Just the facts, ma'am

There was a popular cops-and-robbers TV show back in the fifties, Dragnet, where Sgt. Joe Friday was famous for saying,  "...the facts ma'am.  Just the facts."  He wasn't interested in hearing opinions or innuendo, just the facts.

Fast forward 60 years and we seem to have forgotten Sgt. Joe's mantra.  Today President Trump has made "fake news" his mantra.  He implies that everything that comes out of the news media, especially ABC, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post...virtually everyone except his favorite, FOX News...is "fake", not true, a lie.  Dismissing the press en masse like this is dangerous.

The true problem lies between our own ears.  We hear factual news and the accompanying editorial and believe it all or not at all.  We have become such shallow thinkers we don't know how to separate the wheat from the chaff.  And to make things worse, most of us only read/listen to whatever reinforces what we want to believe.  Opposing views are not tolerated.

For example, the news might report that John Smith was caught on surveillance video robbing a convenience store and is now in custody.   The police have video and the eyewitness account of the clerk who was robbed, and the perp is indeed behind bars.  So far, this is a fact.   But then a conservative news outlet might add "...and now this vicious predator is off the streets" while a liberal outlet might say "...he looked to be homeless and hungry".  

If you've ever been on a jury panel you'll remember the judge asking if you've seen news coverage of the alleged crime and have a pre-conceived opinion of guilt or innocence.  This is how our inability to separate fact from opinion can skew justice.

The truth is, most serious investigative journalism today seems to originate from the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, and just a few others.  The facts they uncover and print or put on the air must be corroborated or else they're setting themselves up for a massive libel suit.  Unless their facts can be credibly refuted with real, conflicting evidence, they should be believed.  What they write on their editorial page is just for entertainment value.  

If we can't learn this difference, our long-term democracy is in jeopardy.  Wise up people, or get run over!

S

It didn't work the last time, so...ummm...let's try it again, only this time, we'll MEAN it!

I understand that the New York Times has a front page editorial that calls for the outlawing of private ownership of weapons that can cause mass casualties.  This is the epitome of the toothless rhetoric that we always hear after every tragic shooting spree.  Would this new law simply rely on voluntary surrender of such weapons?  *snicker*  Does anyone, even the wildest eyed wild eyed liberal out there think that is ever going to happen?  So why waste time writing, debating, voting on, and signing such a ridiculous DOA bill?

Our tendency to "pass a new law" to fix every problem has got to stop.  We're just wasting our time.  Worthless, unenforceable paper is NOT the answer.  We need to turn MENSA loose and task them with finding a real solution.

S

Throwing red meat to the lions

I watched an interesting TV show last night about the origins of the Nazi party in the immediate post WWI Germany.  (Yes, I'm a history nerd.)  Stay with me here....this is leading to a modern corollary.  

It told the familiar story of a few malcontents who met regularly in dark Munich beer halls, how Hitler met Goering and the original party core was formed, etc.

 

 Propaganda Minister Goebbels wrote the book on print and electronic thought manipulation.

But then it told of how things were moving in slow motion until they bought a small Munich newspaper, the Das Groobenshinerbocklageramberale (not sure about the spelling).  That was their original propaganda mouthpiece, and that's when their membership took off. 

They filled its pages with slanted news, sometimes factual, sometimes made up, to whip their fellow malcontents into a frenzy.  And they soon found radio had an even wider audience.

The Fox News of the 1930's?

That's not likely to ever happen again.  Today we're much more sophisticated.  Or are we?  Ever watch Fox News?  In a headlong race to the bottom, they're in first place by a wide margin.  They're not even subtle about it.  

They're a mouthpiece for the ultra-conservative right....the Tea Partyers, and those who are (or at least think they are) in a privileged position.  Some of their "contributors" are actually funny they're so absurd.  Fox News today is the ultra-right wing's Das Groobenshinerbocklageramberale.

In fairness, the ultra-left has their mouthpiece, too....MSNBC.  The only difference is, nobody watches it.  They once invented their own propaganda radio network (Air America) and it flopped miserably, too.  I guess they haven't read that book by Goebbels, Propaganda, Lies, and Just Plain Bullshit.  Fox News obviously has, and has even added ts own prologue.

The right says the New York Times is a liberal mouthpiece, but as long as you stay off their editorial pages, I don't see it.  It's pretty much just who, when, where, why, and how plain vanilla news.  I had a good chuckle recently when my pseudo-Tea Party brother showed me a "conservative" article in the Dallas Morning News, then started lambasting the "liberal NYT".  

Only then did I show him the by-line of the article's author at the end of the Dallas News story....it was a NYT journalist.  They just copy and pasted his story.  Haha!

Anyone who quotes from either Fox or MSNBC as their source loses huge credibility with me.  People today only want to hear that which reinforces what they already believe.

We need to learn to read more widely and think for ourselves again.  We've become very gullible people.  What's that old saying about history repeating itself?

S

Back in the saddle again....

Looks like I'm in good company at least. 

It seems the last few days I've been afflicted with the "Disease of Kings", aka gout.  My right foot / big toe started hurting like hell, as if I dropped a 50 pound weight on it, except without all the black and blue.  The doc diagnosed it and gave me some meds, and I'm much better now.

In the olden days it was usually royalty that had gout, mainly because they were the only ones who could afford red meat and alcohol, two of the prime culprits that cause gout.  But in my case, however, it seems the problem is Coca Cola's.  

My red meat and alcohol intake are very modest....a few beers or glasses of wine a week, depending on what is served for dinner, and the same for my red meat consumption....but I buy and drink Cokes by the case.  And a check on the World Wide Web says that "high fructose sweetened drinks" are bad, bad, bad for causing gout.  Looks like it's adios, my good canned buddies.  :(

Wonder if this means I'll have to stop wearing my crown, too?  (Just as well.  Most of the little rhinestones have already fallen out.)

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As you all know, I'm a news junkie.  Some of what I take away is very serious stuff, but some is just comical, to wit:

The NYT headline read:  "After Outside Pressure, Rebels in Congo Lay Down Their Arms".

Ummm....it looks to me like their arms decided to just lay down and surrender all by themselves.  I'm guessing the term "maintenance" doesn't translate into Congolese.

And the BBC is reporting a new warning put out by the UN that says our output of atmospheric clogging "stuff" is again setting records.  They go on to say much of this is due to the well known problem of cattle flatulence. (That's a $3 term for cow farts.)  

As anyone who has driven anywhere even close to a West Texas cattle feedlot will testify, it's a serious problem for sure.  So why hasn't someone thought of just producing a heavy-duty version of Beano for bovines?  

And the same article says that much of the global emission of greenhouse gasses is due to he way farmers in may parts of the world improperly plough their land, citing this photo ^ as an example.

Just thinking out loud here....instead of just throwing out billions of dollars in foreign aid money around the world to see it siphoned off by the corrupt dictators and generals, why don't we just start sending them boat loads of John Deere's and Massey Ferguson's?  Jobs for us, more food for them, cleaner air for us all.  DUH!  This ain't rocket surgery, people!

See, I've already fixed our global warming problem, and it isn't even noon yet.  (Note to Nobel committee:  That's Scott with two "T"s  :)

S

The Dallas Morning News is a worthless piece of s__t!

Finally....a legitimate use for The Dallas Morning News.

If I had a bird, I wouldn't insult it by lining its cage with the Dallas Morning News.  

Many years ago Dallas had two daily newspapers, the Morning News and the (afternoon) Dallas Times Herald.  The Times Herald eventually closed its doors and the very next day (as I recall) classified advertising rates in the Morning News nearly doubled.  Bastards!

With the increasing popularity of internet news, most print newspapers have seen nothing but financial losses in recent years.  When the Dallas Morning News let go most of their writers to save a buck, the size of the paper was nearly cut in half....there wasn't much left worth reading.  AND the price shot up.  AND they lost 20% of their subscribers the next year.  Including ME!

I suspect they're staying afloat these days by being the local print and delivery source for a few national papers such as The New York Times and (I believe) The Wall Street Journal.  Trouble is, they can't reliably deliver them.  Literally half the time K has to call the paper and tell them they missed our delivery.  It's an ongoing battle.  

I quit!  Today we switched our national newspaper subscription to a digital online version only.  As I see it, though, I didn't fire the Dallas Morning News.  They fired themselves.  Good riddance.

S

Is it just me?

I have got to be the un-luckiest person in the world.  This morning I was perusing the news and there was the tech guy from the NYT raving about Dashlane.  It's an app that can remember all your passwords (and we all know what trouble I have with that) and is pinky swear absolutely secure.  You can see it here, after the obligatory commercial, of course.

Whoa....thank you God!  It was as if the techie had said, "Listen up Scott Park....this is for YOU!"  I called for K to come see.  We both went back to our computers, her PC and my iMac, and downloaded it.  It will automatically sync everything between ALL your devices once set up.  *happy dance*

On K's PC the app came up and said, "Welcome.  We see that you have all these accounts and we have noted everything and upgraded you to 99.999% secure passwords.  You no longer have to sign in for anything, we'll do it for you automatically for as long as you shall live.  Enjoy."

On my iMac it said, "Click here to download.  Thank you."  Then......nothing.

HELLO.  Now what?  *silence*

I called K back over and asked her to take over for me as she is an excellent techie.  Nada.

Now her PC, iPhone and iPad are all synced up, while I'm still sittin' here beatin' 2 rocks together trying to make fire.  Grog sad.  

This has got to be the absolutely most user UN-friendly app EVER!  If it works on an iPhone and an iPad, why not on my  iMac?  I think there's some guy back at Techie Central who sees my name pop up and says, "Hey guys, come here.  It's him again.  You wanna screw with him some more?" *giggle*

Bastards.

S

"Eccentric" is the code word for "weird", right?

OK then, I must be one eccentric dude.  I've become greatly enamored with a sport whose championship game doesn't even get a mention in the NYT.

Yesterday morning Texas time my adopted team, the Northampton Saints played the Leicester Tigers for the English Premiership Championship.  (I found it on an obscure cable channel that I have now dubbed The Eccentric Channel.)  We lost, and I was heartbroken.  But what a game!  Their captain was knocked out of the game after 2 vicious tackles, and our captain got himself ejected from the game for swearing.  Oh yeah....at the referee.  I guess their officials aren't as thick-skinned as American football referees.  Hah!

There was lots of chatter on the official Northampton website afterwards, and I left a comment too, introducing myself as a Yank newcomer to the sport and a fan of their team and congratulated them for a great season.  My little blurb got 27 "likes" and 4 nice "comments", way more than any of the other 100 commenters.  What a hospitable bunch they are!

I checked the paper this morning and found....nothing.  I mean, baseball, basketball, hockey, football news....sure, I understand those getting top billing.  But then I checked "global sports" and found European tennis results, soccer scores from Germany, track training news from Kenya, even info about some stupid bicycle race in Italy, but no CHAMPIONSHIP RUGBY GAME mention.  We ranked below some guys in leotards with skinny bike seats shoved up their ass!  Really?  *Oh, the humiliation*

I guess I'll just wear the moniker "eccentric" with pride.  Hmmm....now that I think about it, when mom called me "special", was that a code word too?  ;)

S

More stuff that really chaps my hide....

I've found several more things that just chap the heck out of me:  It seems the abbreviated online versions of many news services (Yahoo, USA Today, NYT, etc) like to tease us with articles such as "10 things you can do now to save on your electric bill" or "The 5 best and worst places for retirees to live".  So you click on those links and expect to see a list....#1, #2, #3, a so on.   Instead you see 16 paragraphs of text.  So where are the "10 things..." or "The 5 best..."?  Just show me the damn list!

And freeway designers.  I've been in many parts of the country where there are tall screens separating the freeway lanes going in opposite directions....northbound traffic can't see what's happening on the southbound side.  I'm guessing this is to prevent rubberneckers from slowing traffic while looking at a wreck on the opposite side of the freeway.  Makes sense, right?

But not in Dallas.  Ooooh no!  Here we build 12-lane-wide brand new freeways that have a 4' tall divider between lanes going in the opposite direction.  So every time there is a wreck going one way, cars going the opposite direction slow to 3 mph in order to see all the carnage.  Then as soon as you pass the wreck it's back to 80 mph.  WTF? 

Then all the "traffic engineers" complain traffic is too slow and initiate another 10-year, gazillion-dollar project to install more lanes.  (Job security?)  Bullshit.  Just include a tall divider down the middle and traffic will zip right along.

Come on all you egghead engineers.  This ain't rocket surgery!

S

Strange....or spot on?

Over the weekend I stumbled on to a new series on the National Geographic Channel called Doomsday Preppers.  It's about people who think their world is about to collapse and are putting away food and water and ammo in preparation.  (Not to be confused with Mormons, who have long advocated keeping a years supply of food on hand at all times.)  It's really both part sad and part funny to watch.  Most are just a bunch of bubbas who live in "compounds" out in the sticks with buildings bulging with thousands of cases of canned goods, barrels full of potable water, and LOTS of guns.  

And what they're afraid of is almost comical.  For instance, one guy thinks the north and south poles will switch places, royally screwing things up on earth.  Another is afraid solar flares will fry everything electronic on earth, leaving those unprepared cold and hungry, with no trucks to deliver food to the stores, no cars to get to work, and for that matter no workplaces to go to.  Possible?  Sure, but I think I'll take my chances.  They have remote food caches, "bug-out" routes, and back-up defense measures (bows and arrows) in case they run out of ammo.


One guy, however, seemed like he wasn't a bubba, and in fact seemed quite normal.  His fear?  We're headed towards a world-wide economic collapse.  Seeing as how we came a lot closer than most of us realize back in 2008, and in fact Europe is still on the edge right now, his concerns aren't as far fetched.  


I'm still not ready to run out and buy 50,000 cans of beans and a years supply of freeze-dried chili, however.  For one thing I don't have a place to store it all, and certainly no place to stock the thousands of rolls of toilet paper such a diet would necessitate.  I do have three boxes of microwave popcorn in the pantry, though.  I wonder if I could use that to barter for some Snickers bars and maybe a Coke?  If so, then I'm good.

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And to turn the topic around 180 degrees, according to the NYT, the Urban Man lives!  Their headline reads, "Men Step Out of the Recession, Bag on Hip, Bracelet on Wrist".  They go on to say "men are buying so many accessories that some forecasters predict sales growth....this year will set a 20-year high."  To appeal to men they're not calling bracelets "bracelets", but "wristwear".  And it's not a purse or a "murse" (Man pURSE....get it?), but a "holdall".  

"Bracelets (I thought we just decided to call it "wristwear"?) are on fire right now", said Tim Bess, a trend forecaster.  "I'd say it's the No. 1 look for the young man."  

"Young man"?  I must admit I've worn one for years.  I knew if I wore it long enough the trend would come around and I'd be considered fashionable.  'Bout damn time!  :)

S