Sunday, January 23, 2011

Keith Olbermann and MSNBC

Photo by srqpix

I missed Olbermann's Friday show.  I wish I had not, but I seldom watch MSNBC on Fridays because the news and commentary programming ends before I have finished my evening chores.  MSNBC is not really a news network because its weekend broadcasts are simply docufillers, ways to keep something banal on the screen rather than a test pattern.

I am not a total Keith Olbermann fan.  He was too quick to poke fun and commentary at religious straw men without ever acknowledging the overlooked mainstream.  The extremes were much more fun to comment on. I could forgive even that when he read Thurber on the air (I did catch some Friday newscasts and podcasts.)

Keith Olbermann will be fine.  MSNBC is doomed to be a thrid-rate news source.  I refuse to watch Chuck Todd.

I was utterly appalled to hear that Lawrence O'Donnell will replace Olbermann. Someone billed him as a liberal Democrat.  Maybe he was at one time, but now he is just a sissy.  I have watched his show and observed his strained attempts to equate Republican and Democratic behavior.  He never admits that either side could be wrong, no he must draw false equivalencies or even insist on them in face of the facts.  MSNBC needs to teach its staff the meaning of right and wrong.  Oh, they can't because they don't know it either.

The final straw was to hear that Chris Matthews would profit from Olbernann's departure.  I don't know if I can even watch Rachel Maddow if Chris Matthews is a prominent figure on MSNBC.  I stopped watching MSNBC before because he is such a misogynist.  I remember too many of his interviews with women of intelligence and position where he did his best to denigrate them.  He especially hated it when a woman responded intelligently to his inane question.  He simply rolled over their answer with his.  His crowning achievement was the despicable way he spoke of and treated Hillary Clinton.  I believe he should have been fired.  MSNBC seems to prefer misogynists to liberals.  And Mathews is not a liberal.  Anyone who would allow Tom Delay to cast aspersions on the whole court system of a community, then agree with the Congressman known as "the Hammer" as if his statements were fact is not interested in truth.   No liberal would hold such a viewpoint.  He is a lapdog for Senators and Representatives who pet him by feeding him what he believes is "inside" information.  I will never watch him on television.

MSNBC along with NBC( don't get me going on David Gregory) are just corporate lackeys.  The firing of Keith Olbermann is just another symptom of big business' takeover.  Most Americans don't even realize that we have government of the corporation, by the corporation and for the corporation.  MSNBC wants to make sure it stays that way.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Palin and My Family

Sarah Palin reminds me of too many members of my family who never take responsibility.  One recently quit his job because he was told to take a training course in something he thought he already knew.  When he had difficulty finding another job,  his excuse for quitting became "The company wanted to get rid of me, but I beat them to the punch."   Sarah Palin in her comments on the Tucson shootings did the same thing, to paraphrase: "Me, little me, I did nothing wrong,  It's just the mean old Democrats and media picking on little me."

I think that Sarah Palin scares me because I do see her actions reflected in those of certain members of my family including my long-dead  paternal grandfather who blighted the lives of his children.  Those members of my family like her carry a constant chip on their shoulder.  They are always being picked on in their minds, even though everyone else is simply reacting to their reprehensible behavior, in my grandfather's case drunkenness and debauchery.  These are the bullies of the family, bossing everyone around, berating their mothers for imagined wrongs, yelling at the autistic cousin.  They are always angry.  Suggestions as to appropriate behavior no matter how gently offered result in adult temper tantrums. Most no longer participate in family get-togethers because "no one likes them."  The truth is the family has tried numerous times to include them, but too often their bullying behavior leads to tears and anger.  I do not want a Presidential candidate like that.

I want a President that can admit mistakes and own up to their bad behavior.  Most of all, I do not want a President that always blames someone else.  I do not want a President who thinks "The Devil made me do it."

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Passion and Civility

Photo by Charles & Clint


The events of January 8, 2011,were appalling.  The death and destruction caused by one man were terrible.  Those injuries were inflicted on us all whether no matter our faith or lack of it.  Those injuries were to the body politic.

Some commentators have linked the shooting and the young man's rage to the statements by other commentators and politicians designed to inflame their followers so that they are united by emotion not reason.   I agree.  The goal is to acquire a bigger audience or more voters.  What is forgotten are those on the fringes for whom sanity and reason are already illusive.  An appeal to their emotions unleashes the violence within.  

Our current political discourse has become laced with too much violent imagery.  There is too much demonization of the other whether of another party or another faith.  We have sown the wind and will reap the whirlwind.

We do not have to agree.  By our very natures we find that difficult.  We all see ourselves as correct and our opponents as hopelessly unknowing.  We can disagree civilly.  Point out the errors in our opponents argument,  State clearly our own basis for out position.  We do not need to use blood-soaked rhetoric.

Christ said "Do to others as you would have then do to you."  Why can't we remember that when we argue politics?


I do not believe in  personified evil.  There is no fallen angel set to battle God for our souls.  I do believe in evil.  For whatever reason this creation is permeated by malice, hatred, greed and violence.   We are too often the chalice for the badness in this world.  


The young man who shot all these innocents is not evil.  He is ill.  In his illness he can be manipulated by those around him  deliberately or not.  The evil is two fold.  First are those who use the rhetoric of violence knowing that there are vulnerable souls like him who may be goaded to action by those words.  Second are those who see no need to care for citizens as the gunman.  The mentally ill are consigned to live among us without care by both the left and the right.  The left says they have rights and should not be placed in a safe environment against their will even if their will is deranged.  The right says care for the mentally ill is just too expensive.  We cannot spend the money to care for them or protect them from others or protect us from them.  Both positions reflect the evils of our time: freedom at any cost vs. monetary selfishness.  Christ told us we will be judged by how we treat the least of those among us.  We need to pay heed.


As a nation we need to look within.  We must point out evil wherever it occurs.  The left is not innocent, but when it comes to words of violence and hate, the right produces a torrent while the left produces a rivulet.  Too many make their living by branding their fellow Americans as "the other," somehow unworthy to be American.  This must stop.  Now is the time for those who believe that violent rhetoric begets violence to take a stand.  


Civility must be our goal.  Our own speech must reflect this.  I must change before I can expect others to.  The apostle Paul wrote: "Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.  Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."


I can only speak as a Christian, but I believe that those of all faiths share my desire for a civil society.

My prayer this day:

God, who reigns in eternity,
Praise your everlasting patience.
When we in person bow before you,
Accept us, please.
Daily,
Give us the temperament to receive your bounty
And acknowledge that it comes from you.
Let us treat others with civility,
So that you will treat us well.
Teach us the etiquette of belief,
So that we are examples to others.
Rudeness is the gift of evil,
Stay our souls from accepting that gift,
For you care how we treat our fellows.
Politeness is the child of lovingkindness.
You are love in all its glory.
Your grace is there for all.
Forever.
                                  Amen.



Sunday, January 2, 2011

Sunday Morning Talk Shows

Photo by Omar Omar

I tried to watch some of the network talk shows this morning.  "Tried" is the operative word.  I just could not do it.  When Rep. Issa said he was going to investigate ACORN, the new Black Panthers and something else, I was stunned.  The commentator just let him rattle on, not even pointing out that ACORN no longer exists, the new Black Panthers consists of 2 men or that  maybe there were better ways to spend the taxpayer dollar.  I turned the television off.

I came back to my TV after giving my ailing cat fluids under the skin.  I got to listen to Republicans and pundits say that corporate taxes are too high.  Another misleading statement, not qualified by the commentator. Tax rates may be high, but they have little to do with what a corporation pays in taxes.  Most pay far less than the not corporate citizens, i. e. human beings.  The solution offered by the pundits was to raise personal tax rates and lower corporate tax rates.  That way the taxes of the poor and middle class can support the corporate welfare state that Republicans and conservative pundits wish to continue..  I turned off the television again.

Is it so hard to have a commentator who could at least know enough to be able to point obvious fallacies?  Or have commentators been co-opted into believing that they must simply provide a platform for politicians and pundits to utter whatever misinformation they desire?. Are they simply constrained by their corporate owners or so terrified of losing their jobs that all we get is inanities from them?