In the wake of the politically motivated shootings in Arizona I have been doing some thinking. My first thought was that this whole thing makes me so sad. It makes me sad when anyone dies or is hurt be it an accident or as in this case a person who I believe is probably a little or a lot unstable decides to do something crazy.
In the aftermath of this tragedy the media on both sides of the political spectrum have ramped up the rhetoric. I feel that both sides bear a little bit of blame for this whole mess. I realize that you can't control crazy and people do and will continue do any number of criminal and crazy things and try to find something to blame other then themselves. But, the reason that I think both sides are to blame for this is that both sides want us to be scared. They both thrive if the people who believe in there message are scared that their rights are either going to be taken away or infringed upon in some way.
Though I have to admit it is hard to not point blame squarely at conservatives when they use rhetoric like Sharon Angle did last year.
"You know, our Founding Fathers, they put that Second Amendment in there for a good reason and that was for the people to protect themselves against a tyrannical government. And in fact Thomas Jefferson said it's good for a country to have a revolution every 20 years.
I hope that's not where we're going, but, you know, if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying my goodness what can we do to turn this country around? I'll tell you the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out."
She said that on the Lars Larson show. Now I totally understand that she meant take Harry Reid out in the political sense. She means defeat him in the election. But in the context of the quote in can sound a little scary. I also realize that I am not crazy and I am good at comprehending things. I feel like it really comes down to thinking about what we say and how we say it. When politicians or even just regular old folks use phrases like "putting someone in the cross hairs" or "taking someone out" or even the phrase "second amendment solution" it is pretty hard to not take those as some sort of a call to violent action and if you are at all a little unstable it can very much be a call to violent action.
Now, if they are making a call for violent action, then own up to it and face the consequences. Do not after the fact try to pretend that "well that wasn't what I meant". Because often if the goal is removing an obstacle or removing someone from office then yes in a very straight forward blunt way assassination is the answer. I do not think it is appropriate and I think we live in a time where there should be solutions to problems that are not violent ones.
There is a respect for authority that needs to exist regardless of whether or not I agree with their political position. If I do not like there policy I will work to vote them democratically out of office. I will not try to harm them by violence. I feel that whatever success you may achieve will be forever tainted by acting violently against them. As it stands right now we still live in a civil society that is governed by laws for all of us. If I wanted to live in a world that is controlled by the biggest gun. well there are parts of Africa that I could move to.
All of my ranting aside. This is a sad, sad, thing and I hope and pray that we do not have more of this in the future. I do not think that things in America are anywhere near bad enough that an armed rebellion is the answer. They were not bad enough when Bush was president and they are not bad enough now that Obama is in charge. We are better then this America. We must be.
Showing posts with label Talk Radio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Talk Radio. Show all posts
Monday, January 10, 2011
Monday, November 08, 2010
Post Election Blues
The election is over and America does not seem to have fallen apart. I am surprised. I thought after seeing all of the commercials during the campaign season that if the wrong candidate was elected the whole country was going to burst into flames. I am waiting for it to happen but so far everything seems to be running like normal. I know my life hasn't changed really at all. But in reality my life has never changed following an election. Even after the election of Obama nothing in my life has really changed as far as politics go.
I find it so interesting that we get so worked up about the elections and yet basically things seem always the same. I realize it may change for other people but I am not sure who. I like to vote and I like to be invested and to pay attention to what is going on in the world. But I have really felt like on a personal level my life has been all that affected by whoever the President is. I realize I might feel a greater sense of fear or urgency if I listened to Glenn Beck or Rachel Maddow but I don't. I like to think that this keeps me a little more grounded and less likely to be all worked up about things that that are past my level of control and in some cases, honestly, my understanding.
One example that pops into my head is from either last year or the year before. There was a gentlemen running around named Lord Christopher Monckton and he went on Glenn Beck to talk about the one world government that was coming as soon as Obama and the United States signed on to the climate treaty in Copenhagen. Well it has been a year since he was on Beck and since the meeting in Copenhagen. Well what has happened in this past year? Well, in short, not much. It seemed like last year at this time amongst some of my conservative friends there was a real sense of fear and almost panic that Obama was going to be giving away our Democracy by signing some sort of world government treaty in Copenhagen.
This just did not happen. But. No one seems to want to talk about the predictions that Beck throws out there to make people scared and angry. The man makes millions and millions of dollars a year from radio and television and books by spreading fear and distrust and people continue to swallow it like pigs from a trough. I just do not get it.
It is the same on the more liberal stations as well. The more agitated the audience is the more likely they are to purchase books or give money to campaigns to fight against the so called opposing side. I do not think that politics in America need to be trench warfare. It doesn't benefit us as a people or humanity in general to be so angry about things that basically most of us have no real control over and actually may not even happen.
I do not think that Oregon is going to be setback by Kitzhaber being elected. I think that things will basically continue like normal. But, I am sure that all of the usual suspects well continue to spread fear and anger all for the sake of making themselves even more wealthy. I am not sure how they sleep at night but they probably do it on a very expensive mattress and in a very expensive home.
I find it so interesting that we get so worked up about the elections and yet basically things seem always the same. I realize it may change for other people but I am not sure who. I like to vote and I like to be invested and to pay attention to what is going on in the world. But I have really felt like on a personal level my life has been all that affected by whoever the President is. I realize I might feel a greater sense of fear or urgency if I listened to Glenn Beck or Rachel Maddow but I don't. I like to think that this keeps me a little more grounded and less likely to be all worked up about things that that are past my level of control and in some cases, honestly, my understanding.
One example that pops into my head is from either last year or the year before. There was a gentlemen running around named Lord Christopher Monckton and he went on Glenn Beck to talk about the one world government that was coming as soon as Obama and the United States signed on to the climate treaty in Copenhagen. Well it has been a year since he was on Beck and since the meeting in Copenhagen. Well what has happened in this past year? Well, in short, not much. It seemed like last year at this time amongst some of my conservative friends there was a real sense of fear and almost panic that Obama was going to be giving away our Democracy by signing some sort of world government treaty in Copenhagen.
This just did not happen. But. No one seems to want to talk about the predictions that Beck throws out there to make people scared and angry. The man makes millions and millions of dollars a year from radio and television and books by spreading fear and distrust and people continue to swallow it like pigs from a trough. I just do not get it.
It is the same on the more liberal stations as well. The more agitated the audience is the more likely they are to purchase books or give money to campaigns to fight against the so called opposing side. I do not think that politics in America need to be trench warfare. It doesn't benefit us as a people or humanity in general to be so angry about things that basically most of us have no real control over and actually may not even happen.
I do not think that Oregon is going to be setback by Kitzhaber being elected. I think that things will basically continue like normal. But, I am sure that all of the usual suspects well continue to spread fear and anger all for the sake of making themselves even more wealthy. I am not sure how they sleep at night but they probably do it on a very expensive mattress and in a very expensive home.
Monday, March 29, 2010
3-29-2010 (Monday)
Happy Monday to my loyal readers. It is a wet one out there today. But the drive went pretty smoothly and I am starting to feel even more comfortable driving the new car. It really seems to handle the wet roads well and I only hit one possible hydro-plane spot which is a record. Because in the old car I was always feeling like I was on the verge of spinning out of control. To the extent that drives in the rain like this morning were almost white knuckle experiences and made we want to pull over and just wait it out.
Today on the way up to work they played a clip on the radio from a protest that took place in Nevada this weekend. It was a "Tea Party" protest directed at Harry Reid and put together by The Tea Party Express. It was an interesting piece because while it was on National Public Radio (NPR) it really seemed to be just about letting the people who were attending the event tell why they were there. Now for me. Even if I do not agree with what the people are saying. I think that far to often when it comes to news be it on television or the radio. That far to often we hear the opinion of the broadcaster or commentator rather then the reasons why the people are there from the people themselves. I find hearing from the people to be both far more interesting and more enlightening because you get a better idea as to what the common man is thinking.
I realize we are in a representative democracy and since we are it sometimes doesn't seem to matter what the common man is thinking. But, it sure feels like at any given time at least 50% of the country or a little bit more feels like they are not being heard. It is interesting to me because I remember during the last couple of years of the Bush administration, or even longer for me, I knew lots of people that felt like they were not being listened to. What has me a little bit bothered about this whole Tea Party movement is that it just feels so organized and any kind of dissatisfaction before was not so organized.
Now, that may just say more about the conservative versus the liberals and which group is better at really getting together and organizing a movement. There is also a more centralizing voice I feel for the conservatives in terms of both Fox News as well as talk radio. Now some would argue that the whole of mainstream media is a liberal strength. I would say that, while it may be true there is not a centralized voice for the liberals. They tried that with the whole Air America thing and it failed. I am not sure what that says about liberals but you would think that they could have supported a radio station that catered solely to their political positions. I realize that there are more complicated issues as well here and some are going to argue that MSNBC meets the need for liberal news. But, I think people are so varied in there positions that to try to direct a group of liberals is really a little bit like herding cats.
That is my two cents. Take it for what it is worth. I am also starting to get interested in what court cases are going to be popping up as this whole health care thing begins to build. I know that there are already several states that have filed suit or will file suits against the mandatory nature of the bill. I am awaiting with interest the end result of these suits and I think that they may do more for states rights then anything else in the last 100 years. So I hope things will grow more interesting as we move further into the future.
Today on the way up to work they played a clip on the radio from a protest that took place in Nevada this weekend. It was a "Tea Party" protest directed at Harry Reid and put together by The Tea Party Express. It was an interesting piece because while it was on National Public Radio (NPR) it really seemed to be just about letting the people who were attending the event tell why they were there. Now for me. Even if I do not agree with what the people are saying. I think that far to often when it comes to news be it on television or the radio. That far to often we hear the opinion of the broadcaster or commentator rather then the reasons why the people are there from the people themselves. I find hearing from the people to be both far more interesting and more enlightening because you get a better idea as to what the common man is thinking.
I realize we are in a representative democracy and since we are it sometimes doesn't seem to matter what the common man is thinking. But, it sure feels like at any given time at least 50% of the country or a little bit more feels like they are not being heard. It is interesting to me because I remember during the last couple of years of the Bush administration, or even longer for me, I knew lots of people that felt like they were not being listened to. What has me a little bit bothered about this whole Tea Party movement is that it just feels so organized and any kind of dissatisfaction before was not so organized.
Now, that may just say more about the conservative versus the liberals and which group is better at really getting together and organizing a movement. There is also a more centralizing voice I feel for the conservatives in terms of both Fox News as well as talk radio. Now some would argue that the whole of mainstream media is a liberal strength. I would say that, while it may be true there is not a centralized voice for the liberals. They tried that with the whole Air America thing and it failed. I am not sure what that says about liberals but you would think that they could have supported a radio station that catered solely to their political positions. I realize that there are more complicated issues as well here and some are going to argue that MSNBC meets the need for liberal news. But, I think people are so varied in there positions that to try to direct a group of liberals is really a little bit like herding cats.
That is my two cents. Take it for what it is worth. I am also starting to get interested in what court cases are going to be popping up as this whole health care thing begins to build. I know that there are already several states that have filed suit or will file suits against the mandatory nature of the bill. I am awaiting with interest the end result of these suits and I think that they may do more for states rights then anything else in the last 100 years. So I hope things will grow more interesting as we move further into the future.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Tuesday, Dec 15th, 2009
I am writing from the office this morning. I drove in which was probably a mistake but I made the choice to drive in my car and deal with the headache of traffic as opposed to taking the train and walking two blocks in the rain. I probably should have walked in the rain. It isn't like I do not have a rain coat or anything. Also having grown up in Oregon I am very aware that rain does not make you melt. So I think I opted for the mental stress of driving in the rain as opposed to the minor physical stress of walking in the rain. I think that is pretty lame on my part. I am going to have to try to get back on track. (hee,hee) Excuse me for a moment I believe my tasty, tasty coffee from Stumptown has finished brewing.
Ahhh. There we go. I know I have told you before about how much I love coffee so I will not bore you with the details. But just know that as I type it is coursing through my body and filling me its power!!! Though today the power does not mean a whole lot. I have lots of bits and pieces popping around in my brain but nothing that I can get focused on enough to write anything coherently about.
One thing I read about last night was about Mormons running for political office and the article talked both about Mitt Romney and Glenn Beck. I found it pretty interesting as it addressed also the amount of Mormons that work for the federal government in foreign service positions. It seems that the CIA recruits regularly at Brigham Young University (BYU) because their graduates fill a couple of different criteria. One being that they speak a foreign language and the other a college degree. This happens so regularly in fact that some countries have expressed concern about people returning to the country in foreign service positions after first being there as missionaries. So I found that a little bit fascinating but I try to not mix religion and politics. Though it is often hard to not.
What else? Oh yes... it seems that Glenn Beck has once again opened his mouth and inserted his foot. He compared his skepticism about climate-change to Galileo's struggle “to enlighten mankind that the earth wasn’t flat.” I have a couple of problems with this. The first being that Glenn Beck is in no way like Galileo. I am not even sure why he thinks he can justify thinking of himself this way. The other is that during Galileo's time everyone already knew the earth was round. To put it as simply as possible Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. Galileo lived in 1564-1642 so I just have to wonder does he even write anything beforehand or is it all off the cuff. Because it isn't like this is the first time he has gotten basic history wrong. Just one example is his often misquoting of President Theodore Roosevelt and his famous line "speak softly, and carry a big stick" when Beck repeats it he says "Walk softly and carry a big stick".
Now I realize everybody makes mistakes. I do it often and I often will use a word incorrectly in a sentence hoping for a laugh or because I just was not taking the time to think before I spoke. The difference between myself and Mr Beck is that I do not have millions and I think it is millions of listeners an watchers and readers hanging on my every word. I do not have people repeating what I say like it is the gospel. I would like to think that if I was ever in that position I would have a team of researchers as well as some editors to help me make sure everything that I was saying on the air and writing in a speech or in a book was correct. Otherwise why would I do it?
I would hope that if his dog and pony show continues that he would spend some time on fact checking and getting things correct. Because as far as I am concerned he just seems like another entertainment personality and will most likely end up hosting Family Feud in another 20 years or so. But I could be wrong. Perhaps it is going to be Palin-Beck in 2012 or Beck-Palin. If so the world should be an interesting place.
Ahhh. There we go. I know I have told you before about how much I love coffee so I will not bore you with the details. But just know that as I type it is coursing through my body and filling me its power!!! Though today the power does not mean a whole lot. I have lots of bits and pieces popping around in my brain but nothing that I can get focused on enough to write anything coherently about.
One thing I read about last night was about Mormons running for political office and the article talked both about Mitt Romney and Glenn Beck. I found it pretty interesting as it addressed also the amount of Mormons that work for the federal government in foreign service positions. It seems that the CIA recruits regularly at Brigham Young University (BYU) because their graduates fill a couple of different criteria. One being that they speak a foreign language and the other a college degree. This happens so regularly in fact that some countries have expressed concern about people returning to the country in foreign service positions after first being there as missionaries. So I found that a little bit fascinating but I try to not mix religion and politics. Though it is often hard to not.
What else? Oh yes... it seems that Glenn Beck has once again opened his mouth and inserted his foot. He compared his skepticism about climate-change to Galileo's struggle “to enlighten mankind that the earth wasn’t flat.” I have a couple of problems with this. The first being that Glenn Beck is in no way like Galileo. I am not even sure why he thinks he can justify thinking of himself this way. The other is that during Galileo's time everyone already knew the earth was round. To put it as simply as possible Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. Galileo lived in 1564-1642 so I just have to wonder does he even write anything beforehand or is it all off the cuff. Because it isn't like this is the first time he has gotten basic history wrong. Just one example is his often misquoting of President Theodore Roosevelt and his famous line "speak softly, and carry a big stick" when Beck repeats it he says "Walk softly and carry a big stick".
Now I realize everybody makes mistakes. I do it often and I often will use a word incorrectly in a sentence hoping for a laugh or because I just was not taking the time to think before I spoke. The difference between myself and Mr Beck is that I do not have millions and I think it is millions of listeners an watchers and readers hanging on my every word. I do not have people repeating what I say like it is the gospel. I would like to think that if I was ever in that position I would have a team of researchers as well as some editors to help me make sure everything that I was saying on the air and writing in a speech or in a book was correct. Otherwise why would I do it?
I would hope that if his dog and pony show continues that he would spend some time on fact checking and getting things correct. Because as far as I am concerned he just seems like another entertainment personality and will most likely end up hosting Family Feud in another 20 years or so. But I could be wrong. Perhaps it is going to be Palin-Beck in 2012 or Beck-Palin. If so the world should be an interesting place.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Journalistic Integrity?
Good morning friends, I have mentioned before that I have been listening to three types of radio on my way to work and coming home each day. These are basically conservative, moderate, and liberal though to be fair NPR does lean more to the liberal but I like that there stories tend to be a little deeper and thoughtful and not so full of the propaganda that either side likes to throw around.
That being said the lady on the liberal station that is on after work was going on and on last night about Rush Limbaugh and several passages that he had read from what he thought was President Obamas thesis from Columbia. Here is the passage,
" ... the Constitution allows for many things, but what it does not allow is the most revealing. The so-called Founders did not allow for economic freedom. While political freedom is supposedly a cornerstone of the document, the distribution of wealth is not even mentioned. While many believed that the new Constitution gave them liberty, it instead fitted them with the shackles of hypocrisy."
Now Limbaugh read this passage on the air and then went on a rant about Obama and the damage that he is doing to America. It was not that his rant was any different then other rants but word soon came down that the quote was actually not real. That it in fact was completely made up. It was taken from a blog called Jumping in Pools.
Well it seems that this is a blog that does mainly satire. I looked it over and really was unimpressed with the level of humor or even cleverness in it. But that is a story for another day. But, why I bring this up is because this whole so called thesis was completely made up by them. Once Limbaugh found out this was his response
"So, I can say, "I don't care if these quotes are made up," "I know Obama thinks it."
Now, while it may very well be true that this is what Obama thinks. I think the bigger issue here is integrity. Should not a news show actually do research and verify what they put on the air. I know there are people who feel that what is on liberal radio or conservative radio is all truth all the time. So I wonder should he not apologize rather then just attack. I understand being embarrassed when egg hits your face. It has happened to me before. But I do not claim to be a journalist. I am not held to any kind of standard. I can write and often have about whatever garbage I want to write about. But even then if I knowingly say something that I am wrong about I will do all I can to correct it.
It seems to me that Mr Limbaugh is doing just the opposite of this. I could be mistaken and if I am please let me know. But do it gently please. I am very sensitive. I promise to print a full retraction if that is the case.
That being said the lady on the liberal station that is on after work was going on and on last night about Rush Limbaugh and several passages that he had read from what he thought was President Obamas thesis from Columbia. Here is the passage,
" ... the Constitution allows for many things, but what it does not allow is the most revealing. The so-called Founders did not allow for economic freedom. While political freedom is supposedly a cornerstone of the document, the distribution of wealth is not even mentioned. While many believed that the new Constitution gave them liberty, it instead fitted them with the shackles of hypocrisy."
Now Limbaugh read this passage on the air and then went on a rant about Obama and the damage that he is doing to America. It was not that his rant was any different then other rants but word soon came down that the quote was actually not real. That it in fact was completely made up. It was taken from a blog called Jumping in Pools.
Well it seems that this is a blog that does mainly satire. I looked it over and really was unimpressed with the level of humor or even cleverness in it. But that is a story for another day. But, why I bring this up is because this whole so called thesis was completely made up by them. Once Limbaugh found out this was his response
"So, I can say, "I don't care if these quotes are made up," "I know Obama thinks it."
Now, while it may very well be true that this is what Obama thinks. I think the bigger issue here is integrity. Should not a news show actually do research and verify what they put on the air. I know there are people who feel that what is on liberal radio or conservative radio is all truth all the time. So I wonder should he not apologize rather then just attack. I understand being embarrassed when egg hits your face. It has happened to me before. But I do not claim to be a journalist. I am not held to any kind of standard. I can write and often have about whatever garbage I want to write about. But even then if I knowingly say something that I am wrong about I will do all I can to correct it.
It seems to me that Mr Limbaugh is doing just the opposite of this. I could be mistaken and if I am please let me know. But do it gently please. I am very sensitive. I promise to print a full retraction if that is the case.
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