Whiffs and Tiddles of Flotsum on a Sea of Sandy Dreams

Tags

journalism, life in New Mexico, main stream media, New Mexico

We  began to wonder the other day just exactly what this symbol on the flag of New Mexico stands for. As is often the case, there is a story behind the emblem which is interesting.

One thing leads to another and I became immersed in the history of this state.

As you may or may not know, New Mexico was settled first by Native peoples, mostly Navajo, Apache and Ute. It was claimed as part of the Spanish Empire. It was not named New Mexico after the country of Mexico, but by early Spanish Conquistadors who, coming north from Mexica (the Aztec Empire) thought to find gold there, and called it such meaning the New Aztec Empire. This was back in 1563, long before the English had entered upon the Eastern Coast of North America

Later, it was claimed by the new country of Mexico, in the 1860’s, then a US territory, and finally a state in 1912.

Our state has the highest percentage of Hispanics of any state in the Union, and the second highest native population.

All of this bears intimately on our flag.

The colors red and yellow are in honor of Queen Isabella of Castile, the colors brought to this continent by the conquistadors. The symbol in the center is a sun symbol, and relates to the Zia pueblo where such insignias were found on pottery by archeologists.

It’s rays reaching out in four directions refer to the four directions on the compass, the four seasons of the year, by the four divisions of the 24-hour day, sunrise, noon, evening, night, and in the four seasons of life,  childhood, youth, adulthood and old age.

The Zia believed that life contained four obligations:

1. The development of a strong body,
2. The development of a strong mind.
3. The development of a pure spirit.
4. The devotion to family and people.

The pledge to the flag of New Mexico is telling of how we are as a people here:

“I salute the flag of the state of New Mexico, the Zia symbol of perfect friendship among united cultures.”

“Saludo la bandera del estado de Nuevo Mejico, el simbolo zia de amistad perfecta, entre culturas unidas.”

You see, of all of the American Southwest, only New Mexico was not found to be “valuable” from an Anglo point of view. Thus New Mexico escaped much of the animosity and warring that occurred as Anglos sought to take away lands from Hispanics who had held these lands for generations in places like California, Arizona and Texas.

We have always been a place where a melding of cultures has been accepted as being right and proper. While not officially bilingual, the state did adopt the English Plus approach which encourages the teaching of other languages. A Navajo textbook is used in the state. Jurors are not disqualified by speaking Spanish only.

While border problems have not been unknown historically, it is seldom if never that one reads of any problem in the local Las Cruces newspaper or hears about problems on the local news. Being only 40 miles from the border, surely we would be hearing about it if such issues were occurring regularly.

Given that the two cultures are so incredibly intertwined and have been for ever, I think the average New Mexican looks upon all the craziness of places like Alabama and Iowa and their screaming about “border security” with a bit of bemusement and no little anger.

Well, enough of that. This is not a history lesson on the State of New Mexico. It’s just interesting to see how one similarly-placed state sees the whole issue of amnesty and immigration in an entirely different way than do significant portions of the Republican party at least.

I’d sure like to hear about interesting factoids about your state or country. Please do tell.

On the other hand, we’ve decided we are through with most media news. We started with ABC, gave up in disgust, went to NBC, then CBS and then remained with PBS. Now we are through with it too. For some reason journalists think their job is to “give both sides” and leave it at that. No investigation as to undeniable facts, no push back on broad but unsupported allegations, just a nod and on to the next question on the list.

The trouble is, we are living in a time of stark differences. There are not often “two sides” rather there is a side supported by evidence and a side supported by wishful thinking. Some of this permeates both sides of the spectrum of left-right, but more often than not, the wild-eyed incredulous nonsense emanates from one side only.

Fox has successfully ranted about the “liberal” media (which is not supported by facts) and the mainstream media has out of fear of the label, decided the best course is to simply let both sides spout as they wish. Yes the mainstream media is probably composed of more liberals than conservatives, but it remains the case that the overarching ownership of most mainstream media remains in corporate hands who by and large are essentially conservative. The fact is that the journalism (if you can call it that) is not at liberty to do as they wish, but are supervised by larger corporate interests.

So the mainstream has caved to a charge not born out, and is essentially worthless in my opinion. To the vast majority of citizens, giving them both sides is akin to giving them nothing at all. They are not, like myself and those who are passionate, going to investigate and research to find if one side is vastly better in truth-telling than the other. So they do whatever they do in choosing between what they see as two  equal sides. This is what you hear when people claim that the “entire Congress” is useless. They see both sides the same.

So, we have moved to BBC-America, which gives no more than one item on the US and the rest international. Since we don’t get Al Jazeerra in our cable package, this is the best we can do. Frankly both the Contrarian and I read all the national news over the Internet already, so we aren’t missing much.

Oh, and if anybody has forsworn cable in favor of other options, Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, please do tell. We lost ABC for 3 weeks over some dispute, picked up our favorite shows online, and with a cable moved them to our TV, so we got the idea we might be able to find almost all of what we watch and save a bundle. Most prices for non-cable are around $80 a year vs. $80/month for a barebones cable package. Weigh in on any info you can offer please.

That’s it for me today. Happy Boo day.

 

 

Let It Be A New Day

Tags

911, Alvaro Uribe, Asteroids, astronomy, Cedar Rapids, Columbia, Detroit, Facebook, Flint, fundamentalism, Georgetown, GOP, Iowa, Islamic faith, journalism, Muslims, Qur'an, religion, right wing, tea party, tolerance, urban renewal, voters

Praise be to whatever Goodness speaks in your heart this day! In response to hatred, there is love being expressed, tolerance overflowing and men and women of good will gather in friendship.

A couple of important notices:

First, for those living near the environs of Cedar Rapids, IA, please take note that an interfaith “Day of Remembrance, Unity and Respect” is scheduled for 9/11 at 1-2:30 pm at the Islamic Center of Cedar Rapids, 2999 1st Ave NW, Cedar Rapids, IA. Members of the Islamic faith, Judaic faith, and Christian faith will gather for a few words and prayer. Please come if you can to show your support for tolerance, and unity in recall of our time of tragedy.

If you cannot attend, please consider this Facebook call for unity and tolerance. Dr. James McGrath has created a FB page called, “read the Qur’an day.” Please go and sign up. We cannot remain silent in the face of the hatred being expressed by a tiny minority. We must speak out. We are a nation of immigrants. Tolerance is what defines us.

I caught this over at National Catholic Reporter. Fr. John Dear, SJ, has written a post on the sad but true fact that what can only be described as dictator, Columbia’s former president, Alvaro Uribe, has accepted a teaching position at Georgetown University. Fr. Dear has a good history of both Uribe and Georgetown’s questionable dealings with the American war machine in the past. This is truly sad to hear. I certainly don’t deny that Uribe has a right speak his piece about whatever, but I surely think there were better choices for teaching our youth than one who has had such a close connection to warlords and other murdering types.

I was born in Flint Michigan and lived a considerable number of years in Detroit, so I know of what I speak. Both are ugly decrepit cities and nothing much can save them I suspect. Both largely grew to magnificence (or some semblance of that) through the age of the Automobile, now both rust away as the heyday of automotive power wanes.  The Boston Globe has an interesting article on how these declining cities deal with this. How to downsize? (Note: recently Detroit decided to go forward with wholesale demolition of old neighborhoods long abandoned–thousands of homes are involved so I understand) A truly innovative look at a problem.

To those of us who pay attention, the Teapartiers have always been an anomaly. A conglomeration of mostly uninformed folk, who rant about “our freedoms” while having little or no clear thinking about what the Constitution says or means. Ironically they are often “for” things that are in-opposite to long-standing constitutional norms. In essence, they are often willing to eviscerate the Constitution in the name of upholding it. DeWayne Wickham at USAToday has a great article about the new KnowNothing Party.

Oh and before I forget, let my say this: This refusal of most of the “high-ranking GOP leadership (read Palin, Boehner, Gingrich et al) to condemn the Qur’an burning is disgusting and amounts to an endorsement. They are willing to allow their hate spewing followers to believe they favor it rather than have the guts to stand up for what is right. So much for ethics. But then who ever assumed they had any?

And we see that John Sidney McCain is criticizing the President for allowing the tax cuts for the rich to expire. Oh but, darn, McCain voted against them when Bush proposed them? How to reconcile this old fart? Just another one of your vengeful acts isn’t it John? You hated Bush for beating you, and you hate Obama for beating you. You need to go sit in your chair and muse about the dust bunnies in the wind.

If I hasn’t come to you yet, it will. Which came first: the insipid vapid (id words you see) moronic lack of intellect of the average American, thus requiring constant feeding of irrelevant nonsense, OR the increasing laziness of the journalistic working man and woman, who has traded actual journalistic skill for a few tips from Entertainment Nightly. Huh? Well, D-Cap tackles this one.

Christian Beyer is a fine writer and thinker and knows fundamentalist Christianity from the inside. See his blog entry today: It’s time for Christians to declare jihad against Fundamentalism. Just an excellent read.

Sad to say, but perfectly predictable, the right-wing and GOP are using the upcoming 9/11 date to raise money and spread hate. They have been doing it for years, and plan to continue it seems.

Ya know there is just plenty of crap to worry about. I worry a lot about that seething mega volcano just waiting to erupt in Yellowstone. That will take most all of us out. I worry about the state of our magnetic field, without which we will all be toast in days. Well, now I gotta worry about asteroids again! I thought we had that one all taken care of with an array of telescopes all searching for any misdirected balls of iron. (Jupiter with its super-massive gravity well is largely to blame–just so you know where to direct your ire.) Turns out NASA which runs this safety program is RUNNING OUT OF MONEY.

So I figure, we should perhaps set up a citizens brigade or something. You can leave your name and number and the night you would like to take your watch. Don’t push. Sharp eyes and a pair of field binoculars are required.

What’s on the stove: chili today. Oh I know it’s early, but I was hungry for some, and I made it really good and hot, and with some fresh corn bread. HA!

Related Articles

• Islamophobia After 9/11: Enough, Already (beliefnet.com)

Who Protects Us Now?

Tags

Bush, Faux Noise, journalism, Media, Muslims, Rudi Giuliani, terror attacks, terrorism

It’s ironic that in an age of ever increasing access to information, we are quickly becoming the most uninformed generation in perhaps all of American history. That might be going a bit far, but not by much.

We live with Internet access to literally millions of bits of news and facts, along with the ability to turn to 24-hour cable “news” 24/7. You’d think we would be experts on the political scene and all those other “scenes” as well. But ‘fraid not.

Surely, something can be said for our educational lack. I went to a fairly passable county school back in the 60’s. Yet, given our small size, the choice of classes was lacking and certainly only the basics were taught.

I, and my classmates learned to read and write and cypher adequately. We learned the importance of voting, and being patriotic. We learned that some bad things were done (not soo00 important), but we had a continent to conquer and ultimately we were the next best hope for humanity. I guess this was adequate to the middle of the 2oth century, but it is woefully inadequate now.

We are assured that there is only one worthwhile economic system–the free market one–as we slide into economic hell. The fact that most Americans today spend most of their waking hours just keeping their heads above water might account for the fact that we spend almost no time actually learning the facts of health care, our foreign policy, the state of the rest of the world, the truth about scientific advances, and on and on.

So it’s not surprising that Rudi Giuliani tells lies to the likes of George Stephanopolous and nobody, including George even blinks an eye. If you missed it, Rudi joined a list of shabby neo-cons who are spreading the lie that there were no terrorist attacks under Bush at all! George, I’m told, has admitted his faux pas  at not challenging the former mayor, but what matter? Heck, those who knew better still do, and those that don’t, well they don’t watch George anyway. They are firmly attached at the hip to the Faux Noise liars who know this routine so well.

Yesterday, a Brit stopped by the blog and dropped a few f-bombs around (since deleted by me) and basically railed as how I as a liberal was a sodomite supporting, Muslim defender. He, who goes by the name “Larry” of course is a proper Christian, despite his sexual invitation for me to have sex with a goat.

Now being from Britain, I can only say, whew. . . .just goes to show that idiocy is spread across the globe and is not the sole province of the US of A. More, I can point at Larry as another of those who so helps to radicalize people left and right. Contrary to his ugly opinion of Muslims, from what I hear, they are doing their best, at least in America, to decry in the strongest terms that those Muslims who espouse radical jihad are NOT Muslims according to their understanding of Koran.

Yet, this kind of truth, doesn’t find much purchase in the media. They have succumbed to the simpler mode of journalism, that requires little in the way of research or actual work. Just grab a camera, take a few shots, grab a microphone, and shove it in the faces of passersby for their input. Voila` we are ready for air.

Was it only a few years ago that Woodward and Bernstein offered us a glimpse of real investigative reporting? How soon that turned into investigating marital infidelities, and drug usage. It has failed completely to actually investigate truth. Somewhere and somehow, journalism has become the duty of journalists to let everyone have their opinion voiced, without “editorial” comment.

Well, I agree, I don’t care what the reporter’s opinion is, but I do care what the facts are. And when AHole is spouting verifiable “facts” I want them verified and confirmed or denied. And that is your job Ms reporter. It’s what you get paid for. Yet we find little of this any more. In fact  organizations called “Media Matters” and “Factcheck” and others are designed to actually do that job, the one that journalists don’t bother with any more.

Yet, you have to be motivated to learn the truth to even know of the existence of these sites, let alone actually read them. And precious few of us are. Most of us are plainly not interested at all, or we have hitched our horse to the teabagger supporters at Foxy and depend on them to ‘splain things.

Maybe this has always been so. Maybe in 1884, the US landscape was made up of essentially the same percentages of know some things and know nothings. I don’t know. I do know that at one time, most towns, not cities mind you, had competing  newspapers. Cities might have as many as four major voices, and lots of smaller ones. Today, most cities are owned by one media conglomerate or other.  A failure of course of our fine “regulatory agency” the FCC.

It often seems like beating one’s head against the wall to decry the never ending failure of the media to tell us truth rather than the usual gossipy innuendo that passes for facts. It was called in the past the 4th estate. It was accorded some respect. It was feared by politicians and corporate heads. It could uncover the hidden lies. It could make or break an industry. It had integrity. It was like superman, out for Justice and the American way.

How far it has fallen, and how dumbed down we have become. We need a super hero, and we need one fast.

Oh No They Din’t!

Tags

Brit Hume, Buddhism, Christianity, Dick Cheney, Faux News, Hawaii, health care reform, journalism, Media, Neo-cons, Obama Administration, Rush Limbaugh, terrorism

It’s really hard to keep a straight face when Faux News claims to be “fair and balanced.” We all know that. But what follows is somewhat unprecedented in journalistic history.

It seems our dear Brit Hume, who always talks down to us from his pompous Mount Arrogance, has managed to trash one faith tradition, all the while shilling for another, all in the name of “fair and balanced” reporting.

Mr. Hume, commenting on Tiger Woods, suggested that Mr. Woods cannot reconstruct his personal life unless he leaves Buddhism (where salvation is simply not available to him) and move over to Christianity, where it is. Yes, you heard that right. Not only did he say this on Chris Wallace’s show, but he reiterated it on Uncle Billy O’Reilly’s propaganda machine later.

Leaving aside Brit’s rather lame understanding of Buddhism, we can but wonder what is going on in the minds of Faux News corporate leaders and Rupert himself in allowing such an outrage. Now we have a major “news” outlet proselytizing on national television like a common TV evangelist.

Andrew Sullivan, writing in The Atlantic, says:

Once you have abolished the distinction between secular and religious discourse, as they routinely insist on doing, their politics is their religion and their religion is their politics. And both are corrupted.

I guess there is nothing all that new here, since none on the left, and virtually none in the middle politically would grant that Faux News approaches any semblance of editorial or journalistic fairness in its reporting. It is decidedly for the neo-con agenda and panders to the religious right as all good neo-c0ns do to shore up their base of Nascar/trailer/soccer mom constituency.

Still, it is astonishing to think that this type of outrage is condoned or allowed. Presumably Rupert cares about the bottom line, and surely rational people will recoil in disgust at such a blatant display of Christian flag waving. But then again, maybe not. They are the Faux News after all.

This just in. Dick, “the Dick” Cheney has added his two cents into the “underwear bomber” news.  In his usual attempt to rewrite history to avoid all his criminality, Dick does his thing in complaining that the Obama Administration just doesn’t get it when it comes to terror.  (Being a terrifying individual, himself, he of course does.)

After the incident, Cheney rushed off his take on things to his BFF Politico, which offers him all the space he wants to spew his alternate vision of history.

He said in part:

As I’ve watched the events of the last few days it is clear once again that President Obama is trying to pretend we are not at war. He seems to think if he has a low-key response to an attempt to blow up an airliner and kill hundreds of people, we won’t be at war. He seems to think if he gives terrorists the rights of Americans, lets them lawyer up and reads them their Miranda rights, we won’t be at war.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/31054.html#ixzz0bF45RdYc

It seems the (some now call him traitor Dick), former VP has forgotten a few things. We all know of course that Bushieboy, when faced with the “shoe bomber” failed to remark on the incident for a full 6 days after the event. More important, Dick himself signed off on the release of a number of Gitmo detainees who were returned to Saudi Arabia for “re-education.” Trouble is, they are now in Yemen leading the al Quaeda effort there.

One might conclude from that that he is blowing a ton of hot air in an attempt to divert attention away from his own actions. One might. Of course, those who are inclined to believe whatever the dark one says, are not the kind of people who R E A D in the first place, so his comments to Politico were probably not read by them. No doubt they got the gist of things from their daily dose of the ever irrelevant Faux News.

Nice to know that Dick doesn’t believe in actual civil rights for humans, only the one’s he selects as worthy of said freedoms. And of course, he thinks its a fine and glorious thing to water board this kid from Nigeria in an effort to wring out every last bit of knowledge he might possess. No doubt Dick has “24″ in the TIVO and can’t wait for the mayhem to begin so he can vicariously enjoy the torture scenes that are always present on it.

And last, but certainly not least, Rush returns with another of his famous witticisms.

Now, it’s not nice to speak ill of the dead, and Rush is certainly dead as far as his morals are concerned, but his body still is warm, and so I am glad the man didn’t die. But, my sympathy ends there.

It seems, in famous Rushie style, Mr. Poophead said that from his vantage point in Hawaii, the American health care system is one mighty fine operation and needs no fixin’ by that black dude in the WHITE house.

Indeed, he wafted quite eloquently, in saying this:

I don’t think there’s one thing wrong with the American health care system. I got no special treatment other than what anybody else that would have called 911 and had been brought in with the same kinds of symptoms.
Via USA Today

Indeed, Mr. Mudmouth do tell us more! Of course, the Oxycontin king might recall that given his wealth, he can BUY about as good a health care package as is available anywhere in the US. And what is worse, it seems that Hawaii has the closest thing to socialized medicine in these here US of A states.

Yes, you heard that right, Rushie was the recipient of socialized medicine, and is touting how god awful good it was. OOPS. Bet ya didn’t mean to do that did ya Limpbrain?

So, I’m here to tell ya, these three men, did say these things. Yessiree Bob. Where is the trash collector when you need it?

I Want to Ask

Tags

advertising, celebrities, courts, creationists, evolution, Gitmo, journalism, Madison Avenue, Media, Muslims, pets, rapture, terrorism, Young earthers

It seems an opportune time to rid my brain case of a few puzzling thoughts. Ain’t you glad you stopped by?

I want to ask all those who oppose trying the Gitmo detainees in American civilian courts if they have ever read the Declaration of Independence? I mean, given the fine patriots you all claim to be, I would think it would be something you read regularly at your patriotic meetings. Am I wrong?

There are lots of reasons why the right wingers don’t want the prisoners tried in open American courts. Mostly to keep the dirty laundry in the hamper I believe. Don’t want to let those Muslims use courtrooms as soap boxes to spout their rhetoric and at the same time, report all the sordid things done to them do we?

The one that is utterly ironic to me is the argument, that “they aren’t American and thus not entitled to our rights.” This is where the Declaration comes it. I believe somewhere in that document is says or words to the effect,

All men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, . . . .

Does this mean what I think it means? All as in A L L? Didn’t one Georgie Dubya Bush talk about how it was our Christian duty to export democracy around the world and so that everyone had the wonderful rights we have? Hows come, the flip folks? No what goes around comes around? Enlighten me please.

I want to ask creationists what research they have done that proves their thesis that the earth was created by God around 6,500 (+/-) years ago? I mean scientists do science and offer their results to the world for examination and retesting. For reformulation, rehypothesizing, and new testing. What creationist has done any research at all?

It seems, as has been said by others, that they simply mine the data field, picking and choosing here and there, and then making up arguments without proofs of any kind. You’re beliefs are not testable propositions. Show us the research that proves your claims. Dare ya.

And don’t give me that bull that you aren’t required to be both a creationist and a young earth proponent. Course you are. If you believe in Genesis, creation story one, they you believe the earth is flat. That’s what the text alludes to. Are ya not smart enough to see that?

But of course, you probably aren’t smart enough, cuz if you were, you wouldn’t be a creationist in the first place. It’s why you believe that Stephen Colbert is a conservative too. You don’t have much grasp on the concept of irony do ya? Enlighten me.

I want to ask those ad men and women, just where in the H2O you came from? Why do you continue to run ads that are offensive and counter productive to your presumed cause?

Case in point. There is a ad for a toilet. Yeah, I know, who needs a commercial for THAT in the first place. But watch. The married dude sees a sexy “plumber” and then tries to sabotage his toilet by throwing all manner of crap down it, just so as how he can call the plumber and ogle her I guess. In walks the wifey as he is pouring dog food down the john. This is supposed to entice me to purchase your product?

Or this one: Levi Johnson talking about being protected or something. And then a wise guy banging another’s head onto a table to crack a nut. This to sell pistachios. This is neither humorous nor tells me anything I want to know about nuts. Except that you are one. And the idiot who decided to pay you for this is even more of one. Enlighten me.

I want to ask the media just how long ago it was that they started offering a course in “how to phone it in” at all our major schools of journalism? What you claim as journalism is sophomoric to say the least. Bloggers are making you look silly dudes.

We don’t mean Foxy of course. They are not lazy, they lie on purpose. They have an agenda, and lucky them, a following composed of atrophied brains so useless that said watchers cannot tell the difference between fact and fiction in the first, second and third place.

No, I’m talking about the insipid drivel that passes for journalism virtually everywhere. Every news cycle is dominated by more non-news that news. Tiger had an accident. It may be all innocent, or it may have a lot to do with a marriage gone sour. I don’t know, I don’t care, I don’t have any business knowing. Some celeb wannabe’s crashed the White House gig. Who they are? I don’t care, I don’t CARE!

Same for Letterman, and Oprah, and that Mackenzie had sex with daddy, and that Mike Tyson has grown up, and that Whitney has seen the light. I don’t care. I don’t care. When will you people get that I don’t care? Sigh.

I do care that 1 in 6 people today is applying for food stamps. I do care that our health care system is an immoral morass that caters to those with sufficient income. I do care that the climate is going to hell in a hand basket and nobody is doing much about it. I care you see about what real people are suffering through. I don’t give a rat’s bottom what rich people are “suffering” through mostly through their own stupidity and arrogance.

Can you all get that? I want to ask somebody, anybody. And while your at it, when you have nothing better to do, then at least promote things that are worthy of real consideration. Like this fine piece:

A site called Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, makes the following claims:

You’ve committed your life to Jesus. You know you’re saved.  But when the Rapture comes what’s to become of your loving pets who are left behind?   Eternal Earth-Bound Pets takes that burden off your mind. 

We are a group of dedicated animal lovers, and atheists. Each
Eternal Earth-Bound Pet representative is a confirmed atheist, and as such will still be here on Earth after you’ve received your reward.  Our network of animal activists are committed to step in when you step up to Jesus.

It seems right up the alley of those aforementioned brain leakers. They have so far had 100 takers and operate in 22 states. I guess, I should have something I want to ask them too, but I’ll have to think a while on this one.

Beam Me Up Scotty!

Tags

celebrities, journalism, Media, Michael Jackson, sensationalism

Michael Jackson is dead. Just in case you have been traveling the outer planets and missed the news. I don’t mean to be cruel or unfeeling by the way. He wrote some great songs, was a great dancer, was a superb showman. He was also filled with self-loathing which translated into some of the worst plastic surgery money can buy. He was probably a child-molester and deeply troubled.

That said, I’m exceedingly tired of the media coverage, which is virtually non-stop. It seems that all our media outlets, but of course especially those who run 24-hours, are at pains to reduce their work load even more than usual, giving us nothing but one insipid “interview” after another with every “hanger-on” they can find, down to the pool boy.

Enough already. The Contrarian is busy trying to tear out what is left of hair on his head, muttering, “Good, God, doesn’t anybody have anything else to talk about?” I explained, “This is all you’re gonna get until at least the funeral. And be ready, there will be full coverage of that, probably even on the major networks.”

This is their chance to take a summer vacation. Just bring out the footage, of which there is a plenty, and the aforementioned “interviewees” and we have a plan. It’s just the usual game plan, with the usual issues, that we have so grown to love and admire in our “super stars,” movie or music or sports.

The “weird” doctor who was the “personal” physician, now cast as the mad enabler of the addictive personality. The legions of family members, who just days ago didn’t speak to one another, all now in loving support of the “tragedy.” The children, subject of endless speculation as to who will raise them, poor things that they are. The money angle, how much, who can get the most, who can turn this into a money maker, all for the kids of course. The autopsy, the toxicology, all dripping with possible causation, but far enough off in the future so that we can speculate with abandon for weeks. The slimy “employees who will inevitably be caught trying to “sell” the inside story, and steal mementos on their way out.

Oh the fun is just getting started. Except that a majority of the freakin’ world doesn’t give a rat’s behind. Yet, we will be forced to imbibe this tripe anyway. BECAUSE THAT’S ALL THEY TALK ABOUT.

I have visions of the future. Earth is trashed, and humans have long gone in search of a new planet to ruin. Aliens stop by and begin wandering through the trash, trying to figure out who these beings were.

I rather think they would assume we had committed mass suicide. That is if they got a look at our data stream from the media.

“If it smacks of sensationalism, and portrays another human as failed, they will come.”

That seems the battle cry of those that pass themselves off as journalists these days. Oh I cry a cry long made. There are innumerable articles, books and so forth decrying the demise of journalism in favor of the slick silly celebrity “breaking news.”

They do it because we watch it. You can’t get away from that. That is of course, contrary to what we claim. We claim we don’t want it. We always, it seems, have loftier allusions about what we will do or say or think than we end up doing. Don’t we? Who hasn’t planned to spend vacation time reading that stack of books we “just must read,” only to find we watched a bunch of junk movies and read a couple of romance novels instead.

We don’t watch PBS news. We do, for a while, then we hunger for less “serious” fare. We miss the fluff. And they read the numbers, and then grin at each other, and sip martinis and nod as one says, “The great unwashed love this trash. They don’t have the intellect for serious journalism.” And the great unwashed are all of us who are not them.

And politicians and other CEO types, and all the hangers-on  K Street types,  nod at the cocktail parties around the Beltway, and agree that they need to do what’s best for the great unwashed, since they are too simple minded to make these decisions themselves. We, the elite, they tell themselves,  are destined to care for the serfs and plebeians. It comes with the territory of  being superior.

And it goes on. We’re way to busy carting kids to soccer games, getting the groceries, trying to make a difference somewhere to someone. So we sit down exhausted and flip on the TV for some diversion, and there it is in all it’s glory. The same old crap. We have enough to argue about, no time for this fight.

Oh, by the way, did you hear that the mother of Michael’s children is claiming she doesn’t want custody? Just want you to keep up with what’s important today. Stay tuned!

Water Wanders Wellsprings Wither

Tags

abstinence, Barack Obama, Bush, corporations, economy, Election 2008, fundamentalism, Gitmo, GOP, Hagee, Iowa, Iran, Iraq, journalism, McCain, Media, Middle East, Palestine, Putin, Russia, sex education, terrorism, Traveling

Francis William Edmonds did this piece called “The New Bonnet.” It was completed in 1858 and can be seen at the MMA.

I didn’t buy a bonnet yesterday, but we sure got a lot of stuff done in town. In fact, we left a bit before 9 am and didn’t get home until nearly 4 pm. Of course the rain had resumed long before that, so it was a sloppy unload of groceries and various other sundry items of purchase. We got some more plants, which still remain in the Bronco, and the garden looks rather bad today with standing water at the southwestern section of it. I have grave concerns for our initial corn planting at least,  and some of our tomatoes may fail as well.

I hope you all enjoyed the Contrarian’s little story about the boar and the sow yesterday. He’s one funny guy as you can see. A nice relief for me as well, as posting daily in the amounts I do is formidable to say the least.

I made the root beer marble cake that I linked to some time back. So far it looks pretty good, but the proof is the tasting of course. Dinner is basic today, pork chops, potatoes and probably broccoli. I’ve not much ambition in that area today. Tomorrow I think perhaps a stir fry.

It seems to have stopped raining for a bit at least, the dogs are getting restless. Yesterday was a wash for them, having to stay cooped up indoors all day, which is highly unusual for them. Today they are moping and sleeping. I’ll rile them to get out at least for a bit, hoping the rain will stay away now.

Anyway, it’s time to see what’s happening in the news. Oh the freaking Redwings lost in triple overtime. I’m fearing they may lose the whole thing now, that was a heart breaker. I gave up after the end of the second overtime. It was after 11 pm by then. Blech, I’m sure it was my watching that jinxed them! LOL.

And we are changing things up a bit here. This blog is just becoming too time consuming and unwieldy as is. Today we are focusing on politics around the world. Tomorrow we will hit the the food, gardening, etc. History and religion will fit in here and there as there is material to justify. I’m hoping this frees me up a bit, and makes for a more intelligible read for you as well.

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The Bushites, apparently aware that both proposed presidential candidates are intent upon closing downGitmo, are going full bore ahead in trying to get those prosecutions going. Amid all the stories about lack of individual rights, and downright illegalities by prosecutors, Bush seems determined to stuff these prosecutions up our collective behinds before he is ushered out of office. Read more at Alternet.

You may not have heard it here first, but you have heard it here before. Corporate conglomerates are insidious in wrapping their tentacles increasing around and within our political system, and if we don’t do something quickly, they will effectively run the country and the world. This rather pointed and important address was given by Chris Hedges, Pulitzer prize-winning reporter and bureau chief for the NYTimes in the Middle East.

The fall out over Scotty McClellan’s book continues today. Frank Rich of the NYTimes argues that McCain will not be able to keep  moving forward as the country seems endlessly interested in learning just how badly our president and his cronies lied to us in the run up to the war. McCain cannot keep claiming that this is old news, and he can’t keep avoiding the book as something he hasn’t had a chance to read. Another great article on the same subject, detailing McShame’s complete and utter agreement with Bush during the run up can be found at History News Network.

Catholic Anarchyreports that several groups have come up with independent estimates of total Iraqi deaths since the inception of our War of Aggression. While Bush and his henchmen continue to downplay these figures for obvious reasons, several independent groups estimate the numbers are nearly a million or more. The so-called Iraqi government doesn’t utter a word in disapproval of the Bushites lower estimates for the same obvious reasons.

History News Network has a long look at McCain and his apparent ineptitude in judging what right wing evangelicals to pick for his camp. So far, he’s gotten it entirely wrong, and has had to dismiss both Hagee and Parsley from his boosters club. This suggests or should suggest that Mr. McSameasBush has almost no clue about religion in general and evangelical religion in particular. This presumably should not be lost on evangelicals themselves. It certainly should prove telling to independents and others who look on.

I seriously wonder at the emotional health of Billy Kristol. He seems intent on professional suicide these days, and it may stem from all the things he’s been so WRONG about for so long. The dude actually is criticizing Obama for his lack of military service. I mean, come on. Kristol did not serve, yet he self proclaims himself as one of the “architects” of the Iraqi war invasion, at least from a political prospective. Did he forget that? If I Ran the Zoo brings us the link to the story, which is actually found at American Blog.  If you want to read Billy’s comments in full, then follow this link to his stupid opinion, “What Obama left out.” What Kristol left out was his brain again, and when it dries after the rain, it keeps shrinking. What is the NYTimes thinking?

From Inside Iraq, we learn the continued sad state of affairs when it comes to basic services. The in fighting between various ministers within the government means nothing gets done, and little changes and the people suffer day in and day out without adequate electricity, water and other common amenities. Read what it’s like to live in Baghdad today.

The Iowa Independent reports that issues of social concern to Republicans seems to be waning in the wake of serious economic concerns. This is typical of us all of course. We tend to vote our pocketbook over our morality. The big difference I would suggest is that Democrats seem to understand this intuitively and don’t get caught up in the holier-than-thou attitude of some GOP’ers who like to shower opposition with taunts of Immoral secularism against God’s good plan for the universe. It’s the hypocrisy that chaffs dear Republicans, not the message.

Things are so bad over at National Reviewthat they have sunk to having movie directors give commentary on this political race between Obama and Clinton. Ronald Maxwell gets just about everything in his silly post wrong, from beginning to end, making it quite clear that he should remain in the movie industry if any place at all. I haven’t seen his movie so perhaps he’s just as incompetent there as well. This is one of those funny ones folks. While I agree that many commentators are biased in their reporting, the same is utterly and more true of Republicans than the Dems just for starters. Fox NoNews virtually actively campaigned against McSame for months before reluctantly shrugging and accepting the inevitable. Have fun.

And, not to be outdone, they stoop even lower to enlist David Klinghoffer to comment and beg McCain to come up with something grand to stand for. Klinghoffer is from the Discovery Institute, (I believe they are the group that tries to disguise creationism and push it to schools in the guise of “Intelligent design.”) It’s a too too sad statement of the fact that McCain does stand for nothing but more war and little else. Klinghoffer begs and pleads that the Old Mac find some inner passion to ignite both himself and the GOP before it’s too late.

Maureen Dowd leads the ever growing cadre of pundits who are leaving the sinking ship of Bush. Read her rousing and thoroughly funny rendition of how “trusting your gut Bush style” turns out badly when there is nothing in there but bile. I don’t often agree with Ms. Dowd, but this time I sure do. I have one point of quibbling. Scott’s remarks of “I had allowed myself to be deceived,” smacks not so much of Victorian romance as a smart quip we could faintly hear from our own Scarlett O’Hara, “Oh, Rhett, say it isn’t so!”

From Palestine we get this reaction to the Dunkin Donuts/Rachael Ray debacle: A pox on the house of donuts! Dunkin says it just doing good business by pulling the ad, but those in the Middle East find the pulling quite offensive.

Another thoughtful piece from American Prospect on the issue of Conservativism. What went wrong, and why it remains wrong. Free-market economy is not the solution as the past eight years has shown us. Giving big business free rein to do pretty much as they wish has just let to extreme excess on the part of CEOs and lots of bad decisions leading to lots of bad things happening. We all know what they are of course, from the mortgage disaster to oil prices, to all the horrors of unsafe medicines.

A Beirut Spring tells us a good deal about Iran and it’s influence in the Middle East. Giving us the Five principles of Middle East Hegemony, we learn what they are doing well and what we aren’t doing well.

Sadly, things seem to be going back to square one in the Kremlin. The old politics of repression seem in full force again, and political opposition voices are continually stifled. Putin continues to rule from behind the trousers of his hand picked successor, and this is the man Bushie claimed was a good man, having seen into his soul. Oh please. Read the sad state of affairs in Russia these days at the Huffington Post.

If you look in your marble box and find a few extra, you might want to contact John Hagee. He appears to be losing a few more of his these days. Now he claims the anti-Christ is both gay and part Jewish. Ain’t it so nice to fling bigotry everywhere you go? This would all be about nothing of course except for the fact that McStupid actively courted this fool.

Wow, it seems there are wars in them there blogosphere lands of the very very important, or self-imposed importance as the case may be. Seems that the Daily Kos and MyDD are at war, and boys and girls, it ain’t pretty. It’s actually quite amusing as these giants (in their own minds at least) vie for bragging rights to who is responsible for turning the Dems around. Course, they are sounding surprisingly like, well, other media outlets now aren’t they? Read this yummy story from the New Republic. I personally dumped Daily Kos because I thought they were misogynistic in their coverage of Clinton whom they quite clearly detest. I have little familiarity with MyDD, but will take a closer look.

While Bush and Maliki have worked out the relationship they want for Iraq and the US, it seems not all of the parliament of Iraq is exactly on board. In fact some of them object to US long range plans to inhabit their country. Some of these folks are coming to Washington and are going to testify before Congress on the issue. I wonder why they don’t like our occupation of their country? Read the article at Washington Independent today.

Watch out folks, another doozy on the way. The PR firm that did the Vets Swift Boating ads against John Kerry, have a new cause. Abstinence only is their new theme and they are trying to push this agenda across the country. First, we are told they are using information that is simply not true. If you didn’t know, abstinence only sex education has a lousy track record vis a vis the regular old fashioned kind of sex education. Secondly the people in charge of NAEA  are reputedly in the anti-gay camp and have other rather questionably backgrounds. Read more at Think Progress.

Another super post from Urantian Sojourn today. Well actually it was from Saturday, and it’s well worth your perusal. Enjoy What happened: The culturing of Deception, written by Propagandee.

If you have ever wondered what the life of a seaman is, one of those who hires himself around the world, you have only to drop by kiwi-at-seato find out. He relates about his last ship from  Glasgow, getting ready to ship out on the Norna. Read of his adventures.

Angry African has an important story to tell, and I hope you will listen. We in the West with all our wealth and power, well, we have a way about us when it comes to “helping” the rest of the world who is not so fortunate. And that way is quite obvious to the recipients of our largesse. He asks some very important questions to all who are givers to those who have not so much. Even on the small scale of just you and your personal efforts to help out, his questions are one’s we need to ponder and ponder deeply.

That’s it for today, a nasty long one again, but I think it will taper off over time. I’m planning on doing politics about 3 times a week, MWF and do the other stuff on TTh. Saturday and Sunday will remain the same. I’ll throw in the humor here and there.