I spent a fair amount of the day yesterday and, again today, trying to get my laptop working. I don't know if it is a virus, spyware, the machine's age or my incompetence but, it isn't working. Finally today, I gave up and sent (from my BlackBerry) a "Help Me!!!!" email to our IT Department. They will get back to me tomorrow so tonight I commandeered Mrs. Bald Man's computer to share my thoughts for the day. There are too many stories to comment on so I've decided on a meandering monologue.
I try to be self-sufficient and it caused me great pain to admit defeat and call in the cavalry. Let's hope they bring enough horses to fix this electronic Indian uprising (sorry, "First American" uprising). Some may see this desire to do it myself as stubborn but I don't feel that way. I think in today's society too many are willing to let someone, namely the government, do things for them or to let someone else pay for it. There is also a dearth in those willing to stand up for what is right. Here are a few examples of decisions people are making today.
Case number 1: John Murtha, Pennsylvania congressman and slanderer of Marines, states plainly "If I'm corrupt, it's because I take care of my district. My job as a member of Congress is to make sure that we take care of what we see is necessary..."
He is protected in his corruptness by his fellow House members who, for the sixth time, refused to investigate connections between Jackie boy and some not so squeaky clean donations.
I think the story here is not the admittedly corrupt official. It is the fact he finds it easier to "go along with the corruption" instead of bringing it to light. Nancy has "drained the swamp" so he should have had no trouble.
Case 2: The New York Times decided to do what they felt was right for them instead of what was just plain right when, during the heat of election battle, they killed (meaning didn't run) a story linking vote fraud extraordinaire ACORN, Project Vote and the Obama Campaign and some unsavory electioneering. By unsavory I mean illegal. The story was suppressed because it could have been a "game changer".
If the NY Times put journalistic honesty over partisan belief, the First African American President of the United States to ever attend the G20 Summit might still be in the Senate and taking campaign contributions from AIG. I ask again, can there be anyone who refuses to admit the mainstream media was in the proverbial tank for the one now in the 'copter and flying around London?
Case 3: Call me a hypocrite on this one but, I will admit to having a song or two on my hard drive that don't reside on any CD that is in my personal collection. I therefore probably shouldn't pass judgement on anyone downloading movies, music or cheesecake recipes. I do draw a distinction between someone doing this for personal use and the pirating of said media for financial gain. This practice of illegal duplication is rampant in the People's Republic of China and, if you can dodge the tanks, you can pick up most first run movies or newly released CD in Tiananmen Square within days of their release.
In a move that smacks of giving up, Google will soon be providing free downloads of music to computer users in China. Rather than try to stop those making money for their needs from those providing from their ability. The move hopes to stem the tide of pirating by giving it away. But isn't this the equivalent of handing a thief the bullets for his gun? Now to copy the latest collection of Britney Spears synthesized vocalizations the thieves don't even have to purchase the first copy. They can just download it. Of course, the IP address of the computer will be verified to ensure it is in China. I guess the guys over at Google have never heard of IP spoofing.
Case 4: In an example of someone who is standing up for what is right, Rush Limbaugh announced he is pulling out of New York state completely in protest of confiscatory tax rates on the wealthy. His Atlas like shrugging is meant to send a very public signal that this type of redistributive tax will drive those targeted to warmer climes. I can guarantee he is leaving on his own jet plane and not in a taxi.
In typical "missing the boat" fashion, the NY Daily News sees fit to spend a good portion of the article discussing Mr. Limbaugh's personal life rather than commenting on the true nature of the debate.
Case 5: There is one other who needs to be mentioned for doing what was right. An unnamed Modesto, Ca police officer and his four legged partner squared off against a crowd of 60 unruly partiers and gang bangers. He happened on the group while responding to another call in the area and witnessed a man being beaten. Against large odds, the officer did what was right and held the crowd, who was heard to say "he will not get out of here alive", until backup could arrive. Both officers, the human and the canine, were injured.
What is the point of these examples? I guess just to illustrate that every day we are faced with choices. Our decision on what to do, most of the time, does not involve life or death circumstances but each one plays a part in the ongoing and developing nature of our society.
It has been said that character is what you do when nobody is watching. When we see just how poorly some people act when the world is watching, we can only imagine what their character truly is. Look in the mirror and state your case. Me? I am going to listen to some music while I fall asleep. Just don't ask where I got it.
S2
Showing posts with label New York Times. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York Times. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
This statement is more than the sum of its parse
Way back in the 1980's the group Missing Persons had a quasi hit song called "Words". One of the lines in the refrain was "What are words for, if no one listens anyway." Looking back on the video today I am somewhat embarrassed to admit this was (actually still is) one of my favorite songs. It has also been playing in my mind quite a lot since the coronation of Barack Obama.
So much is made of the oratory skills of The ONE that I've made it a point to listen carefully to him every time he speaks. Sure, the majority of the time he is simply reading from his teleprompter but, on occasion, actual audio leaks of him speaking as extemporaneously as any President ever speaks. It is during these times the real Barack "above my pay grade to decide when Life begins" Obama is revealed.
The other day a New York Times reporter, in an interview on Air Force one, asked the First African American President of the United States if he was a socialist. Obama sort of laughed off the question but it must have left an impression. So much so that the President made it a point to call the reporter to clarify a few things.
Here is a portion of the audio from that Oval Office call and my painstakingly crafted transcription of it:
"...uuhh just one thing that uh I was thinking about as I was uh as I was getting on the uh copter cause uh ya know, it was hard for me to to believe you were entirely serious about that socialist question."
"Uh ah I I did think it might be useful to point out that uh it wasn’t under me that we started uh buying a whole bunch of shares of banks. It wasn’t on my watch. And it wasn’t on my watch that we passed uh a massive new entitlement uh-– the prescription drug plan -- without a source of funding. Ah and so I think that uh it’s important just to note ah when you start uh hearing folks uh throw these words around that um uh we’ve actually been operating uh in a way that uh is entirely consistent with free-market principles uh and that uh uh some of the same folks who are uh throwing the word 'socialist' around can’t say the same."
The New York Times asked, "So whose watch are we talking about here sir?" but Obama wouldn't name names.
"Well ha ha ha, I I just think it’s clear by the time we had uh by the time we got here, uh err there already had been uh an enormous infusion of taxpayer money into the financial system. And eehhayyyeehh the the thing I constantly try to emphasize to people is that if that coming in, the market was doing fine, nobody would be happier than me uh to stay out of it. I eh you know uh I I have more than enough to do uh without having to worry the financial system. uh and the fact that uh we’ve had to take these extraordinary measures uh and intervene uh is uh not an indication of my ideological preference, uh but an indication of the degree to which uh ehhh lax regulation uh and extravagant risk taking uh has precipitated a crisis."
He concluded the brief call by saying, "I think that covers it."
That call may have covered it but it didn't answer it! Like learning what the meaning of "Is" is, often more is revealed in what isn't said than in what words are used. Let's look, just like the President said he would do at the budget in search of earmarks, line by line at uh the uh eloquence of The ONE and see if we can ascertain the meaning behind the uhs and the points he is trying to make.
Obama: "...uuhh just one thing that uh I was thinking about as I was uh as I was getting on the uh copter cause uh ya know, it was hard for me to to believe you were entirely serious about that socialist question."
Bald One: Right off the bat, the President needs to demonstrate his manliness while simultaneously establishing his authority by citing he rides in a "copter" to and from the corner grocery and not in a Prius like most reporters for the New York Times. He also finds it surprising, not that he was thought of as being a socialist but, that someone from his sycophantic media actually asked him the question out loud and on the record.
Obama: "Uh ah I I did think it might be useful to point out that uh it wasn’t under me that we started uh buying a whole bunch of shares of banks. It wasn’t on my watch."
Bald One: Citing this as evidence that he isn't a socialist is akin to telling the nice Officer, after blowing a 0.08 on the breathalyzer, that you are aren't drunk because your buddy who's passed out in the back seat started drinking first. The ONE didn't start the bank bailouts but he and his tax evading Treasury Secretary sure aren't changing the strategy much.
Obama: "And it wasn’t on my watch that we passed uh a massive new entitlement uh-– the prescription drug plan -- without a source of funding."
Bald One: No, it was on his watch that a Trillion dollar stimulus package was passed, uh, without a source of funding. And now a nearly half trillion dollar spending package with close to 9,000 earmarks in it is about to pass and will be signed by him.
Obama: "Ah and so I think that uh it’s important just to note ah when you start uh hearing folks uh throw these words around that um uh we’ve actually been operating uh in a way that uh is entirely consistent with free-market principles uh and that uh uh some of the same folks who are uh throwing the word 'socialist' around can’t say the same."
Bald One: If by free market principles he means fascist control of banks and laying the groundwork for a socialist take over of our health care system and a Marxist redistribution of wealth through confiscatory taxation I don't disagree with anything he said there. Even former socialist country leaders think he is on the wrong path. So does the leader of my next homeland.
Obama: "Well ha ha ha, I I just think it’s clear by the time we had uh by the time we got here, uh err there already had been uh an enormous infusion of taxpayer money into the financial system. And eehhayyyeehh the the thing I constantly try to emphasize to people is that if that coming in, the market was doing fine, nobody would be happier than me uh to stay out of it."
Bald Man: The best "infusion" of "taxpayer" money in to any financial system would be to allow the taxpayer to keep a bit more of his or her hard earned money to infuse when and where he or she sees fit and let real free market principles work. But basically the main point to take away from this sentence is that the President is wrong. I, and millions like me, would be far happier if he stayed out of it.
Obama: I eh you know uh I I have more than enough to do uh without having to worry the financial system."
Bald One: He has plenty to do with a White House party night every Wednesday and attending every festivity that is a Copter flight away from the nearest runway large enough to land Air Force One. Is it any wonder he was "too tired" to properly receive the British Prime Minister last week?
Obama: uh and the fact that uh we’ve had to take these extraordinary measures uh and intervene uh is uh not an indication of my ideological preference, uh but an indication of the degree to which uh ehhh lax regulation uh and extravagant risk taking uh has precipitated a crisis."
Bald One: Actually the fact that he has taken these particular measures and ignored free market/capitalist solutions to these "extraordinary" measures is truly an indication of his ideological preference. Combine these actions with his rabid support of Card Check for Unions, disregard for the lives of the innocent in his support of the Freedom of Choice Act and reversal of Bush's Stem Cell Research ban and his effort of having government encroach in to virtually every aspect of a United States (and soon the World's) citizen's life and he reinforces his "ideological preference. I would mention his affiliation with Reverend "God Damn Amerikka" Wright and William "let me stand on this flag and blow up this building over here" Ayers but it seems these are being scrubbed from the public record.
Obama: "I think that covers it."
Bald One: This doesn't begin to cover it. It was true in the 1980's when Ronald Reagan said "Government is not the solution, it is the problem" (slightly paraphrased) and it is true today; Words mean things.
If Nancy Pelosi and her ilk in Congress have their way, soon the words of many free thinking Americans will be stifled under the latest incarnation of the Fairness Doctrine. We might lose our right to question out loud whether the President is a socialist. He is already rallying his Hitler Youth like base via the internet as the campaign has begun. Those on the left continue to call Republicans Nazi's without consequence and our public officials are becoming more and more arrogant.
The author of the Audacity of Hope who exhibits the arrogance of victory has nothing on these two:
I'd like to have a word or two with them sometime.
S2
So much is made of the oratory skills of The ONE that I've made it a point to listen carefully to him every time he speaks. Sure, the majority of the time he is simply reading from his teleprompter but, on occasion, actual audio leaks of him speaking as extemporaneously as any President ever speaks. It is during these times the real Barack "above my pay grade to decide when Life begins" Obama is revealed.
The other day a New York Times reporter, in an interview on Air Force one, asked the First African American President of the United States if he was a socialist. Obama sort of laughed off the question but it must have left an impression. So much so that the President made it a point to call the reporter to clarify a few things.
Here is a portion of the audio from that Oval Office call and my painstakingly crafted transcription of it:
"...uuhh just one thing that uh I was thinking about as I was uh as I was getting on the uh copter cause uh ya know, it was hard for me to to believe you were entirely serious about that socialist question."
"Uh ah I I did think it might be useful to point out that uh it wasn’t under me that we started uh buying a whole bunch of shares of banks. It wasn’t on my watch. And it wasn’t on my watch that we passed uh a massive new entitlement uh-– the prescription drug plan -- without a source of funding. Ah and so I think that uh it’s important just to note ah when you start uh hearing folks uh throw these words around that um uh we’ve actually been operating uh in a way that uh is entirely consistent with free-market principles uh and that uh uh some of the same folks who are uh throwing the word 'socialist' around can’t say the same."
The New York Times asked, "So whose watch are we talking about here sir?" but Obama wouldn't name names.
"Well ha ha ha, I I just think it’s clear by the time we had uh by the time we got here, uh err there already had been uh an enormous infusion of taxpayer money into the financial system. And eehhayyyeehh the the thing I constantly try to emphasize to people is that if that coming in, the market was doing fine, nobody would be happier than me uh to stay out of it. I eh you know uh I I have more than enough to do uh without having to worry the financial system. uh and the fact that uh we’ve had to take these extraordinary measures uh and intervene uh is uh not an indication of my ideological preference, uh but an indication of the degree to which uh ehhh lax regulation uh and extravagant risk taking uh has precipitated a crisis."
He concluded the brief call by saying, "I think that covers it."
-----End Transcription and resume scintillating commentary-----
That call may have covered it but it didn't answer it! Like learning what the meaning of "Is" is, often more is revealed in what isn't said than in what words are used. Let's look, just like the President said he would do at the budget in search of earmarks, line by line at uh the uh eloquence of The ONE and see if we can ascertain the meaning behind the uhs and the points he is trying to make.
Obama: "...uuhh just one thing that uh I was thinking about as I was uh as I was getting on the uh copter cause uh ya know, it was hard for me to to believe you were entirely serious about that socialist question."
Bald One: Right off the bat, the President needs to demonstrate his manliness while simultaneously establishing his authority by citing he rides in a "copter" to and from the corner grocery and not in a Prius like most reporters for the New York Times. He also finds it surprising, not that he was thought of as being a socialist but, that someone from his sycophantic media actually asked him the question out loud and on the record.
Obama: "Uh ah I I did think it might be useful to point out that uh it wasn’t under me that we started uh buying a whole bunch of shares of banks. It wasn’t on my watch."
Bald One: Citing this as evidence that he isn't a socialist is akin to telling the nice Officer, after blowing a 0.08 on the breathalyzer, that you are aren't drunk because your buddy who's passed out in the back seat started drinking first. The ONE didn't start the bank bailouts but he and his tax evading Treasury Secretary sure aren't changing the strategy much.
Obama: "And it wasn’t on my watch that we passed uh a massive new entitlement uh-– the prescription drug plan -- without a source of funding."
Bald One: No, it was on his watch that a Trillion dollar stimulus package was passed, uh, without a source of funding. And now a nearly half trillion dollar spending package with close to 9,000 earmarks in it is about to pass and will be signed by him.
Obama: "Ah and so I think that uh it’s important just to note ah when you start uh hearing folks uh throw these words around that um uh we’ve actually been operating uh in a way that uh is entirely consistent with free-market principles uh and that uh uh some of the same folks who are uh throwing the word 'socialist' around can’t say the same."
Bald One: If by free market principles he means fascist control of banks and laying the groundwork for a socialist take over of our health care system and a Marxist redistribution of wealth through confiscatory taxation I don't disagree with anything he said there. Even former socialist country leaders think he is on the wrong path. So does the leader of my next homeland.
Obama: "Well ha ha ha, I I just think it’s clear by the time we had uh by the time we got here, uh err there already had been uh an enormous infusion of taxpayer money into the financial system. And eehhayyyeehh the the thing I constantly try to emphasize to people is that if that coming in, the market was doing fine, nobody would be happier than me uh to stay out of it."
Bald Man: The best "infusion" of "taxpayer" money in to any financial system would be to allow the taxpayer to keep a bit more of his or her hard earned money to infuse when and where he or she sees fit and let real free market principles work. But basically the main point to take away from this sentence is that the President is wrong. I, and millions like me, would be far happier if he stayed out of it.
Obama: I eh you know uh I I have more than enough to do uh without having to worry the financial system."
Bald One: He has plenty to do with a White House party night every Wednesday and attending every festivity that is a Copter flight away from the nearest runway large enough to land Air Force One. Is it any wonder he was "too tired" to properly receive the British Prime Minister last week?
Obama: uh and the fact that uh we’ve had to take these extraordinary measures uh and intervene uh is uh not an indication of my ideological preference, uh but an indication of the degree to which uh ehhh lax regulation uh and extravagant risk taking uh has precipitated a crisis."
Bald One: Actually the fact that he has taken these particular measures and ignored free market/capitalist solutions to these "extraordinary" measures is truly an indication of his ideological preference. Combine these actions with his rabid support of Card Check for Unions, disregard for the lives of the innocent in his support of the Freedom of Choice Act and reversal of Bush's Stem Cell Research ban and his effort of having government encroach in to virtually every aspect of a United States (and soon the World's) citizen's life and he reinforces his "ideological preference. I would mention his affiliation with Reverend "God Damn Amerikka" Wright and William "let me stand on this flag and blow up this building over here" Ayers but it seems these are being scrubbed from the public record.
Obama: "I think that covers it."
Bald One: This doesn't begin to cover it. It was true in the 1980's when Ronald Reagan said "Government is not the solution, it is the problem" (slightly paraphrased) and it is true today; Words mean things.
If Nancy Pelosi and her ilk in Congress have their way, soon the words of many free thinking Americans will be stifled under the latest incarnation of the Fairness Doctrine. We might lose our right to question out loud whether the President is a socialist. He is already rallying his Hitler Youth like base via the internet as the campaign has begun. Those on the left continue to call Republicans Nazi's without consequence and our public officials are becoming more and more arrogant.
The author of the Audacity of Hope who exhibits the arrogance of victory has nothing on these two:
I'd like to have a word or two with them sometime.
S2
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Is the Sunday paper here? I need to clean the birdcage.
The philosophy of "out of sight, out of mind" is just another way we fool ourselves that things aren't important. Pull up the sofa cushions and I bet a river of memories come flooding back based on the food, receipts and ear rings you find stashed there. Memories that, once the visual stimulus is gone, are pushed to the deep abyss of one's mind like the dust devils we sweep under the carpet just before company arrives.
As a society, we've declared the remembrance of certain events sacrosanct. For years the media, tenders of our collective memory, have seen fit to remind us of these events with the subtlety of a hooker approaching a conventioneer in a Las Vegas nightclub. Headlines serve as flashcards of constant learning for the most important of events. Earth Day, Saint Patrick's Day, New Year's and soon Obama Day will never be forgotten because the media will jog our memory away from the mundane news of Britney, Paris and O.J. back to what is meaningful.
The media swung a broadsword in their unabashed push for The One this past election cycle. It is easy to see what they deem important. It is also easy to see what they don't.
Today should be a day of remembrance. In 1941, 2403 soldiers and innocents died in the dawn raid at Pearl Harbor. Until the 2001 attack on September 11th this was the single largest death toll of any attack on our shores. The blue waters of Hawaii cover the evidence of this tragedy more effectively than a black outfit hides rolls of fat for Oprah when she is off her diet.
I took a look at the web sites for the top 15 newspapers in the United States according to circulation. These include the USA Today, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Dallas Morning New and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Not a single one had a major headline regarding Pearl Harbor and only the USA Today and Wall Street Journal had any mention at all about the attacks on their home pages. I did learn that Chickens do more than cross the road and read a discussion about who should perform at the inauguration in the LA Times and Atlanta Journal Constitution respectfully. I think Barbara Streisand ought to come out of retirement yet again to perform. The DC police are worried about crowd control and I am sure she will help clear the streets.
Last September the headlines regarding the attacks by Islamic Terrorists in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania received less coverage than the year before. The footage of the planes hitting the World Trade Center ought to be mandatory viewing once a month but there is an unwritten agreement to avoid discussing it the same way Carmella Soprano refused to discuss Tony's late night business meetings. Our nation has the memory of an Alzheimer patient and the media is nurse Ratchet handing out placebos.
Is it any wonder every newspaper in the country is seeing huge declines in readership? With the power to influence comes the great responsibility to wield this power as a pen of unbiased reporting and not a sword of political and social desire.
The Chicago Tribune announced this weekend they have hired a bankruptcy attorney. Maybe if they, and the other print media, would spend less time trying to influence us and more time reporting so we could make up our own minds they wouldn't be experiencing the loss in readership they are.
Do me a favor, keep reminding everyone of what is important to remember.
As a society, we've declared the remembrance of certain events sacrosanct. For years the media, tenders of our collective memory, have seen fit to remind us of these events with the subtlety of a hooker approaching a conventioneer in a Las Vegas nightclub. Headlines serve as flashcards of constant learning for the most important of events. Earth Day, Saint Patrick's Day, New Year's and soon Obama Day will never be forgotten because the media will jog our memory away from the mundane news of Britney, Paris and O.J. back to what is meaningful.
The media swung a broadsword in their unabashed push for The One this past election cycle. It is easy to see what they deem important. It is also easy to see what they don't.
Today should be a day of remembrance. In 1941, 2403 soldiers and innocents died in the dawn raid at Pearl Harbor. Until the 2001 attack on September 11th this was the single largest death toll of any attack on our shores. The blue waters of Hawaii cover the evidence of this tragedy more effectively than a black outfit hides rolls of fat for Oprah when she is off her diet.
I took a look at the web sites for the top 15 newspapers in the United States according to circulation. These include the USA Today, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Dallas Morning New and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Not a single one had a major headline regarding Pearl Harbor and only the USA Today and Wall Street Journal had any mention at all about the attacks on their home pages. I did learn that Chickens do more than cross the road and read a discussion about who should perform at the inauguration in the LA Times and Atlanta Journal Constitution respectfully. I think Barbara Streisand ought to come out of retirement yet again to perform. The DC police are worried about crowd control and I am sure she will help clear the streets.
Last September the headlines regarding the attacks by Islamic Terrorists in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania received less coverage than the year before. The footage of the planes hitting the World Trade Center ought to be mandatory viewing once a month but there is an unwritten agreement to avoid discussing it the same way Carmella Soprano refused to discuss Tony's late night business meetings. Our nation has the memory of an Alzheimer patient and the media is nurse Ratchet handing out placebos.
Is it any wonder every newspaper in the country is seeing huge declines in readership? With the power to influence comes the great responsibility to wield this power as a pen of unbiased reporting and not a sword of political and social desire.
The Chicago Tribune announced this weekend they have hired a bankruptcy attorney. Maybe if they, and the other print media, would spend less time trying to influence us and more time reporting so we could make up our own minds they wouldn't be experiencing the loss in readership they are.
Do me a favor, keep reminding everyone of what is important to remember.
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