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What IS the media bias?
Mar. 15th, 2011 07:01 pmI got enough responses to my bit about preparing to resist radiation that it occurs to me to wonder, is the media really working so hard to inflame panic? Or are they trying to keep us from panicking so that we will all just go to the mall and buy movie tickets instead of concerning ourselves with radiation? I have no idea what the media is up to, because aside from this outward mental spew I participate in it very little. I do not watch TV. I do catch a few minutes of NPR from time to time, and last I heard was some expert saying that the situation at the plant there has surpassed the level of the Three Mile Island meltdown. That was enough for me to know that radiation has already been emitted. I'm not panicked....but I'm interested. These ARE interesting times. I'm fascinated, in fact, with the homogenaity of the responses I've gotten. So everybody thinks it is a hoax? What is informing you of this certainty? And what makes you so sure you are right? I'll have to wait for my other bit a media---a weekly called The Week---before I will have any more media hype to pass on.
'Dr. Laura' to end radio show over racial controversy
source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/17/AR2010081706418.html?wpisrc=nl_natlalert
Did you know she has a PhD in physiology? And that she called gays "deviants" and "biological errors"?? Deviant = actions or behaviors that violate cultural norms (incl formal rules & social norms). What is not deviant about being gay? We haven't changed our culture enough that it is normal. Yet. It is an interesting question to me: What sort of culture would be totally OK with gayness? What cultures have been? Anybody know the history? It is my impression that homosexual behavior, especially among men, happens more when there is wealth and idle time. But that's just a reflection of some impressions I have about the time of the Romans, and comparison with the last generation of wealth here in America.
But back to Dr Laura and her decision to ditch radio in the face of the public outcry over her "racist" remarks the other day. Suffice it to say that the standard of PCness now required on the radio and most places in the public sphere to some degree limits frank conversation. Everybody offended about something, and we can't talk without people's buttons getting pushed. But that's what America is all about anyway, right? Our right to be hostile and defensive in the face of perceived threats? Our right to get rid of anyone who says something that we don't like?
( text from Washington post article by Paul Farhi )
source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/17/AR2010081706418.html?wpisrc=nl_natlalert
Did you know she has a PhD in physiology? And that she called gays "deviants" and "biological errors"?? Deviant = actions or behaviors that violate cultural norms (incl formal rules & social norms). What is not deviant about being gay? We haven't changed our culture enough that it is normal. Yet. It is an interesting question to me: What sort of culture would be totally OK with gayness? What cultures have been? Anybody know the history? It is my impression that homosexual behavior, especially among men, happens more when there is wealth and idle time. But that's just a reflection of some impressions I have about the time of the Romans, and comparison with the last generation of wealth here in America.
But back to Dr Laura and her decision to ditch radio in the face of the public outcry over her "racist" remarks the other day. Suffice it to say that the standard of PCness now required on the radio and most places in the public sphere to some degree limits frank conversation. Everybody offended about something, and we can't talk without people's buttons getting pushed. But that's what America is all about anyway, right? Our right to be hostile and defensive in the face of perceived threats? Our right to get rid of anyone who says something that we don't like?
( text from Washington post article by Paul Farhi )
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After the recent series of earthquakes around the world, and a news article I read interviewing a Portland City employee about what will happen here when the fault pops loose. It's the same fault that San Fransisco sits on. He thinks the big one will happen here within a century. It could be tomorrow. I am not ready. When I mention it to others, no one seems willing to think about it. But why not be prepared? We here live on a giant fault, and this city would be paralyzed by a quake because the city is split in half by a river. There are eight bridges in the city. Probably half of them would fall down, or be severely damaged. Water lines would break. Lawlessness would ensue. Even here. But we like to think that we are so civilized that nothing bad would happen. I do think that Portland, of all cities, would probably be one of the best to be in when the shit hits.
This is a bit of general advice I gleaned from living through the utter anarchy that followed the earthquake, in no particular order. I write this in the hopes that it helps someone someday.
( ADVICE, not mine, but I agree, not that I act )
This is a bit of general advice I gleaned from living through the utter anarchy that followed the earthquake, in no particular order. I write this in the hopes that it helps someone someday.
( ADVICE, not mine, but I agree, not that I act )
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JFK: My Hero Too
Jun. 10th, 2008 10:23 amPolitical awareness dawns slowly for me. I was not a good student of history in school. I lasted nearly 4 years after the airplanes hit the world trade center before I viewed video of that event. I am like the proverbial ostrich with my head in the sand. But today I came to a new understanding of JFK. He really was working for peace. He was in opposition to the military industrial complex. Eisenhower had recognized and named it, but he did not attempt to restrain it. Kennedy did. And there is no politico-economic force more brutal than that which specializes in death and world domination. Of course he was assassinated. Of course.
JFK had a prayer, borrowed from Abe Lincoln, that he said to himself to maintain calm in the face of incredible pressures for war. The prayer ended with "I am ready"....and it seems he was ready to accept full responsibility for his actions and the retaliation that took his life. No wonder this man is so often referenced by presidents and peace advocates. He lives in our subconscious as a warrior for truth, good and right. And he was martyred. And as for the conspiracy theorists; yes, there must have been a conspiracy. Such actions are rarely random. I don't know the details, but just like 9/11/01, JFK's assassination was intentional and for profit. The stench lingers in the story. The executor of such action is carefully and completely separated from the planners so as to insure "plausible deniabililty", but the link is there, somewhere.
Many thanks to my local radio station, KBOO, for the history lesson, and for the inspiration.
JFK had a prayer, borrowed from Abe Lincoln, that he said to himself to maintain calm in the face of incredible pressures for war. The prayer ended with "I am ready"....and it seems he was ready to accept full responsibility for his actions and the retaliation that took his life. No wonder this man is so often referenced by presidents and peace advocates. He lives in our subconscious as a warrior for truth, good and right. And he was martyred. And as for the conspiracy theorists; yes, there must have been a conspiracy. Such actions are rarely random. I don't know the details, but just like 9/11/01, JFK's assassination was intentional and for profit. The stench lingers in the story. The executor of such action is carefully and completely separated from the planners so as to insure "plausible deniabililty", but the link is there, somewhere.
Many thanks to my local radio station, KBOO, for the history lesson, and for the inspiration.
I can barely believe that I live in a household with three adults who do not know about NPR. I have never lived with such "mainstream" people and I confess to being glad that I haven't mentioned my blog to them. This American Life plays at 8pm on Wednesday nights here. I'm listening now. It's a program about our inner demons.
