Letters to the Editor
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The sleep of reason produces monsters
It seems to me that the techniques of advertising, and of propaganda are a lot like nuclear weapons. Both are products of human cleverness -- admirable in the sense that generations of diligent and well-meaning people have devoted themselves to conceiving and developing them, yet devilish in the sense that both proved to be disastrous when finally deployed.
If the principles of polling described in such tantalizing detail by ondellete upthread are an example of the good things which come of understanding human behavior on a statistical scale, surely Chris Matthews is an example, however unwitting, of the dark side of that same understanding. The manipulative fantasy world of television has been fused, perhaps irrevocably, with what was once a genuine shared reality.
Should we wonder that confusion about who we are and where we're going may well turn out to be the hallmark of our age? I suspect some of the commenters here will reply that it's never been any different; that it is, in fact, why bishops once wore miters and kings crowns, and people claimed to be able to talk to God.
True enough, but our age differs in that the rationalization -- what I called in an earlier comment the industrialization of the process of cultural misdirection -- is nearing completion. The war over what things mean now differs as much from the ideological arguments of the past as nuclear weapons differ from siege engines and ships-of-the-line.
Bebop often asks us to wake up, and talks about Nature as a way to recover some clarity. If only it were that simple....
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leftychris @ 9:38, 9:38, and 9:39 has my interest.
Please remain on Topic.
It's awkward and I'll be here briefly.
leftychris does say some good 'stuff'...
patg @ 11:28 too Listened. How to Listen?
Listen as if people give precious words of Life!
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leftychris is a Zippy Typist?
When the White House was stolen the second time I was in Canada.
hyperbole but/or is it? My point: A small town of 350 population where the Mennonites are apolitical and milk the cows, grow barley, and live peacefully ...Example:;> The after-vote day Call-In may have "accidently" recorded 350,000 votes for the GOPS? ...only 350 folk live in these sticks...
I admit I'm seemingly often over-spoofing.
But while in Canada the chatter post-election I noticed was very particularly that this Breaking Story up North was not Press Covered in America....why? Voter Fraud? Maybe?
The story being reported up North was the non-paper trail looked mighty, nighty, mighty, dark-nighty, suspicious. The potential scandal seemed to get zilch cover (or covered up) time attention in DC's etc., loyal inner-beltway ball city
team players....Baseball, Apple Pie, and eve bowling.
I'm not up on it-but, I.m just wondering aloud about the hackable voter-gadgetry machinery?
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Serious- stay focused. We're all busy. I'm not good at multi-task.
I just say Thanks here. And no more mention of sores unless necessary?
There is No telling when the dinosaurs at Fox news will croak. Live. Caution.
Let them GOPS all go bowling. Let the thieves roll their peak bowling rigged game score of a 'perfect' 300 game.
Allow the neocon loyal chicken-layers to cackle like lame ducks quacking face-to-face on Meet The Press. They can tell us they milk cows and use a 16-pound pink bawl to throw.
Gutter Balls.
Let them brush the teeth with imported toxic tooth paste.
And when all the Duck Pins go down in Chaos, watch 'um give a shit grin with a thumb up.
Vote Hades serves THEM a bowl of Chinese Pin Pong Stew.
THEM roll a joint and drink Bud Light~?~while bawling in a sewer next re-birth?
Who knows?
Call a pollster gymnastic teacher who swings a pink three-holed big Ten-Pounder Ball?
She can show the baloney stuffed politico's how to swing perpendicular and sing and bowl some balls while on the cell phone or toilet bowl. I may be cranky? O.
They can brush teeth on CNN and sneak down a fox hole;>
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Back to sanity.
We are the sane.
They/them brawlers.
'um bad politico bowlers.
I only wanted to say leftychris has a interesting- 3 -post. I'm just wondering. no bad words either. Skip me and I blame Zippy the Pinhead.
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patg: I live in Birmingham now to many ignorant people in WB plus I was getting to famous out there
Now I will just get even more fans here in Birmingham with my TV show
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PatG & DCLaw1...
Pat... I don't like PC, either, but I used it as a short-hand for a "criticism" that is consistently made of the Left, but is still considered a "standard" for the Left at the same time. In other words, a no-win.
DCLaw... Why? That's an excellent question. I wish I knew. The only thing that comes to mind as a possible answer is that it is much more of a polarizing issue. Basically, you're talking about 50% of the population vs. the other 50% of the population, a more "even" (?) power dynamic? When race comes into it, the numbers are much more unbalanced, and the power differences are "assymetric," that word that everyone likes to use now when talking about conflicts.
Race is not a part of everyone's experience, even in this more globalized world, but Gender is.
Another possibility is just that men are generally stronger than women, so they can be sexist if they want to... just because they can. Race differences don't always allow that.
But I doubt that either of those explanations is really THE ONE. The answer is probably hidden in some experimental brain imaging, and where it intersects with one's character & nurturing.
Just as it was also necessary for whites to protest for civil rights (and probably still is), it will also be necessary for men to protest for women's rights, in order for things to change (at least on the surface). I am less sanguine about the second than the first. Apparently, Gloria Steinem is, too.
Again, present company (mostly) excepted.
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Really “vital” congressional news hot off the wire
House panel postpones Clemens hearing
By HOWARD FENDRICH, AP Sports Writer 49 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Congress wants to be prepared when Roger Clemens and his former trainer, Brian McNamee, head to Capitol Hill. The House hearing involving Clemens, McNamee and Andy Pettitte was postponed Wednesday from Jan. 16 until Feb. 13, giving lawmakers more time to gather evidence, to take depositions from the witnesses and to coordinate their investigation with the Justice Department.
Good to see that our congress is dedicating itself to get things right on this "vital" issue instead of FISA, impeachment, civil liberties, law violations, the war, etc.