Speaker of the House John Boehner is stepping down. Old news by now, I know, but I’ve been looking at some of the responses and his own statements in the wake of the decision and while this is not a new opinion on my part I have come to the conclusion that a sizable element of the GOP, especially in the House, are simply batshit crazy. I no longer believe they have an agenda. As long as it’s not The Other Guy’s program. When they announced back in 2009 that they intended to do anything to obstruct Obama, regardless, it was annoying but easy to assume that the more rational members of their party would temper their zeal and business would get done as it should. …
Category: Media
A Few Words About Unpleasant Realities
First off, I would like to say that I work with some amazing people. I will address just how amazing they are in a different post. The reason I mention it here is that this morning I attended a meeting wherein we all discussed an extremely delicate, profoundly important issue in order to establish a protocol for a specific event and it was one of the most trenchant and moving experiences in which I’ve been involved.
In mid-July, Harper Lee’s novel, Go Set A Watchman, will be released. That I am working at a bookstore when this is happening is incredible. …
Interview
I did an interview yesterday. Here’s the You Tube of it. It’s not as smooth as I’d like but it’s the result the fact that I’m in the Bronze Age, technologically. I had a difficult time hearing Sally Ember here, though that may not be readily apparent from this. I really need to upgrade all my systems. It would be nice if life would stop throwing me curve balls that keep costing me money I’d prefer to spend on new computers. However, I offer it here as one my few video bits. I recommend checking about Sally’s site, she has a lot of interviews there.…
We Were Just Talking
A couple of decades of online conversation has revealed many thing about our culture, about our selves. One is how little most of us seem to consider what we say before we say it.
I recently saw the term “flaming” used in a description of certain problematic exchanges in a forum I till recently frequented. I’m sure it’s still in current usage, but I hadn’t thought of the term in some time because I long ago vacated forums and chatrooms where this was a common problem. One of the more congenial things about FaceBook is that while flaming (and trolling and all such related hate-baiting tactics) still happens, users aren’t locked into the thread where it occurs.…
Dining Disruptively
This is a cool thing.
Dan Reus of Disruptive Diner contacted me a bit over a month ago and asked me to participate in this. Naturally, I had no real idea what I wanted to say or how I would say, which was compounmded by the format—Pekchuka, which means literally fast talking. I came up with something, which is posted above. I had fun. I’d have fun doing it again.
So……
Upgrading Myths
I saw Man of Steel this past weekend and while I enjoyed much of it, some of it was troubling, and I’ve been pondering ever since. To be sure, taking up so much brain time with a cinematic version of a comic book seems absurd, but only until you realize how much this stuff means to us as a culture.
Superman is a 20th Century American Myth and it has, whether we like it or not, supplied a good deal of workaday philosophical grist for our collective mills. We keep revisiting it (and revising it and rebooting it and returning to it) for reasons that have nothing to do with common sense and everything to do with how we see—or would like to see—the world.…
Pet Peeve
I don’t watch a lot of television. Possibly more than I should, given everything I have on my plate, but I grew up with tv and have loved a lot of what’s been on it and it is, or can be, a great source of pleasure.
One of the shows I’ve been devoted to the last few years has been Castle. From the first episode, I’ve been hooked. Firstly, how could I not like a show about a writer? And especially the writer as many of us dream of becoming. Secondly, Nathan Fillion. I mean, Firefly? I was so happy to see him get a new show. …
Reality, Real and Fake
By now those who don’t know about Phil Robertson and the debacle at A & E are most likely among those who have no access to any kind of media. They have no idea what the world is doing, because they have no way of knowing what to pay attention to. How can they possibly know anything about reality without the all-important medium of…well…media?
This isn’t really about Phil or Duck Dynasty or anything directly related to the people at the center of this. Not really. How can it be when what we see of them and hear them is simply not real?…
War On Christmas?
By now most people know about the flap over FOX News person Megyn Kelly’s absurd remarks concerning the ethnicity of (a) Santa Claus and (b) Jesus. Actions within the DMZ of the annual War On Christmas have reached new levels of ridiculous.
I wasn’t going to say anything about this, but…
Santa Claus is white? Really? After all this time, we’re going to have that debate?
If you must know, Santa Clause is your favorite uncle dressing up in a red suit and bellowing joyously at a key moment in your life. What color is he? What nationality? Whatever you answer, then you know what color Santa Claus is.…
Boycotts and Bully Boys
I’m not going to the theater to see Ender’s Game, not because I’m boycotting it or Mr. Card, but because I don’t care enough about it to spend coin on it. Of course, that can be said of 99% of the movies released in the last couple of decades—we don’t go to the movies anymore. It’s a habit we got out of shortly after buying a house. Priorities, y’know?
Not that I don’t eventually see them. (We finally saw The Time Traveler’s Wife this past weekend, long after it’s theatrical release. A couple of weeks back we saw Cloud Atlas at a friend’s house.) …