Now that the election is over

Maybe the Democrats could have done a better job of making their point?

Fair And Balanced

hannity

Guess what? Even the conservatives are getting tired of the Mighty Wurlitizer. I watched Cal Thomas talk about it on Fox News Watch and describe it disdainfully.
Story or comment on the internet. Picked up by talk show host to make some people talk about it. More media pics it up because people are talking about it. More media picks it up and it is news or the truth or whatever.
By the way, Yes I do occasionally watch FAUX news. To put together the puzzle one must have all the pieces. To fight the Wurlitizer one must know it and how it works.
But you say, "Ron aren't you a part of the Liberal wurlitizer?" Maybe, but there's one difference here. I will tell you how it works and then you can make up your own mind. It's one of the reasons I think politics must ,to a notable degree, come from the heart these days. Common Sense. You can find facts to backup any point you want to make.
Saddam and Osama worked together and I can prove it! Take this!
They think we can't look it up but they're wrong... Saddam and America worked together!
So what is the truth? Common Sense tells me Saddam would not want to share power or glory with anyone besides his sons. It also tells me that the differences in the role of religion in their lives would have forbade the other side from working with them on anything other than an emergency measure. Gee, maybe we have one now?!
Common Sense also tells me we've advanced our cause in some pretty questionable ways in the past. Hopefully we can learn from that. Working with the bad guys doesn't usually pay off in the long run.
That's what it says to me. It may say something altogether different to you.

Last Bastion Of Freedom Lost?

I think one of the best things about the internet is it's lack of conformity and powerful ways it can be used for information, commerce, communication, medicine. So many possibilities. The best way to mess it all up is to start enforcing conformity. Start taxing people and forcing all kind of form filling out regulations. I think both liberals and conservatives alike would like to keep the internet open. It's a tool that can be used by the people. Let's not let them stunt this for any viewpoint. Keep innovation alive!

A Time For Work And A Time For Play

It'll be that time of year before you know it. Sharpen your skills here.

Ok Then

What do you say to this ......Ok Then. And they don't even need psychedelics. Maybe.

Liberal/Conservative

Liberal
A little taste:

Totalitarian ideas were centered on the principle that absolute centralized control over all aspects of society was necessary in order to achieve prosperity, stability, and many other goals. Most totalitarians also wished to discredit and destroy liberalism in one way or another. In reply, liberalism spent most of the 20th century defining itself as an opposition to various strains of totalitarianism.

Gee, and the 21st century starts the same way. I'm proud to be my forefathers inheriter.

Conservative:
A little taste:

While conservatives often identify with nationalist movements, there is a clear distinction between conservative nationalism and the ultra-nationalism of fascism. Conservatism, at its root, is an attitude of political and social quietism. The big plans of the Big Man, the noisy and leveling mass movements, the Führerprinzip, the personality cults, and the strong propensity toward totalitarianism that are central to fascism, are antithetical to the positions of classical conservatism. Conservatism stands for learning from the mistakes of the past, and primum non nocere is an essential conservative principle.

I hope this wing of the party, wherever it is, takes over.

Sorry

I apologize not getting any posts up yesterday. I literally slept through it. A plus of blogging over radio. Radio pays better though! Just in case I miss again, save this site and Shoppppp!

BTK

It looks like they caught another very bad guy. What really gets me is that almost everyone who knew him were shocked that it was him. Well, not everyone. The theory apparently is that his daughter knew something and gave dna.
My question is what kind of circumstances make a guy do this stuff. He seemed to have a certain affinity for the spotlight.....but aren't there a myraid of ways to find it besides killing people and writing letters to the media. This marks a person profoundly devoid of empathy. Maybe a little sermon that all the pastors, priests, rabbis, mullahs might want to consider. The meaning of empathy. Not sympathy like understanding how you feel but empathy , being able to put yourself in someones position and understand it from their perspective. This man could not have been able to do this if he was at all skilled at empathy. What else is going on here? Please discuss.

Coffee Table

Lets try this. Click on the comments and talk about whatever is important to you today. Gather round the Coffee Table and discuss.

Just Perfect

I found an awesome piece that ought to be on walls in homes and business all across the country. Here's selected portions:

Imagine the kind of nation America would be if the people who love fought as hard for their beliefs as those who hate.
Imagine if family values meant loving your relatives instead of hating homosexuals. Fundamentalist ministers who were a little less obsessed with intra-gender affection would finally have time to rail against real abominations, like spousal abuse.
Imagine if the numerous parts of the New Testament where Jesus commands his adherents to aid the poor were not written in ink that is illegible to right wingers. According to Christ, poverty isn’t a manifestation of vice any more than affluence is an affirmation of virtue. When religious conservatives start emulating their Holy Savior Who Reigns In Heaven instead of their Fat Junkie Who Lies On Radio, America will become a better place.
Imagine if we aspired not to be the most powerful country but the most humane. Think of how people in other lands would react if instead of telling them what to do, we asked what we could do.
Imagine if sex were not considered to be filthy. That sea change would enable adults to discuss the topic without giggling, smirking, and otherwise behaving like mental defectives. The Puritans amongst us have succeeded in turning a perfectly natural desire into something sleazy. Our deeply repressed culture always produces bull markets in substance abuse and violent crime because self-loathing people either implode or explode. If we want to have a healthier nation, we can start by no longer teaching little kids that their bodies are a source of shame.
There is more to life than idealism, but life is not worth living without it. Hopefully, one day most Americans will accept that being kind is not the same as being weak, and that caring about others is virtuous rather than contemptible, and that a person’s intrinsic worth is unrelated to his or her net worth. Until that time, the idealists will be outnumbered by the cynics who are now busy remaking the United States in their own immoral image.

Honestly, there is not a word in this piece that I would disagree with. It actually brought a tear to my eye to find someone able to say it so well. To me this is the description of the Real Americans and Real America. Yes, part of Americanism is the right to dissent and its fine if you don't agree with this. It doesn't make you a traitor or anything. I'm just saying it's my belief that this is the best of what America can be. It's the America I envision, support and work for.
Read the entire piece here. God Bless you David.

Shaping The Message

The Liberal Media Doesn't Want You To Read This!


You'll find a lot of posts on the media, censorship and such on this board. As a lifetime media person I've followed and studied it closely. This is an interesting post. Truth be told, I am quite astounded at how effectively the right has used it and shaped a message. Another group to carry the cause:

It is just one tactic used by an aggressive new neoconservative think tank, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), to shape American thinking on war, terrorism, and the Middle East. The Foundation is only two years old, but already the group is making its influence felt on the nation’s policymakers.

I wish my side was half as good. The bad part about it is that people don't realize that this is how it works. This is whats being done today. Not very effectively by my side but it's the way the world works these days. To keep up with one media/message shaping machine, the other side obviously needs to have one to survive. Why is necessarily a bad thing to have a "conservative media" and a "liberal media". What's important is that people understand them for what they are and they have truth in what they say they are. This is my major complaint with Faux News. My next biggest is that it gets too much like cartoons sometimes.

With mega-donor funding, a very capable staff, and a presence on campuses across the country, FDD is making a difference for someone. At the very least, the billionaire activists who established and support the foundation seem to be getting their moneys worth.

Ya, but that evil George Billionare Soros! MAKE ME LAUGH!!!!!!!!