It comes to no one's surprise that journalistic independence is out the window these days. For instance the Chicago Sun Times says "We're done endorsing anybody for anything" and then they come out and endorse Bruce Rouner for Governor of Illinois. And they stick way, way down in the opinion piece that - - oh yeah- - Rouner used to be a part owner of this news paper till he stepped down a few months ago. And then a reporter from the Sun Times writes an unflattering article on Rouner, and apparently the next day he is reassigned to covering dog shows or something. The guy is outraged and resigns. But it used to be that the news was the news, and newspapers competed with each other for "Excellence in Reporting". They were possessed by the drive of William Horton on Days of our Lives" and were all Ben Bradley wanna be's, who kept looking for that big story that would make them famous. News wasn't run past some political hacks first to pass with their approval- - if it told the facts of the story. Of course way back then, Supreme Court Justices weren't just political hacks, like someone like a Clarence Thomas is- - devoid of any "tellent on loan from God' or anywhere else. News events, even crises weren't seen as "How can report this in a way that makes the President look bad?" Now all people read about is either a terrorist attack, or something new in the weather- - or one of the endless "bear spotting in the back yard" stories we've been getting in this area all year. One might think there's been an explosion on the local bear population. In
other news this Spencer fellow has been getting bad press in the Romulan
newspapers because his name is “Spencer”, which is a word somewhat out of
use. It’s an unflattering term that
could mean either an undertaker, as one who does cosmetic procedures in
corpses- - which is frowned upon by a society that either barriers their bodies
barefoot in a dirt grave, or else throws them on a funeral pyre. The word Spencer can also be someone who
photographs food for a living.
Photographing food is looked down upon almost as much as cameras at all
in Islam. The culture is pro natural- -
and messing with a corpse at all to preserve it- or “fixing up food” that
wouldn’t be fit to eat- - is frowned upon.
Also the word can refer to refurbishing a building that has - -
coincidentally - - experienced some plague or epidemic to again make it fit for
habitation. So Sean Hannity has a
strange ally in the Romulans, who have brought all of these same grizzly
details and doubts about whether the city of New York is safe or not when this
doctor waited too long to “self quarantine”.
He rode subways and went bowling.
It turns out that NBC worker who “went out to get some people soup” has
been cleared of the disease. Now some
new patient has come down with Ebola, too.
There
was a high school shooting in Marysville, Washington. I think a lot of states have a town called “Marysville’
in them. This one is just north of
Seattle. As you may or not know, the
Federation’s “intelligence” on Washington and Seattle- went down by about
eighty percent after Boeing Aircraft left Seattle because the “Skyway” group
was friendly to the Federation. It seems
this student was in the lunch room and then began shooting up the place and
three students fell to the floor as if lifeless, and others were hit. The shooter would stare each victim down before he off'd them. Then the guy turned the gun on himself, as they all seem to get around to doing. So the shooter is dead. That saves the trouble of a court trial, something any cop with designs on shooting Black people knows very well. No need to tell you this is just another
reason why we desperately need to pass anti gun legislation in the US. Of
course if you are the target of anyone with a gun, then it’s a “terrorist act”
for you, if you’re a Placerville cop - - - three of you have been shot. Or someone is attacked with a hatchet in New
York, or else these state troopers being run over by a car in Canada. So isn’t
gun legislation “anti terrorist” legislation?
Humm? But this shooter in
Washington State - - was a freshman native American - - and he shot four
students. We know the Republicans made
it against the law to do any research on gun violence by any government agency. And apparently un Utah- - the state law there
bans any regulation of firearms in any college campus- - and recently one
individual who was scheduled to lecture there pulled out for safety concerns.
My
perception of “news and all” differs somewhat from Norman Goldman’s. Yes there were fast breaking news events and
discoveries. I was basically in single
digits in age when first there was Sputnic and the Russians had sent a dog into
space. But the US preferred sending up
monkeys instead. Then there was “Echo I”
that was so big people in the news said you could see it in the sky and we went
out and looked. There was the Nautalus,
the first nuclear powered submarine.
Then there was the St Lawrence Sea Way that people made a big thing out
of. And when Hawaii and Alaska became
states, I was in the third grade and the teacher made a thing out of saying “You
are lucky to be able to witness an unusual event like this”. And then there was the U2 incident. And an older friend of mine in the sixth
grade said “When world war III happens it will be flash- the world is at war- -
and then a day or so later “flash- the war is over”. Things were becoming more instant. And when Kennedy talked about “New Frontiers”
I didn’t think that much of it. I just
reasoned “Well, if he said that’s what he’ll do then I guess that’s what he’ll
do”. In fact many of the scientific
facts I read about in the Time-Life books when I was a little older- - I have
since marveled that this was remarkably “new stuff” and this knowledge such as
DNA and stuff didn’t exist for in the previous generation. Goldman claimed that
he was an edrenelin junkey and that people who grew up in the sixties were
suddenly buffeted with a lot of free entertainment on their TV screens that we
have come to “expect” ever since. I don’t
know. I marvel now at how stagnant the music scene
is now- - compared to the vast musical invocations that appeared in the
sixties. I pity the youth of today.
There
was a spirit of the New Frontier that involved “doing for ourselves” and there
wasn’t a lot of place for either superstition or religion in any of this. Things naturally occurred of their own
accord. Therefore I resent someone like Thom
Hartman calling Atheism a religion because Atheism at its core is a Rejection
of Religion. It’s not allowing talk of
any magical supernatural being to even enter into the conversational discourse. And the term “evangelical atheism” is a true
oxy-moron. I refuse to believe that the
sharing of acquired knowledge to others is somehow treading on their “religious
rights”. I see nothing in the
constitution about any God given right to remain ignorant as some “protected
status”. There is another absurd idea
going around that “Democrats need to protest against the leadership of their
party and “Make a Statement” by NOT VOTING”.
World Net Daily is pushing this argument. The important thing to remember if they are
only PRETENDING this election does not matter.
Because billionaires won’t spend vast sums of their own money for that
which doesn’t matter. (selah) It’s also a crock when the right wing says “We
want everyone to vote- including Blacks”.
No they don’t. They are hoping
and praying that this national apathy continues.
So
– who wants to go back to 1994, twenty years ago? Back then the media wasn’t so right wing as
it is now. FOX news didn’t exist. “The Contract on America” was considered a
bad joke – not an ongoing reality.
Popular music was better. Grunge
was in flower. The TV shows were way
better. All of the now “Classics” were
current then. You had more intelligent
mind mending programs such as the X Files and all of the Star Trek stuff such
as Deep Space Nine. Next Generation
episodes could be seen every night on UPN at seven. Walden Books was still there. There was no facebook or twitter. And best of all Black people as a whole weren’t
defined by President Obama, which has to be the worst thing EVER to happen to
the self-exteem of Black people. On the
Vampire Diaries last night there was a thing on “Losing all memory of a person
in the past- - who defined you in a negative way and cast a shadow over your
life. This is what President Obama did
TO Black people. I made a resolution to
Start Up smoking again a few days before the elections, and I think smoking
once more boosted my self esteem. You
had the Dead Head hour and Jerry Garsia was still alive. You had Mandatory Metallica. Every one of us who was alive then was twenty
years younger- and fitter. The only
people who would NOT want to go back twenty years would be the millionaires and
the top twenty percent in general who have seen children come into the world
and be blessed by these. There was still
football in Los Angeles. There was no
gay marriage, with all of its attendant controversy. Anti smoking regulations were not as
draconian as now. The “food police”
weren’t so active. Plastic bags were
still legal. Fire pits at the beach weren’t
threatened. KABC radio was a whole lot better because they
balanced Larry Elder with Gloria Alred.
But perhaps the best thing of all about twenty years ago was- - we all
had dreams of what the 21st century would be like, and were free to
imagine that it would be a grand and glorious time where problems would be
solved.
Samantha Brady and brood may be leaving “Days
of our Lives” entirely. Samantha as a
soap character has never NOT been on the series since her appearance in early
1993 at fifteen or sixteen. That’s a long
run, and one in which I can’ t think of any other character has duplicated,
except for Kate and Victor. Just about
any other character has been “off” a good portion of time. The whole plot is unraveling in this strange
way suggesting that the writers are running out of ideas or getting
sloppy. Keep in mind that Samantha had
these major charges hanging over her head that suddenly vanish. Keep in mind that Sammy and Will up till
about today were at virtual war with each other. Keep in mind that Samantha fought so hard to
get that house and to control the Di Mira empire. All of that is apparently suddenly going to
go bye-bye.
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