Letters to the Editor
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SB4609
"Proof" is a pretty strong word, but you know that. Lack of "proof" is the epistemological bedrock on which arguments against evolution and global warming are also built. What I can offer is evidence.
Fair enough. What's your evidence? The fact that some people you know care about these things?
For so many reasons, small samples of anecdotal evidence like that is extremely unreliable, particularly for making broad claims about what "Americans believe."
In the political conversations I've had recently, the level of discourse has revolved around social cues, like radical pastors and bowling scores.
It's natural that people are discussing this because this is, by and large, the only thing they hear from their news sources. There is polling data about what Americans think is important and don't think is important. Have you ever looked at it?
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@The Notorious W.E.S. about bowling
You wrote:
"If you can't bowl, don't roll your first game in a Presidential campaign."
This is true. I wrote elsewhere that Obama's handlers should have given him a private 10-minute lesson in holding and releasing the ball so it rolls straight. Photo ops are helpful when they're done right but lethal when they're not.
Lethal, only because we are now trapped in a media world that will latch onto a poorly executed photo op or an imperfectly worded sentiment as an excuse to release cascades of poison -- if you're a Democrat, that is.
It's time to pick a friggin' Democratic nominee already for even the slightest hope of McCain getting the kind of media scrutiny HE actually deserves.
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You're right W.E.S.!
Obama should have realized that there would be dimwitted twits like you out there who would think it would actually matter. Guess he gave you too much credit!
I saw someone mentioned the piece with Obama playing basketball. He should challenge Brooks or Hannity or Matthews to a game of one on one. Can you imagine how awesome it would be to see Obama's balls slapping those fat, talentless bastards in the face as he throws a thundering dunk down on their heads?
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Historically Ignorant Protesters
Asks a protest sign:
"Would We Have Allowed Nazi Germany to Host the Olympics?"
http://praxeology.net/blog/2008/04/17/ooh-a-tough-one/
From a demonstrations in San Francisco. Do they teach history there?
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takin' em down
can't wait to read the book, bro. on the way.
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Compare Obama's bowling score to Bush's basketball skills
If Obama will make a bad president because of his bowling skills, what about Bush's inability to bounce a basketball? Remember that famous scene where he posed with an NBA team and couldn't even properly bounce a basketball? Was there a media frenzy after that telling everyone that he wasn't fit to be president?
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I forgot about the Kennedy's touch football games.
Could you imagine the bile that MoDo would vomit forth about how sissified it all was today? Obviously they couldn't hold a candle to the testosterone soaked macho-hood of prancing around as an Andover pom-pom boy like the current White House occupant.
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I'm not sure,
In the political conversations I've had recently, the level of discourse has revolved around social cues, like radical pastors and bowling scores.
that that was actually a "political conversation."
Doesn't sound like you talked politics ("policy") at all.
Have you considered a career as a journalist?
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I'm almost there (What are ABC's metrics?)
I'm very much convinced that the debate did not reflect what Americans say they want in polls. That said, we all know that as commercial organizations, the networks are trying to attract eyeballs. And we all know that what they argue is that regardless of what people say they want in polls, what they are willing to watch is quite different.
There's been almost universal dismay about the debate. I'll confess, I don't have the stomach to even watch our politics anymore. If most voters were like me, and tuned out, then I guess ABC would be failing according to its own metrics. But then I read that this debate was actually the most watched debate of them all.
I suppose one could argue that had good questions been asked, the audience could have been even larger. I actually like the thought, as it appeals to my organic gardening side (bear with me): organic gardeners like to say that they pass up short term freakish plant growth in favor of long term culture growth. I suppose one could say that ABC is poisoning the well: getting large audiences because the population in general is growing, but not as large as they would if they stopped priming the field with artificial grap and grew the public.
That said, I just wonder if the debate was a success on ABC's commercial terms, and if that indeed explains why it was structured the way it is. I know that we as a public have the right to demand they be more public minded. But setting that aside, was the debate a success on the terms which ABC as a crassly commercial organization at its heart (remember the Mouse!) set for itself?
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There jounalism and entertainment
Journalism has become entertainment and reached an all time low in this country. Objectiviety is almost nill and I sometime wonder if some of the people on TV did not get ther degrees in journalism from a Craker Jcak box. Especially on FOX: Hannity, O'Rielly, Rush, and Von Hilda. No one however can expct FOX to have objective coverage of the election or anything else for that matter. Beck on CNN is another idiot. Talk radio is even worse. Broks maybe conservative, but at lest he is a good journalist.
During this election cycle, I have moved from my comfort zone of News Hour on PBS and the New York Times and started watching other TV networks. I discovered MSNBC and disagree they have been picking on Hillary. MSNBC barely gave Obama any coverage in the beginning. I love Keith Olberman. I think Russet is a great interviewer and Cris Matthews knows how to cover politicians. In fact besides PBS, MSNBC now has the best journalist on TV.
I only started watching CNN to get election results, and see Ballot Bowel. I think Guergon is very objective. Otherwise CNN is just entertainment. Their breaking news is mostly sensational. After the ectn is all over I will go back to only News HOur and watch MSNBC occasinally.