I’ve made it two weeks sans any news except the NYTs. Sure, there has been a headline or two that has leaked through my guard unintentionally. Seeing MSNBC scrolling along at the pub, misinforming the patrons, in my humble view. But, by and large, my world view for the last two weeks has been shaped entirely be the NYTs. No blog reading or writing (except, as those of you who have been following my experience know – I am reading the comments to my diaries, so long as they don’t mention breaking news – but no interaction from me allowed).
How is it going? From my point of view, I feel like a total nitwit. I feel completely dumbed down as far as current events go. Objectively, I don’t think I am completely stupid. I still read the Times, and a good book here or there. I carried on an intelligent conversation at a cook-out yesterday. However, as far as current events, I feel like a shell of my former blog reading self. So that is two weeks down and August to go.
I am still having a great deal of difficulty slogging through all the news that’s fit to print. I feel like I have been eating nothing but oatmeal for a month. So, if I just can’t take it, I flip through. Read headlines and leads until I find something I like. Kind of the way I used to browse the blogs for news. Just a lot more boring.
There are scarcely any articles that seem worth mentioning to let you know what the Times is saying. Many of you probably read it already, and those of you who don’t still probably get the good articles linked and analyzed for you on BMT and dKos.
What caught my eye toward the close of my second week of becoming an American zombie? Page one on Saturday – Bolton lied about speaking to Inspector General. Says he forgot. But, President is still likely to give him a recess appointment. That is democracy in action. Advice to Bolton, in the unlikely event that he reads these blogs, or someone passes information from the blogs on to him: John, you are neither the egg man, nor the walrus. So shave the fucking creepy moustache for starters. The only contemporary American who can get away with anything like that rag doll you wear on your face and still look anything like cool is Sam Elliott, and I think that is mostly because he frequently plays characters set in the 1800s, and because he IS cool. So just lose the fucking ‘stache Mr. Number One Diplomat to Be at the U.N. I am pretty sure about this. Also, stop yelling at your subordinates you dick. And, stop criticizing the function of the work environment of the place where you are about to be employed. Complete tool.
Cafta (the Times writes it like that – why not CAFTA???). Makes me sick. Cynical political manipulation. I can practically imagine you all pounding away on your keyboards on vote day. Lobbying against the turncoat Democrats and yellow Republicans from working neighborhoods who supported the stupid bill. I read about it at least 24 hours after it happened.
The USA Patriot Act mostly made permanent. The story was so bad, I am not even sure what happened to the library search and roving wire tap provisions. But, it seems that they were extended for four years. This is completely scary shit to me, and one of the overarching themes to my first novel coming out in the fall. Scared Americans rallying around taking their own rights away. Line-up for the searches now and smile. I am sickened. It is bi-partisan support for crap like this that truly makes me want to walk away from this stupid country, if any other nation would have me. Also, there is a quote from an ACLU source in the article that says the changes made make the new USA Patriot Act a lot better. It sounded like a quote of support, and that smelled way fishy to me. Didn’t that Jason Blair guy leave the NYTs?
Iraq War. Mostly a footnote. On most days there is one headline story buried on the back pages. Sometimes page one, but I would say no more than two or three times a week. At least that is how it seems. And, the one or two stories that are on the war always have multiple news stories in them. You can read about the really awful shit, usually in paragraph 34. It is absolutely insane. I threw a War, and no one from America’s supposed number one newspaper bothered to show up. At least not with the kind of war coverage that I think probably existed in America’s other bloody little wars of empire in decades past. Appalling. At least to me.
And finally, the NYTs Book Review had a cover article about the crisis in the news media. By Richard Posner. His analysis of how the media really is too liberal, and too conservative, all at the same time. Funny, I didn’t read anywhere in his article how a major corporation owns every broadcast television network in the United States. I hated it. But, he did have some kind of backhanded compliments to the blogs. How they are free-er to print the news fast, without the fear of getting every detail wrong. And, how the dynamics of blogs tend to operate as a better fact checking service than the MSM. He called CNN the lefty network though, a yin to Faux News’s yang. I’m not buying what he is selling. We are living in Corporate America. From the products to the ideas we consume, I don’t think most of us are getting anything that the corporations don’t want us to get, unless we are really working our asses off to get the alternative message. That’s just my view. I could be wrong. Because, I am just an idiot. At least that’s how I feel.
See you in a month.