thunder. Also, somehow, Robert Griffin III came up and he blog-sings part of "We Shall Overcome." I really have no idea.

So, I really want to work this out. James says he's done with the whole thing, but since part of his claim is that I don't have the right to criticize his show because we've never met (?), let's take care of that on his show. His fans can get out what seem to be some anger issues with the Weekly over the phone and Harris could decide for himself whether I'm a simple-minded bigot. After all, if Peter Rosenberg and Nicki Minaj could squash their beef after last year's Summer Jam debacle, I imagine James and I could have a delightful time talking out our issues on the radio airwaves as well.

If you agree, feel free to get in touch with James T. Harris. I'd love to see this conversation happen, so I'll start off by making another request on Twitter. Feel free to join in, using the hashtag #jamesanddanhugitout.

@jamestharris You know, we really should meet up and talk things through. What day should I come on the show? #jamesanddanhugitout
— Dan Gibson (@DanGibson520) June 6, 2013

President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton speech writer Jon Lovett's commencement speech at Pitzer College last month blew me away. I couldn't agree more with this sentiment:

One of the greatest threats we face, simply put, is bullshit. We are drowning in it. We are drowning in partisan rhetoric that is just true enough not to be a lie; in industry-sponsored research, in social media's imitation of human connection, in legalese and corporate double-speak; it infects every facet of public life, corrupting our discourse, wrecking our trust in major institutions, lowering our standards for the truth and making it harder to achieve anything. And it wends its way into our private lives as well, changing even how we interact with each other, the way casual acquaintances will now say, "I love you," the way we describe whatever thing as the best thing ever, the way we are blurring the lines between friends and strangers, and we know that. There have been books written about the proliferation of malarkey, empty talk, baloney, claptrap, hot air, balderdash, bunk. One book was aptly named Your Call is Important to Us.

But the cynic in me wondered if any generation is up for this challenge:

But this is not only a challenge to society, it's a challenge we all face as individuals. Life tests our willingness in ways large and small, to tell the truth. And I believe that so much of your future and our collective future, depends on your doing so.

Or at least, they seem to love them some Pittsburgh Pirates:

• facebook.com
• "Yeah, take that, Julio Teheran!"

I get that no one outside of Atlanta has cared for the Braves since they won a World Series in '95, but why go out of your way to cosmically ruin the day of a 22-year-old pitcher? I mean, unless someone there has got a weird passion for the Pittsburgh Pirates, in which case I can't even be mad — just concerned for their life choices.

For those curious, the Braves beat the Pirates 5-0 after the Star finished ruining what could have been the brightest day in this young pitcher's career. Way to go, jerks.

Have you seen the new ad from Cheerios (conveniently placed above), featuring an interracial family — complete with a white mother, black father and an incredibly cute daughter? The kid is beautiful and the commercial is adorable.

Of course, since the kid is biracial, so leave it to the bigots to come out using big words like "multiculturalism" on Reddit in ever-so-enlightened comments:

Multiculturalism, feminism, and other marxist liberal ideologies will be responsible for the death of western society.

Why can't we just create an island on the internets or in real life where these folks can live in Mayberry? It's marketing, not a ploy to make even the most narrow-minded folks on the planet open-hearted ... or maybe it is ... bwahahahha.

• azstarnet.com
• News you can use?

I thought we talked about this, Arizona Daily Star. Don't you remember the day you ignored a good, local story for the opportunity to plug Subway sandwiches?

Sure, at least this time you're not shuffling off information about good, local people for this marginally interesting press release, but did it really have to be for yet another nationally known chain restaurant and their most well-known (and thus, least-interesting) food option?

Tut-tut, Star. Tut-tut.

The Militant Baker, whom we featured in last week's TQ&A interview, told us on the downlow about a wonderful and beautiful "fuck you" in the works to Abercrombie and Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries.

Go visit her site right here and see what beautiful Abercrombie ads she's put together.

The Atlantic Wire captures an amusing CNN moment during the absurdly over-covered Jodi Arias trial in Phoenix:

It seems that Grace and Banfield are sitting in the same parking lot, facing in the same direction, and judging by the speed of the vehicles in their shots, they cannot be sitting more than 30 feet away from each other. Yet, they're behaving as if the are on opposite sides of the world.

I'm left to wonder: Who watches CNN all day to catch these moments? It deserves some kind of combat pay for the psychological damage it inflicts on people.

This story was originally published at Inside Tucson Business, a sister paper of Tucson Weekly.

He may be considered Tucson’s most popular TV personality but KOLD News 13’s Chief Meteorologist Chuck George suffers from the mood disorder of depression. And that’s why he has been off the air on a leave of absence for the past month.

In a report prepared by news anchor Barbara Grijalva to air on the station’s 4 p.m. newscast Thursday (May 2), George explained, “My family tree is full of suicide, or depression, of addiction. They’re all interrelated and my family tree is just packed with it and I never thought it would happen to me.”

George explains his parents and grandparents died at young ages due to the illness but what caused his latest absence was the suicide death of a cousin.

“When he was growing up he was like my little brother and that event and that funeral unleashed something in me,” George said in the report. “Depression is cold and it’s dark and it feels like something on top of me. Something literally on top of me.”

He said he was catatonic four weeks after his cousin's death. “I remember sitting and the sun rose and set and rose and set and rose and set and rose and set again while I stared.”

He has been under treatment since then.

KOLD General Manager Debbie Bush and News Director Michelle Germano said George would be back on the air Friday.

“We wanted to air his story before he returned to explain his situation both for the audience and to answer questions from people inside the station,” Bush said.

“And he’ll be here to do the weather in just as normal an environment as we can provide without having to answer a lot of questions,” Germano said.

George’s most recent leave of absence was his third in the last three years. He was gone for five weeks during March and April 2010 and again for six weeks in September and October 2011. The station had never before commented on the reasons for those absences, although news accounts talked of him slurring words on the air and acting strangely.

In the report that aired Thursday, George said that in his previous bouts, “I just thought, get over it. Get over it. You know you’ve got a great life. What’s wrong with you? And people in my life would tell me that too. And God, if I could I would.”

Despite the history of depression, George says he is the first in his family to get the help he needed.

In her report Grijalva says, some might wonder what to say to George or anyone suffering from depression.

“I think I would fine with somebody saying to me, ‘Hey, I hope you’re doing well.’ That to me, give me strength,” George answers.

George was a rising star in the Tucson market when he first came here in the early 1990s from Phoenix. He left in 1997 and worked in Houston before returning to KOLD in February 2003.

Soon after his return his upbeat on-air personality and live remote weather reports helped catapult him to the top-ranks of most popular TV personalities in the market, something that even competitors say is still the case.