MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACKING OF THE MEDIA

If your IQ is under 130, you have little chance of really keeping up with truth these days.  News sources seem to no longer bother with the 3- proven rule before publishing or opening their mouths on TV or radio.  The stories from each source are as different as those from a divorcing couple.

Media are a bunch of ‘Monday morning quarterbacks’.  They seem to come in variety packs.  One group always knows and says what should have been done and much more qualified to fill the office of President than whoever has been elected to the  White House..  Another can make up lies faster than truth can be broadcast.  There is a non sequitur group   which speaks confidently, though totally off the subject and never answers direct questions.  However, one of my favorite (for pure entertainment) are the politicians who, when asked a question never answer it, but instead give their campaign speech.  The only implement missing is the hook they used to use in old variety shows.

Channel surfers have the greatest chance of getting mind boggled.  Being brainwashed by one channel is complicated enough when you mix with the real world, but watching  Fox News and MSNBC is enough to have you contacting your psychopharmacologist for a 'fix' or run to your nearest bottle of 'spirits'.

What we need is a graduate school for producers that is mandatory for all media to attend and set down similar rules and standards for all.  Well, I must have faith in something, shouldn't I.  Right now it is that the media miracle savior is coming.

BLOGSPOT WAS UNAVAILABLE FOR A BLOG ON FRIDAY THE 13TH

Apparently Google has fixed the problem.  Was it fitting for trouble on Friday the 13th,,,maybe the Shadow knows......

LIFE AFTER THE GREAT DEPRESSION OF THE 30S

Life at home in the 30s

Those of us who are still alive, having lived through the 1930s, have a very different set of values than most now.  People struggling without jobs and money in 2011 do not have the same coping skills with which to survive to survive.  Families are not as responsible for one another and are often too geographically distanced to assist..

Products are no longer made to last and, inevitably really must be replaced.  You can't go to your back acres and cut the wood to heat you for the winter.   Electric bills are astronomical as compared to household bills as they were..  The same is true for groceries. People bought unmodified foods that were locally in season, or canned,  A higher percent of people lived on farms in those days than today or had enough yard to grow vegetables and can them top last the winter..

We didn't have the pollution and toxins to which we are subjected today., thus not so much illness.  It was not that life was better, it was that it was simpler and we could survive on much less.  Death was accepted as inevitable and not always as a failure of doctors.  We didn't know what was going on in the world until much after things happened and resolved.  Not everyone knew everything that was going on other than a few major legislative votes and local news, much by word of mouth or the radio.
But before we get lost in a false nostalgia.  Though is was simpler, life expectancy was far shorter, so people didn't have as long to be really old and feeble. For those who long for 'the good old days', it is likely most would not be willing to give up their computers, cell phones, and time and energy-saving appliances.

There is no wish I have to be young again.  Life is to be lived once only.  We learn and grow and by the time we get old, we get tired.  Whereas we once had the urge to climb mountains, we now look around at the mountain of stuff we have accumulated in life that we will leave for others to 'climb'..

GUTTMACHER INSTITUTE ON ABORTION

There are times when others can speak for me more eloquently than I.  The Guttmacher Institute made a video worth watching.  I could not get it to work for me off the Guttmacher site but it was on YouTube.  Click here.

 

are already mothers.

Until we are better educated about sex and contraception, there will be need for abortions.  Religion should not be the determinant...especially another's religion.  

Let us hope that when the major issues being worked on by the administration are handled, the government and courts will see that the legal right for women to have abortions will be respected and the control freaks who wish to impose their values rather than the laws of America will be shown for who they are and sent to prison or whatever is indicated as response to their attempts to prevent women for obtaining legal abortions.

Any man who affects the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood.  -H.L. Mencken  That statement seems to be true today as it was before he died in the 50s and spoke  it.  One of the disturbing facts of our times is that it differs when a man stood on a soap box in the village or city square and spoke without amplification.  In today's world, the word of men and women is tweeted, networked, and distorted in is being repeated by the massive media systems.  We have radio which can be heard everywhere, hand held technology that gives instant news, and even apps to inform us that raindrops are about to fall.

Ed Schultz

Rachel Maddow

Today we live in a world where we are subjected to the opinions of people who have no constructive ideas.  As one show pointed out, about three times as many Republicans, most from the Bush administration, while only three Democrats, not especially close to the the killing of Osama bin Laden. were brought in to comment.  Ed Schultz and Rachel Maddow both (MSNBC) questioned why the shows seem to be bringing on a lot of the Bush administration people.  This was unclear to them as it is to me. 

Christianne Amanpour

David Gregory

More importantly, I was a faithful viewer of This Week on ABC and admire Christianne Amanpour but whether by her choice or that of the producer of the show, the past few shows have lacked news and meaning for me as has Meet the Press, though I also don't believe it is the fault of David Gregory, either.  Who chooses the guests?  I'm afraid I have become a non-viewer on Sunday mornings though I cannot get desperate enough to think going to church would improve Sunday mornings.

Could we suggest better choices for guests and panelists in the future?

MOTHER'S DAY MEANS SOMETHING DIFFERENT TO EVERYONE

Like Christmas, Mother's Day 2011 has come and gone.  While some felt it was a good day, others could not bear the wait to get over it. What seems to have been most people's idea of the perfect day?  A Mother' day wherein all her children contacted her by one way or another to let her know what she means to them?  She may still be the same mother, though one who is mourning her own mother taken by the Grim Reaper.

There really are mothers who do not deserve the love and respect of their children.  And we must not forget that even women who did not bear their own children may be 'mothers' to someone else's. We may or not be mothers ourselves, but we certainly had mothers or envied others who seemed to have better ones, more loving, kinder...better,  like all that grass that grows greener on the other side of the fence.

With luck, a mother has gone through the day happily even though the mothers without their parenting partner may not succeed to that level of happiness to know they are loved by spouse and children.  Like everything else in our lives, context is everything in deciding who shall have a day of happiness or sadness.

I can only wish that everyone's was as happy as mine.  Not one element of making the day successful was missed.  May all mothers have such good fortune.

THE PARLOR GAME IS ON WITH THE MEDIA AS PLAYERS

As the story began to unfold, media covered it by adding to the guessing game.  Some was corrected the next day but that doesn't seem good enough for Joshua Holland. who claims that the Obama administration is pushing 9 deceptions.  There is one point that Mr. Holland seems to miss and that  main point is that Osama is dead.   As a journalist, he should be aware that how everything was done must first protect the Seals.  Apparently there is much we haven't heard about.  Where did the over 20 children go and to whom did they all belong.  Osama's 3rd wife was there and identified his body.  What happened then to her?  What has happened to all the people protecting Osama.  Has Pakistan taken responsibility?  If so, why since these people were being protected by someone in Pakistan.

To save the secrecy of the Stealth Helicopter, it had to be blown up.  Do we know what else has to be kept quiet for security's sake?  The public's right to know', it seems was satisfied when they received news that later was even verified by Osama's own people...that he is dead.  That satisfies me for the moment.  I don't see that any Geneva Conventions were broken.  If they were, we will undoubtedly hear about it.  We also heard about many guesses from people.  When media people guess on live media, it is hard to remember what is truth and someone's imagination.

It would please me greatly to hear more facts and less speculation.  Guessing accurately has never seemed to make a journalist the best in his/her trade, that I have heard.  Why is it so important to Joshua Holland to accuse the administration of deception being behind every change of  the story  being made public is trying to protect security.  Is every change when new information was reported  an administrative deception?  When more opportunity for more briefing  has happened, isn't it logical to have some corrected 'facts'.