The 'News'

The other day I was relating a news item to a friend of mine, and when he was unable to immediately find it on the net, and was unaware of this story (a story that is related to the field he works in), he made the comment, “where did you see the article?” I told him the source and then he said “well, I know what kind of news you get” or something like that. Basically implying that the ‘news’ I hear, read, or watch is somehow inferior or, more likely, tainted with some slant.

Now, before I go on, it must be stated that this person and I don’t see eye to eye politically. But, fuck it, lets address the political aspects of it and get it out of the way so I can get to what’s really under my craw.

Firstly the statement reeks of political indoctrination, and secondly, it really, REALLY pisses me off. A statement like that is the worst kind of politics. It allows the speaker to easily dismiss anything said contrary to his opinions and, at the same time, provides the psychological balm of ‘I can ignore this…it’s just more ranting from the ‘liberal media’…mmm…’

But what gets me, is that this guy, and I’m guessing about 59,054,087 Americans as well, hardly read or watch any news at all! In this particular case I would guess this guy MAYBE glances at the sports scores in ‘the paper’ and MAYBE watches a little network, or local news while getting ready for work in the morning or winding down at night.

Not really tearing up the information highway, but pretty average news intake I would say. Now lets contrast his level of news intake with mine.

I read Salon.com, and articles from a variety of newspapers like the NY Times, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Wall St. Journal, etc. every day. I also scan the headlines from the major wire services. I also listen to NPR pretty much all day (the local affiliate, NHPR, is news and talk all day), and watch the local and national news on TV every night.

As I re-read this you certainly can accuse me of being boring, but not un-informed.

I would also like to point out that my news comes from relatively ‘middle-of-the-road’ sources. I don’t do the hysterical-lefty-liberal leaflets or blogs and stay away from hand-ringing-rightwing-religious radio or whatever. And just because I happen to read something on Salon on Tuesday and it doesn’t hit the network news until the next Wednesday, doesn’t mean my news is any less trustworthy. And what’s more, at the end of the day pretty much EVERYBODY gets their news from the same three or four wire services anyway! Sure, depending on whether it’s ABC News; “…Al Gore won an Oscar last night…” or Fox News; “…Al Gore seen with short naked man…” they spin it this way or that, but it’s essentially the same ‘raw’ information.

Which is why I like reading the wires! It’s how I like my information: raw! Mmm…wire sashimi!

What’s my point? It pisses me off when people who are woefully under informed accuse me of being ignorant or deluded by overly slanted news.

An interesting example of what I’m talking about appeared in a recent edition of that bastion of lefty-liberalism, Newsweek. In a country whose political rhetoric centers around talk of ‘Christian values', ‘family values', and ‘Judeo-Christian morals', in a country where more than 90% of the people say the believe in God, very few could even name the first five books of the Old Testament. Even in multiple-choice form! Yet, suddenly everyone seems to be all about ‘Gods Will’ and ‘It Says In the Bible’ and my personal favorite, ‘What Would Jesus Do?’

Fucking puke on yer shoes ya ignorant git! Or maybe not…maybe he'd puke on my shoes. 'Course I'm not the one dancing around like a little dog yapping "Hey Jesus! Wha-cha doin'? Hey Jesus! Where-we-goin'? Suuuure do like ya, I do, Jesus!" Damn that's annoying...

So, I’ll try and keep my mouth shut about shit that I know nothing about, and I kindly ask the rest of you to do the same. Oh, and try to become better informed would ya? Read a fucking newspaper or something…read a book! Anything!

M‘kay?

UPDATE: 'That guy' in Indiana

I, like many others, became very caught up in the last election cycle. But in all the excitement, I forget to see how it turned out for 'that guy' in Indiana.

So...Steve McBrian, 'that guy' in Indiana running for state rep of district 74, got his gun-toting-conservative-republican-ass handed to him in the November elections! Yeah!

(Awww, geeze! That’s too bad! M.C. Steve is really broken up over this one, I tell ya…)

Rep. Russ Stilwell was the guy who handed Mr. McBrian his ass, and I congratulate him on a fine ass handing! Good work! Now don’t fuck up!

There's this woman...

Well, I don't know if the word 'woman' can apply, as there is some question as to whether she’s actually a living ‘human being.’

That nit picking detail aside, there’s this woman. And she says, quite often it turns out, very hateful and untrue things about other people. I have some phrases and words that I would like to use in relation to this woman, but I’m afraid that some of our reading audience might find them distasteful, or even offensive.

With that thought in mind I’ll attempt to use the ‘*’ key to help ease the threat of offense. Here goes!

A**e C**lter is a vile contemptible bitch. A**e C**lter talks so much shit her teeth are brown. A**e C**lter should be striped naked, beaten with rubber hoses, threatened with dogs, made to renounce any enjoyment she gained from listening to the Grateful Dead (yeah, she says she was a fan in college), and set adrift on a (swiftly melting) ice pack with a starving polar bear. Finally, the vile offensive words A**e C**lter should be stricken from the English language for all time. Only to be used in the most extreme cases such as, “that Dubya really is a A**e C**lter!”

They're Baa-aack!

I'm very excited to say that the wife and I are going to see NRBQ in April! After almost three years with narry a show, they're back! Who knows if they're BACK, back...but they're doing two shows with current guitarist Johnny Spampinato and former guiatarist Al Anderson. I've never seen Al either with the band or by himself, so I'm pretty excited for this. Should be fun!

Gingrich: I cheated on my wife during the Clinton impeachment - by Tim Greive

In a radio interview with Focus on the Family's James Dobson, thrice-married Newt Gingrich acknowledges that he was having an extra-marital affair at exactly the same time he was leading the House of Representatives through the impeachment of Bill Clinton.

Hypocrite? Not me, says Newt.

"I drew a line in my mind that said, 'Even though I run the risk of being deeply embarrassed . . . I have no choice except to move forward and say that you cannot accept . . . perjury in your highest officials,'" he says.

Elsewhere in the interview, Gingrich says he doesn't believe in "situational ethics."

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Reaction to above - by M.C. Steve

What the fuck? Why haven't the gods of hypocrisy come down and pulled Newts scrotum out through his fucking eyeholes? God help me. Yeah, you heard right, me! I’m done with the rest of ya. Y’all are on yer own.

(I told you about the 'pop' vs. 'open' a vein thing, yeah? This is what I’m talking about.)

Nobody cares, nobody pays any attention and these fucking morons continue to shape the ‘opinion’ of the dumb-ass herd of drooling morons we refer to as the ‘electorate.’ Not only is Newt a terrible historian (check out his ‘historical’ books), he’s a liar and a hypocrite! (Oh, and he has stupid hair, and he’s fat, and his mother dresses him funny! So there! Oh! OH! Wait! He’s also soft on terror and doesn’t support the troops! See, I’m-a-good learner!)

AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!

Fuck you people up your stupid fucking ass. And yes, I’m talking to you, the ‘general public’ not just politicians. Politicians can only get away with what we, the herd, let them. I wish I could say y’all get what you deserve, but ‘the herd’ tends to ruin it for all of us. So I’ve GOT to care.

Shit…

Fucking wake up people!!

Sigh.

Long time, no blog.

Wow. So much has happened since I wrote my last little diatribe about the page diddler…what was his name? Foley? And Delay, and Abrahmhoff, and Scooter, and that guy over at the CIA who was just busted, along with a college buddy, for contract shenanigans, the Walter Reed fiasco, the ‘surge’, the support ‘surge’, and the MP ‘surge’, Iran, and the invincible Dick Cheney…heh, heh…whoa-yeah, good times!

Then there was the election.

Well, I tell ya, I had to give the political thing a rest or I was gonna pop a vein…or open one. Am I happy now the Democrats are ‘in charge?’ Happier, maybe…maybe, we’ll see wont we?
I’ll try not to let five months go by with no word again. Sorry blog. And I’d like to apologize to my good friend SJM in NH who reads this blog avidly…and most likely solely! I’ll try to be better.