Russia's
#1 Straw Man
Conservatives want schools to get rid of books that warn
us about the Holocaust.
Progressives want Spotify to get rid of podcast hosts
that say the Holocaust never happened.
Guess which side I'm on?
--------------------
I'm cynical enough to think that Reagan's
meddling in Central American affairs was partly or primarily
meant to devastate their economies, forcing its people
to migrate northward
and
accept low-paying jobs that Americans won't do. A move
that had the additional effect of keeping the wages
of all Americans low and which now has the bonus of
scape-goating the poor immigrant bastards for political
gain.
--------------------
Correct me if I'm wrong but the Democratic agenda seems
to be affordable health care, affordable education,
infrastructure, income equality, safe and fair elections,
and affordable child care while the Republican agenda
is
hate, fear,
suspicion,
and
enforced
ignorance.
Have I got that right?
--------------------
(The following is a rant I wrote back in 2008 about Fox
News. Apart from a few dated references it remains contemporaneously
salient. Enjoy.)
The May 2008 edition of Wired magazine did a story about
memory and how to improve it. One of the techniques involve
memorization, so they printed a chart listing subjects
which run the gamut from hard/easy to embarrassing/impressive.
According to Wired, "state capitals" are dead
center in the chart, being a relative cinch to commit
to memory even though it won't exactly get you laid.
Except, one would think, by another state capital freak.
"String theory" is the second most difficult
subject to memorize, right behind "debunking string
theory".
I'm not arguing.
"50 Shakespearean quotations", "20 German
phrases" and/or "50
Bible verses" are certain to stump your family at
Thanksgiving... unless you happen to be the runt of the
Mensa litter.
So what's the very easiest thing to remember, the Jeopardy
category that won't even net you $20?
"TV theme song lyrics".
You know what the editors of WIRED are really saying
here, don't you? They're saying:
"Quit watching that bloody TV and do something meaningful
with your lives!".
Hopefully involving reading their magazine.
They're right, though. Each week Americans waste almost
a billion man-hours watching TV... and that's just the
commercials.
I am not kidding. Do the math. Oh, that's right... you
can't. You've been pummeling the integers out of your
cerebellum watching Scrubs re-runs.
It's dispiriting enough that Americans advance the hands
of their personal clocks towards oblivion with vacuous
twaddle like Fantasy Island or JAG, but now we have active
propaganda machines like Fox News filling in the gaps
with disinformation.
Need to know why you need duct tape? Watch Fox News.
Need to know where to buy duct tape? Watch Fox News.
Need to know about all the fools who bought duct tape?
Look in the mirror.
I turned off commercial media over twenty years ago,
except for the Simpsons (Hey, I'm only human). I used
to devote my spare TV time to PBS but even that's been
compromised since the Bush administration infiltrated
it with their operatives.
Thanks, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, you crooked SOB. I hope
they fry your nuts off.
Without putting too fine a point on it TV has turned
out to be the biggest time-waster in the history of mankind,
second only to early commercial radio. We probably could
have been dangling our tootsies in a cool stream on Alpha
Centauri by now but at least we'll always have that special
place where everyone knows your name.
Gott in himmel.
=Lefty=
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