In the absence of a complete, one-topic essay, I thought I would "shotgun" a few observations. Here they are.
To all you Ron Paul supporters:
Aren't you embarrassed by the 200+ crowd who demonstrated against the Fox exclusion of Paul in the New Hampshire debate-specifically hooting Sean Hannity, following him back to his hotel and throwing snowballs at him?
Aren't you embarrassed about the old Ron Paul newsletters (authored by him) that are just coming out? Will you still support him after you have read them?
To the Hillary camp:
If Democratic voters are finally waking up to your candidate now, how do you think she'll do in a general election?
Regarding the op-ed piece by Gloria Steinem in the NY Times- do you really think playing the victim (in this case of sexism) card will win Hillary an election? Do you really think pity will put a person in the White House? Do you really think the public wants a victim as president?
To Hillary:
How's the release of your White House records coming along?
Are you going to cry again for the cameras to show us your "human" side?
To liberals:
This is a great country. Why can't you view the glass as half-full instead of nearly empty?
To John Edwards:
Same message. This is not England in the times of Dickins.
To all the Democrats:
Why is it that none of you are willing to use the term "Islamo-terrorists"?
To Muslims world-wide. This is a beautiful world. Life can be great. Why not enjoy it with the rest of us?
To Fred Thompson:
You have a lot of good beliefs. You could win. Start acting like you want this and stop acting like you are just doing it to make your wife happy.
To Mitt Romney:
You just might get a few more votes if you let your hair get mussed once in a while. After all, you don't have to look like the Masters Golf Course for crying out loud.
To Rudy Giuilani:
The old "I did this in New York" line doesn't play well with the rest of the country. The rest of us don't really care about the Big Apple.
To John McCain:
You have the best experience resume of all. Stop treating those who disagree with you as if they are errant schoolchildren. Wake up on the illegal immigration issue and start paying attention to that outlaw polygamist community that exists in your own state. You know, the one I wrote you about and never got a response.
To Bill Clinton:
It's over, Bill. Just go back to your hotel room with some babe and have fun.
To Barack Obama:
OK, you have the charisma. All the touchy-feely liberals are attracted to you. What specifically do you want to do if elected president?
To Bill Richardson:
So what exactly happened when you "faced those North Koreans"?
To all the Democratic candidates(and Ron Paul):
What role will our military play in the War on Terror if you are president?
To Al Gore:
What are you gonna do in 20 years when the world realizes that nothing has changed and everyone starts laughing at you? Will you give all those awards back?
To the Baseball Hall of Fame:
How in blazes can you elect "Goose" Gossage and not Ron Santo? (OK, I'm a Cubs fan.)
To the Council on Islamic American Relations (CAIR):
If you think you are the new NAACP, you are sadly mistaken.
To the secular Europeans:
Wake up! In two generations, you are going to be majority Muslim-but you won't be secular.
To the UN:
What have you guys been up to lately?- Besides nothing.
What are you going to do about Darfur?
To Keith Olbermann:
Can anybody be your "Worst Person in the World" besides Bill O'Reilly and Republicans?
To Al Sharpton:
When are you coming back to California to demonstrate on behalf of the "Palmdale 4"?
What will you say about this "racist" country if Obama is elected president?
To Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson:
Why so quiet about the Obama campaign. Jealous, perhaps?
To all the candidates:
What's with this "CHANGE" business? When you speak of "CHANGE", let's be more specific.
Just some random thoughts. I reserve the right to add more later.
I'll comment on a few:
ReplyDelete"To liberals:
This is a great country. Why can't you view the glass as half-full instead of nearly empty?"
Oh, come on. Didn't Rush Limbaugh have some kind of "America Under Siege" or some such nonsense when Clinton was in office? Of course the liberals are complaining. When a liberal gets in office (yeah right - moderate if I'm lucky) then the conservatives will be the whiners.
Personally though, I find it slightly scary whenever complaints about this country are met with a "Don't you think that this is a great country?" type of an answer.
I do love this country. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. That's why I complain when I see people doing things that are screwing it up. I don't want them to ruin it. It scares me that anybody could be anything less than outraged as to what this current administration has gotten us into. Those guys are ruining my country, and they do it while hiding behind a banner of phony patriotism.
"To Al Gore:
What are you gonna do in 20 years when the world realizes that nothing has changed and everyone starts laughing at you? Will you give all those awards back?"
I'm not so much of a Gore defender as I'd like to respond to what seems to be your stance on global warming. I'll admit that I'm not too well-read on this issue, but I've heard the side of those like Gore, and I've heard the counterarguments. So far, the counterarguments that I've heard seem to involve some sort of logical fallacy or a complete misunderstanding of what mainstream scientists are saying. (Just as they do with evolution.)
I don't know if the world will be like the doomsday scenario that he depicts, but I think that a lot of the flack he gets is pretty bogus.
"To Keith Olbermann:
Can anybody be your "Worst Person in the World" besides Bill O'Reilly and Republicans?"
Thank goodness for Keith Olbermann. Somebody needs to point out what a windbag Bill O'Reilly is and how Orwellian his "no spin zone" is. Yeah, the guy's biased. Conservatives have an entire network for their biases. (And please, don't give me a spiel about the "liberal media." You do realize that it's the media that keeps saying that there's a "liberal media.")
Personally though, I only watch his highlights on YouTube. I found watching his whole show to be sorta dull. I prefer The Colbert Report, as you can pretty much make fun of guys like O'Reilly, Hannity, Savage, etc. by just doing what they do but with a wink at the end.
"To all the candidates:
What's with this "CHANGE" business? When you speak of "CHANGE", let's be more specific."
It'd be nice to actually have a candidate whom I could feel good about voting for and has a chance of winning. If only more people would consider candidates outside the big two, we might have something to be proud of. (And if you don't think that a third party could ever make a difference, I have two words for you: Abraham Lincoln!"
Lance,
ReplyDeleteActually Rush Limbaugh is one of the most optimistic commentators out there in regards to the country. he is biased, sure, but what you see is what you get.
Like you, I don't know the truth about Global Warming, but when Al Gore says that the scientific debate is over and settled, that is a misstatement of fact.
"Conservatives have an entire network for their biases".
Just one Lance-Fox. Liberals have abc, cbs, nbc, msnbc and cnn, plus most of the newspapers. Aside from Fox, conservatives only dominate on radio talk shows. I don't hear the mainstream media talking about their liberalism- I hear the conservative commentators talk about it.
I see Limbaugh as beeing optimistic in the same sense that I see a codependent being optimistic about her alcholic husband. Anybody who has said that there's "no proof" that nicotine is addictive has got some serious problems. (Which is just one random example of his difficulty with facts.)
ReplyDeleteIt probably wasn't a good idea to say that the debate is over because nobody likes hearing such black and white terms when they're on the opposite side. Still, there is this false notion that there's some kind of 50-50 debate regarding global warming. What I do know is that the vast majority of scientists back up what Gore was saying (or, to be more accurate, he was reporting on what THEY'VE been saying). It also seems like the scientists who do come out against the prevailing wisdom always seem to be in the back pocket of oil companies.
Other than that, I keep hearing the argument that the Earth always goes through climate changes from hot to cold and back again. What this always ignores is the evidence that the particular hot spell that we're on is WAY beyond what it normally is.
I also keep hearing the whole thing about how there was a hysteria about "Global Cooling" in the 70s, and that was wrong, ergo, this is wrong. That's also pretty bogus, as it was one article in a magazine and hardly on the level that the concern for global warming is at.
Those are the only two rebuttals that I keep hearing from those who oppose what Gore is saying, and they both fall apart.
There might be some legitimate criticism of global warming, but it seems to me like a lot of conservatives are waging a war on reality when it comes to this one. Again though, this isn't an issue that I've researched as thoroughly as I have others. (Don't get me started on evolution.)
I also don't buy that all the other networks are "liberal." I think that they do whatever they can to make a buck, and they'll pander to anybody. Just because they aren't a mouthpiece for the right like Fox (which actually showed footage of the bombing of Baghdad to music! Holy crap!) that doesn't make them a left-wing equivalent. I'd be more inclined to believe that they were if ANY of them asked some hard questions when the Bush administration put forward their farcical "evidence" against Iraq. Once again, only the comics of Comedy Central (Stewart and Colbert) are willing to skewer the right wing on their foibles, but they go after the left with equal vigor.
Regarding global warming, did you know that the hottest decade of the 20th century was the 1930s? Hottest year-1934.
ReplyDeleteMy main point about global warming is that the Al Gores of the world want us (especially the US) to make drastic changes in our industry, technology, economy and govt structures to deal with this. I say before we do that, let's make sure we know all the facts. I really believe that the environmental lobby has an agenda, one that would reduce the US to the level of the rest of the world.
As for Fox News-sure they are conservative. Roger Ailes is the president. Fair and Balanced? They do have their liberal reps, but they are clearly more to the right. I will say that they are more fair and balanced than CNN and the other mainstream networks. I also forgot to mention Time and Newsweek. When you get down to it, the right has only talk radio and Fox.
As for talk radio, the liberals have had their shots, Mario Cuomo, Phil Donahue, Air America etc. They all fail for some reason or another. Why do they fail? No ratings. The listeners choose what they want to hear. As a conservative, I would welcome more liberal talk shows. Let's have a debate and let the people make up their minds. But it is not because conservatives are keeping liberal talk shows off the air-or even trying (like universities try to suppress conservative speech).
I don't find an agenda on the part of environmentalists very hard to believe. However, the agenda on the part of some of these obviously paid-off scientists is much more obvious. Anyway, this is a topic that I really need to look more into.
ReplyDeleteAs for talk radio, I actually found myself agreeing with Sean "Master of the Strawman" Hannity when he was talking about how ridiculous that one proposed bill (I think that's what it was - bear with me, as the point is still the same) to make all of radio more "balanced" was. I don't know how they'd even go about that, and it's really the sort of thing where you can't force things to be more balanced.
As for Fox, if you have to tell me you're "Fair and Balanced," you aren't. Ever notice that when people say, "I respect you" is when you have the strongest feeling that they don't?
Anyway, I don't see the mainstream media as being liberal, but I sure as heck won't defend it as being "balanced." Corporate, that's what they are.
As I said before though, I feel like the only people who really speak for me are the comedians. I might do a write-in vote for Stephen Colbert, the "factanistas" be damned!