9 - 11 March 2009, I got hit with Associated Press-written news about how folks were going on killing rampages all of a sudden and businesses large and small were bellying-up from sea to shining sea.
The killings were of course all done with guns so they called the shooters gunmen. The gunman did this. The gunman did that. Heavy emphasis on the guns. We have that part. How about a little more on motive? The AP journalist writes that a gunman walked into a church and shot the preacher who held up his Bible in reflex. There seemed a sinister delight in telling us how the Bible turned to confetti and fluttered down around the preacher.
The bland quotes from the congregation made the people seem predictable and dull. There was nothing dynamic about the story save the shooting itself, the shower of confetti, and the mocking quote about how the congregation was "screaming and praying." The AP journalist got a lot of mileage out of the confetti Bible. It read to me like the writer was gloating over the news -- light years apart from the tragedy. He wrote like he was far removed from the gravity of the event, as though he enjoyed a sinister immunity. To me the story had the mild flavor of ridicule.
So too was the news about a similar senseless killing rampage in Alabama. This man went 'round shooting folks on a spree. He killed relatives and random people before committing suicide. Again the word "gunman" was used over and over with bland quotes from locals larding the text. A matter-of-fact nonchalance pervaded the story. There was a lack of empathy and compassion from the writer. It was like she was writing a grocery list.
Then I get to the piece about how Circuit City was saying goodbye. Again there seemed a pevading theme of gloating ridicule. Like "ha ha, you American businesses are going down, jack. And you're never coming back." The gloom and doom that rains upon the American economy seemed to delight this writer. It read to me like he was gleeful to write about how Circuit City's sky was falling. If a store that has been 60 years part of our American lives can fold on a dime and "be left broom clean and vacant," what does that say about other small businesses?
The AP writer gloats on about how store employees were saying their last goodbyes as the place was getting "fleeced" of all its inventory. Amazing how deep into visual details this guy went to describe the sad scenes of our failing economy, wringing every last pathetic scene from the now jobless employees down to the makeshift signs outside of the store.
Throughout this text like some kind of carnival side-show, there were long lists of retailers and businesses that were going under. Like, "come jeer at who else in America is losing their *sses." That's what I got from it -- the way the piece was arranged and lain out. The list was so long that I had to finally abandon the tour. It seemed that everyone was on it. The question to ask was "who was not on it?" I felt that this list would have been the shorter one.
The "gunman rampage" stories were laid out similarly, larded with carnival picture-shows of other outlandish acts of crime that have shocked people lately. Like "isn't this all so entertaining?" I realise that these AP writers were marching to the tune of somebody above them who approves and encourages such journalism.
It is journalism like this that makes me glad that mainstream newspapers are doing so well at the moment.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Hills and pills
Ever notice how when a high-visibility figure gets too lucid that he suddenly develops a drug problem? I have noticed it over the years with singers who write poignant, anti-establishment lyrics.
The songs of this particular singer were about how our government had gone awry and was raping Middle America. What sealed his fate was how he slipped in a few songs glorifying Jesus Christ. Now he was certainly "an enemy of the State." What made this singer the Wizard's biggest nightmare was how he was handsome to boot, multi-faceted, a gifted lyricist and had the ear of our Nation. Because of this he could come blasting out of a juke-box or car stereo at any time encouraging us to think for ourselves and to love the Lord. So he developed a heroin problem and faded into obscurity. How convenient for the Wizard.
Makes you wonder what Jim Morrison and Bob Marley really died of, doesn't it? Or any other charismatic, talented, anti-establishment speaker or singer. Even American Presidents have paid with their lives for opposing the Wizard. Think about that a minute.
If you want to get the Wizard's attention just start preaching the Book of Revelation from your Sunday morning pulpits. Not the Centrist pabulum version either -- the King James version. The English inspiration of God's Word that is crystal clear and came along after Shakespeare. Don't worry about the recent "converts" in the back of your church. They have been paid to attend many churches across the country to monitor your sermons. Let them have both barrels, be you a man of God. Take a lesson from your Muslim brothers who run scared of no man.
After that, if you can't be cajoled into a drug problem or the bed of a whore, then the Wizard will try something else to get you off the public radar. Thug-beatings and car bombs have been popular lately. That snaps neatly into what Christ said about how "you will be persecuted in my name." Don't let them sell you a copy of the "new international version" of anything. Stick to the poetry of your King James. God's Word issues in verses, not prose. So you best make use of those.
Go with the flow and you play into the Wizard's hand. Sometimes a soul must take a stand -- and set the pews on fire. Let your sermon-monitoring converts feel how hot a pew can get. Preach it, Brother. Make 'um sweat. I dare them to set foot into a real Church of Christ. Come on down that dirt road. We're waitin' for you.
Look at it this way. It all ends the same.
Sometimes a hill is worth dying on (ask the boys in Pakistan). And sometimes it isn't. Sometimes it's the wrong hill altogether -- like American involvement in Israeli fight-picking. Clearly it is Israel that needs the butt-kicking. And if you idiots want to be in the Levant when they launch the first nuke -- march on into the shockwave. As it blows your hair back remember that Islam is not our enemy and Afghanistan was not our hill.
Mercenary warfare is a poison pill. Don't swallow it. We all die anyhow. You can quietly fade away later wearing diapers, half brain-dead, hooked up to things that go beep in the night. Or you can die with your boots on in a righteous fight. The choice is yours America. Pick a hill worth dying on. But don't send your Christian sons to die on the smoking alter of Zionism under a banner of hatred, racism and genocide. That's not the American way and you know it.
The songs of this particular singer were about how our government had gone awry and was raping Middle America. What sealed his fate was how he slipped in a few songs glorifying Jesus Christ. Now he was certainly "an enemy of the State." What made this singer the Wizard's biggest nightmare was how he was handsome to boot, multi-faceted, a gifted lyricist and had the ear of our Nation. Because of this he could come blasting out of a juke-box or car stereo at any time encouraging us to think for ourselves and to love the Lord. So he developed a heroin problem and faded into obscurity. How convenient for the Wizard.
Makes you wonder what Jim Morrison and Bob Marley really died of, doesn't it? Or any other charismatic, talented, anti-establishment speaker or singer. Even American Presidents have paid with their lives for opposing the Wizard. Think about that a minute.
If you want to get the Wizard's attention just start preaching the Book of Revelation from your Sunday morning pulpits. Not the Centrist pabulum version either -- the King James version. The English inspiration of God's Word that is crystal clear and came along after Shakespeare. Don't worry about the recent "converts" in the back of your church. They have been paid to attend many churches across the country to monitor your sermons. Let them have both barrels, be you a man of God. Take a lesson from your Muslim brothers who run scared of no man.
After that, if you can't be cajoled into a drug problem or the bed of a whore, then the Wizard will try something else to get you off the public radar. Thug-beatings and car bombs have been popular lately. That snaps neatly into what Christ said about how "you will be persecuted in my name." Don't let them sell you a copy of the "new international version" of anything. Stick to the poetry of your King James. God's Word issues in verses, not prose. So you best make use of those.
Go with the flow and you play into the Wizard's hand. Sometimes a soul must take a stand -- and set the pews on fire. Let your sermon-monitoring converts feel how hot a pew can get. Preach it, Brother. Make 'um sweat. I dare them to set foot into a real Church of Christ. Come on down that dirt road. We're waitin' for you.
Look at it this way. It all ends the same.
Sometimes a hill is worth dying on (ask the boys in Pakistan). And sometimes it isn't. Sometimes it's the wrong hill altogether -- like American involvement in Israeli fight-picking. Clearly it is Israel that needs the butt-kicking. And if you idiots want to be in the Levant when they launch the first nuke -- march on into the shockwave. As it blows your hair back remember that Islam is not our enemy and Afghanistan was not our hill.
Mercenary warfare is a poison pill. Don't swallow it. We all die anyhow. You can quietly fade away later wearing diapers, half brain-dead, hooked up to things that go beep in the night. Or you can die with your boots on in a righteous fight. The choice is yours America. Pick a hill worth dying on. But don't send your Christian sons to die on the smoking alter of Zionism under a banner of hatred, racism and genocide. That's not the American way and you know it.
Assigned Enemies
I saw one of those Live Leak videos the other day where an American soldier in Iraq was reaming out a rank and file unit of Iraqi police. I was incensed by the language of this military man who represented my country. He was a foul-mouth embarrassment, cussing out a unit of subjugated men who could not understand his language. They required an interpreter for this tirade.
Between this knuckle-dragger's expletives I got his message to the Iraqis. He was chewing them out for not being more aggressive at ferreting out and picking fights with their countrymen. They were ordered to scour the countryside in search of war. Who was this joker pitting Iraqis against their countrymen, cussing out a reluctant, forced police? Who put him up to this?
Was it the same black-hearted author of the manual I read? The one in which a question was posed, "how does one engage a new, inexperienced soldier in fighting?" and the answer was given, "You arm him, thrust him into the fight and let kill or be killed do the rest." I will never forget those words. They scarred me for life and introduced me to the makers of war.
Could it be this same black-hearted beast who invented the game of dodge-ball that children are forced to play in gym classes? You remember that don't you? We were kids in elementary school -- just little kids. And one day the gym teacher gave us a hard rubber ball and divided us into two teams. We were told to throw the ball at the enemy team until only one kid was left standing, holding the ball. The same principle was applied in gym class that applies in war.
You are pitted against an assigned enemy who never personally offended you. You are ordered to attack them and told that if you don't kill them they will kill you. This isn't always true. It is what they tell you. Somebody fires the first shot and then what follows is a chain-reaction.
Today we have a situation where a controlled, armed mob is being pitted against people in the Middle East who had NOTHING to do with 9/11. Our sons are coming back with formaldehyde in their veins because they thought they were fighting terrorists. In truth -- the real terrorists are the ones writing our war-fighting manuals, pitting our sons against assigned enemies, instigating wars, and sowing the seeds of hatred and discord.
Case-in-point? The recent massacre in Mumbai. It smacks of the same modus operandi as 9/11. The corpses of the dead terrorists have been mutilated to preclude identification, a telling wall. The Mumbai police stood by and watched as gunmen killed their countrymen without lifting a finger -- kind of like our military bases stood down their fighter pilots during the 9/11 attacks.
Time to wake up and smell the rat America.
Between this knuckle-dragger's expletives I got his message to the Iraqis. He was chewing them out for not being more aggressive at ferreting out and picking fights with their countrymen. They were ordered to scour the countryside in search of war. Who was this joker pitting Iraqis against their countrymen, cussing out a reluctant, forced police? Who put him up to this?
Was it the same black-hearted author of the manual I read? The one in which a question was posed, "how does one engage a new, inexperienced soldier in fighting?" and the answer was given, "You arm him, thrust him into the fight and let kill or be killed do the rest." I will never forget those words. They scarred me for life and introduced me to the makers of war.
Could it be this same black-hearted beast who invented the game of dodge-ball that children are forced to play in gym classes? You remember that don't you? We were kids in elementary school -- just little kids. And one day the gym teacher gave us a hard rubber ball and divided us into two teams. We were told to throw the ball at the enemy team until only one kid was left standing, holding the ball. The same principle was applied in gym class that applies in war.
You are pitted against an assigned enemy who never personally offended you. You are ordered to attack them and told that if you don't kill them they will kill you. This isn't always true. It is what they tell you. Somebody fires the first shot and then what follows is a chain-reaction.
Today we have a situation where a controlled, armed mob is being pitted against people in the Middle East who had NOTHING to do with 9/11. Our sons are coming back with formaldehyde in their veins because they thought they were fighting terrorists. In truth -- the real terrorists are the ones writing our war-fighting manuals, pitting our sons against assigned enemies, instigating wars, and sowing the seeds of hatred and discord.
Case-in-point? The recent massacre in Mumbai. It smacks of the same modus operandi as 9/11. The corpses of the dead terrorists have been mutilated to preclude identification, a telling wall. The Mumbai police stood by and watched as gunmen killed their countrymen without lifting a finger -- kind of like our military bases stood down their fighter pilots during the 9/11 attacks.
Time to wake up and smell the rat America.
Poor excuse for news
I find it laughable -- what passes for news on AOL and deem that such "news" is little more than tabloid sleaze. One may as well subscribe to the yellow press. Is this a reflection of the churlish sensibilities of my countrymen or just stupid assumptions made by hack journalists? A bit of both?
The headlines on their hard news page is about things like an 800-pound Fish, Michelle Obama striking a pose, bustings and bookings of folks whose reputations are expendable and such. As for the real news, you won't get it here. What you will get on AOL are pointers about how to retrench. They tell you how to tighten your belt financially in myriad ways, like how to shop for cheaper, lower-quality food for your family. They tell us to shop at bargain warehouses, skimp on health insurance, get cheaper hair cuts and join a car-pool. They suggest that we rent off-site cars instead of the ones at air ports. They recommend that we unplug electronics when they are not in use and swap baby-sitting duties with friends.
Don't look for the real news from Fox or CNN either nor from any other mainstream source. For truth you shall have to go to the mouth of the horse. All you get from mainstream news is an insult to average intelligence. AOL stoops even lower. They add injury to the insult with tacky pabulum aimed at the vulgar rabble of the streets. A kind of pacifier for the public mind that they think is not sharp enough to pick up on what is happening.
The headlines on their hard news page is about things like an 800-pound Fish, Michelle Obama striking a pose, bustings and bookings of folks whose reputations are expendable and such. As for the real news, you won't get it here. What you will get on AOL are pointers about how to retrench. They tell you how to tighten your belt financially in myriad ways, like how to shop for cheaper, lower-quality food for your family. They tell us to shop at bargain warehouses, skimp on health insurance, get cheaper hair cuts and join a car-pool. They suggest that we rent off-site cars instead of the ones at air ports. They recommend that we unplug electronics when they are not in use and swap baby-sitting duties with friends.
Don't look for the real news from Fox or CNN either nor from any other mainstream source. For truth you shall have to go to the mouth of the horse. All you get from mainstream news is an insult to average intelligence. AOL stoops even lower. They add injury to the insult with tacky pabulum aimed at the vulgar rabble of the streets. A kind of pacifier for the public mind that they think is not sharp enough to pick up on what is happening.
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