I make no secret of my conservative proclivities. That might be why I dislike the Houston Chronicle, the only daily newspaper in town. Several items in recent days reinforce my opinion.
1) The Republican National Committee let slip by a ( GASP) $2000 expense for attendance at sleazy strip joint. The fact that the expense was subsequently disallowed and the submitter fired is downplayed. Now all Republicans have been branded as sexual degenerates. This has been a huge story now for a number of days.
2) A crazed group of 9 nuts wanted to kill cops for some strange reason. Fortunately, they were discovered and stopped before doing any harm.
News item: Right wing extremist white supremacy group-----. Right wing!
They were about as right wing as Adolph Hitler, head of the Nazi (National
SOCIALIST) party in Germany. Hey, you progressives, he was one of your bunch.
7 comments:
Hmmm. You sound almost like Glen Beck.
I don't much appreciate when arguments in today's political landscape include Nazis, Hitler, fascism or other hot button synonyms for evil and wrong.
That goes for both the right and left wing elements in our society. It creates an atmosphere of acrimony.
It is not important that peope agree with me, or me with them, but I would like think that people who make reasoned arguments can respect one another. That is why it concerns me when intelligent people abdicate the high ground and join in the melee.
Dad -- When FOX News says it, it is branded as hate-speech; when the left-leaning media says it, it is branded as opinion or fact. But you have the upper hand - cancel your subscription! It is not going to take too many more cancelled subscritpions before they are out of business.
Tom -- I agree that reasoned arguments would be great. Especially from politicians. But I guess that is an oxymoron.
OOPS -- that last comment was mine, not Michelle's! She was still logged on on my computer (Michelle - that is dangerous, remember what happened to Chip?)
And here I was about to remark about Michelle's newfound polical outlook :-)
Nancy - unfortunately, I mostly agree that it might be difficult for politicians to be reasonable, when most of their term they are focussed pretty clearly on re-election.
Have to say that I think FOX is a whisker's breath away from being the RNC's mouthpiece. And as such, they tend to have a difficult time with objectivity. That is why, despite being very successful, they are less than affectionately referred to as Faux News.
Tom -- All the American media have a hard time with objectivity! That was the gist of Michelle's (I mean my) first comment. BBC is the only news that I have watched (or listened to) that is pretty close to objective, at least in my humble opinion. None of the others are objective at all, nor do they try to be. The good thing about Fox is that it presents the other side - yes, I mean the conservative side. Whether you agree with their opinions or not, it is a valid viewpoint, objective or not. For ultra liberal, turn to MSNBC, again a valid liberal viewpoint; for moderately liberal, turn to CNN... Etc. The country needs to hear both sides -- unfortunately, the liberals listen to the liberal trash and the conservatives listen to the conservaticve trash. A few of us listen to both sides and find pearls of wisdom (buried amongst tons of BS) in each side.
I don't have inordinate problems with opinion pieces. If I disagree too much, I just opt to not listen. Like Hannity, Beck, et all (gives me the creeps).
And yes, many news agencies have political affiliations, also ok. The difference is that Fox simply lies. Not spin. Not politics. Just plain lies. To pass off lies as news - well, guess what, I have an issue with that. So should you. And if you have not discovered their lies yet, then you are not doing your research, and simply want to hear what they are preaching. Ok too, but don't call it news then. It is more like a religion.
BBC by the way, is great. Love their news reporting, and consider them spot on.
I have to laugh... you call Fox "conversative", and MSNBC "ultra-liberal". Not that I thought you had any liberal leanings in you, but that is a nicely slanted way of labeling things.
Dad - Sorry that your blog becomes the lightening rod, but you just sort of open the barn door and we go in...
Tom - Tom, Fox News sometimes lies, yes, but not more often than the other networks. They all have some skin in the game of ratings and "breaking" or "exclusive" stories. When a news organization makes up stuff, they get in trouble and are fined and it is all over the other news channels and papers -- it is in fact, the new "news". None has a monopoly on the truth and none on lies. Every person chooses what to believe is the truth or a lie based on their personal view-point. And mostly, the networks are working off of emotions and miss the real news anyhow. For example, part of the real news on the health care bill has nothing to do with health care. Embedded in the health care bill is a provision that 1099 reporting will be required for ALL providers, including corporations (today it is just individuals) -- this will cost my 2 companies each over $1500 each to comply with (eah year!), and I have seen estimates that it will cost corporations over $50B /yr. Also, the bill enacts the "Economic Substance Doctrine" that makes it illegal for corporations to make transactions simply for the purpose of saving federal taxes. Zowie wowie, go read about this on the internet and tell me if it makes you want to go start a company anytime soon -- all the power is with the government and none with the corporation. Scary and real. This is me, not Fox News. And BTW, I have sent several emails and made several calls to Fox, CNN, and MSNBC about both of these issues. None seems to be interested cause it is not emotional and will not sell news... After all, they are in the business of selling, not reporting (ALL of them, Tom!!!)
Believe it or not, I have many liberal views - most would consider them ultra-liberal, but only on the social side. I believe in gay rights, gay marriage, equal pay, pro-choice, etc. But now, on the fiscal side, I am totally conservative - I guess ultra-conservative. I believe that those that risk all that they own and are willing to work 100+ hours per week should make more money than those that merely show up to work for 40 or so hours per week. And I also think they should get to keep some of it (40% at least!). When the rewards are stripped away, Johnnie may refuse to come out and play, and then jobs and the whole economy go south.
An interesting tid-bit -- Lee County, NC (where our stores are located) has over 18% unemployment. The census bureau is trying to find some 500+ part-time workers to educate people and to go house to house. They had signed up 100+ workers and then the feds extended unemployment and all the found workers went missing. we also had a couple of people that were going to start for us and then decided it was better to stay on unemployment. This is an indication that the system is broken cause people that work some get penalized.
OK, so I have rambled and am not even sure what my point was to start with... And now I am going to bed...
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