McLaughlin Group FAIL!

How the McLaughlin Group, and everyone else in the mainstream media, FAILS the public.

This morning on McLaughlin Group, there was vigorous discussion of Barack Obama’s church pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Apparently, he said things like “America is the world’s biggest sponsor of terrorism” (true) and that its foreign policy causes terrorist acts, like 9/11 (I’ve seen no evidence to counter this).

But what were McLaughlin et al. talking about? Were they giving his ideas any merit or credibility? No, they said nothing regarding Wright’s assertions. Instead, they talked about how much it would damage Obama’s image and whether or not Obama knew that his preacher was a political radical. Now, the people couldn’t deny that America has a long track record of supporting terror groups and dictatorships around the world, so rather than lie by denying it, or discuss it skeptically, which would risk legitimizing Wright’s assertions in the eyes of the public, they ignored his statements completely, thus maintaining that the truth is just another nutty conspiracy theory not worth our concern.

How corporate media lie to you every day

I’m referring to the Yahoo! News headline about the cyclone in Myanmar/Burma:

“Cyclone kills at least 351 in Myanmar, state-run TV reports”

Have you ever noticed that no headlines or articles every identify “corporate-run” or “corporate-owned” media outlets?  While it is important to reference a source of information, this emphasis on “state-run TV” serves another purpose.  The emphasis on “state-run TV” serves to breed mistrust in government-run ventures, thus fostering a sort of anti-communism.  Headlines with death toll figures in American crises give the figures without immediate attribution of who’s reporting the data.  And also, instead of giving the name of the state’s TV station, they simply identify it as “state-run TV.”

The logical leap is to assume that state-run hospitals, schools, and other such institutions are untrustworthy, vulnerable to corruption, and should be run with as little state intervention as possible.

By not identifying “corporate-owned TV” in headlines and articles, it distracts the audience from who actually dictates what we see on TV news. We think it’s good ol’ Dan Rather giving us our news, instead of the faceless corporations that own CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, and all the rest.

More American-style Fascism

It’s amazing the crap you can pull up while browsing through WordPress. There is no shortage of irrational, emotionally driven, dramatization of patriotism and religion. Today I read a post celebrating the US killing of a man alleged by the military to be an al Quaeda operative: “.Adios Murtha F*cker! I hope your 72 Virgins are all a bunch of diesel butch dyke bitches that look like Janet Reno!” The thing about this quote is that it not only manages to denigrate the entire cultural population of Islam, but also indiscriminately slurs homosexuals of all cultures.

Elsewhere, Pat Buchanan equates a projected worldwide white minority to being the end of the world. At the end, he somewhat makes up for this by conveying his hope that the new multi-racial majority treats white people better than we have treated all of them for the last 500 years. Even so, his column makes use of this racial theme to fan the flames of immigration fear-mongering and rally (white) Americans to the defense of “our way of life.”

“Sixty-two percent of Americans told Pew we should do more to protect our way of life. Three-fourths of Americans wanted more restrictions on immigration. Yet all three presidential candidates voted amnesty for the 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens.”

Last I checked, our way of life pollutes the planet, creates massive injustice globally, and leads to obesity, diabetes and depression domestically (plus that injustice/inequality thing). We should be asking what changes we can make to “our way of life,” instead of trying to perpetuate it.

The other thing I get a kick out of is the way capitalism-favoring conservatives want to decry illegal immigration. But that immigrant slave labor (be sure, even if they receive wages, they are slaves, with no legal recourse for injustices) is what allows us to keep our goods and services so cheap. If anything, illegal immigrants deserve our thanks for slaughtering our livestock, serving our guacamole, and mowing our lawns without a pension plan or health insurance. Mexicans, in particular, leave behind a country where the government assists in medical situations, to come here and be slaves.  Be mindful of anti-immigration rhetoric, it’s incredibly similar to the anti-Semitism that permeated Nazi Germany.

In other examples of pre-fascism, a presidential candidate, John McCain, proudly accepts backing from Reverend John Hagee of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio.  This reverend preaches anti-intellectualism (the banning of books) and hate-mongering of non-Christians, he also believes people should starve if they don’t work.  But what about people who can’t get jobs?  Watch the video below:

He calls abortion “state-sponsored murder” but supports the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq and its subsequent civilian bloodbath.

Webkinz: How corporations teach your children to shut up and buy shit

In response to this blog post: webkinz just promotes capitalist/consumerist cultural values, instilling them in your children at a young age.

A look through their FAQs page for parents shows that it emphasizes purchasing home furnishings and earning more webkinz cash in order to continue making such purchases. They earn money by, among other things, going to the Employment Office.  In a very straighforward manner, children are taught that it’s important to have lots of new home furnishgins and keep up a socially determined appearance of “cool” or “stylishness,” necessitating money, and hence, employment, to afford the material commodities that bring such social cache.

However, the more upsetting feature of the Webkinz social netwroking site may be its sanitized social environment.  In the name of “safety,”your child is rendered incapable of meaningful, personalized communication because Webkinz already has pre-programmed words and phrases for them to “say” to each other.  From the FAQ page:

“Finally, our chat is entirely constructed. There is no way for a user to type what they want, nor ask or say anything inappropriate to any other user. We control everything the users are able to say.”

While you certainly wouldn’t want your children giving up personal information to creepy net-pedophiles and phishing scams, you should be sitting alongside them anyway, keeping an eye on their net habits and reminding them of these safety points yourself. Instead, we rely on corporations to baby-sit for us, allowing them to dictate what is “acceptable” for communication.  First off, this can serve their own ends: “buy more Webkinz,” for example.  Secondly, they are actually stunting your young child’s linguistic skills as he/she no longer has to synthesize sentences.  Webkinz serves to homogenize communication and what is considered socially acceptable and polite, preventing any meaningful communication from taking place.  What if your child goes on Webkinz and decides he or she doesn’t like the experience they’ve created?  He/she cannot communicate this feeling to other users, so there is complete ignorance on the part of all Webkinz users as to whether other users are dissatisfied with the experience.

As a parent, you would do best to foster meaningful communication between your children and their friends.  Encourage them to join communities suited to their tastes and hobbies where they can express themselves in an authentic capacity — for instance, let them make their Webkinz house and share screenshots with other Webkinz users on a WordPress blog instead.  Or nudge them into hobbies not focused on the purchase of dolls and corporate-facilitated social environments: sports, computers, stamp collecting, writing and reading, etc.

How American fascism manifests and institutes itself

In conjunction with my other posts on this topic, this story at the International Herald Tribune shows how the so-called “culture war” is waged against well-meaning citizens and residents. Instead of being pleased by the idea of their children learning another language and gaining a better understanding of the world via that route, the pre-fascist “culture warrior” feels that his or her lifestyle is directly threatened and control over his/her child’s upbringing has been lost. Rather than having children who are independent thinkers with broad horizons, the American fascist does everything in his/her power to ensure that his/her children will share the same narrow, un-cultured worldviews.

“It is much easier to see how, working through the system — the school
system, the media, the religious organizations, the government,
businesses and the like — you can promote radical Islam.”

It’s also easy to see how through the system, Mr. Pipes will institute a fascism into mainstream American culture.

“Pipes refers to this new enemy as the “lawful Islamists.”

If you recall the so-called Kristalnacht in Nazi Germany, law-abiding Jewish store-owners and businessmen had their homes and businesses looted and destroyed simply for being Jewish. This fear of “lawful Islamists” is the exact same phenomenon. We must do everything possible to counteract these fascists in our culture from gaining power and/or popularity. Pay attention, fascist rhetoric also turns up in immigration discussions.

Where’s the coverage???

RE: My post from yesterday.

Where is the coverage of this NY Times story?  Nobody’s talking about it.  If you do a google search with the terms “pentagon psyops” no news outlets come up, but plenty of blogs do.  Other outlets’ web sites have nothing in regards to the story.  This is a major story, smoking gun evidence of networks being abused by the government’s PR team to legitimize an illegal military operation!

$47/Month to talk in my car?

After my two-year contract with Verizon is up next month, I’m getting rid of it.  Life without a cell phone may seem foreign to all of you out there who can’t remember what the world was like 10 years ago, but I have my reasons …

When you consider what you are actually paying for, is it really worth the minimum $50/month you’ll be paying?  Maybe if your job or lifestyle requires it, but mine certainly doesn’t right now … I’m essentially paying for the ability to talk while driving — is it really worth that much money?  Free nights and weekends sweeten the deal a little bit, but Skype has already beaten the crap out of this.  With Skype, I can pay $3 a month and talk to any phone in the world for as long as I want, any day at any time.  So I really am paying $47 a month to talk in my car or at the grocery store.  I’d rather have the money to pay for gas and groceries.  Maybe if they had a plan for grad students whose parents don’t pay for everything, I’d be interested.  And I hate sitting here plugging Skype (and its parent company Ebay), but right now it’s the best option out there for people who want the best bang for their buck, plus they actually port to Linux — not many companies out there even bother, so I gotta show a little love.

I’d love to hear from others about their cell phone plans.  Anybody know of a good, cheap cell plan so I can keep calling my girlfriend from the store to ask “Whole or 2%?”

Time to Impeach!

If you think impeachment of Bush and Cheney is an extreme measure, then you haven’t read this gripping story from today’s NY Times. As the Radical Mormon points out, every now and then, public opinion is sufficiently disgruntled to allow for the printing of such a story.

The story’s author has found one of the administration’s key tricks in selling the Iraq invasion:  cultivating a sympathetic group of TV-network military analysts (among others).  The evidence is beyond damning; it makes Bush look like Nixon.

More Encouraging Nader Numbers

According to a Suffolk University poll of Pennsylvania voters, approximately 17% of registered Democrats have said they would vote for Nader if their favorite primary candidate does not receive the nomination.  This is another indication of the selectivity of voters and their willingness to abandon the corporate parties.  Keep on, Ralph!

If you normally vote Democrat, remember: Nader/Gonzalez is the only candidate who aims to provide universal, single-payer healthcare; Nader/Gonzalez is the only candidate who will fully pull out of Iraq within six months of taking office; Nader/Gonzalez is the only candidate who will fight corporate interests in favor of the public sphere.  Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, was formerly a Wal-Mart suit.

Non-toxic street art

In case some of you hippies out there wanna write graffiti but don’t wanna poison the water table: Mud Stencils! I assume that it also washes away with a good rain, thus leaving no permanent damage.  Check out this blogger’s pics as well!

If you want your work to stick long enough for it to be considered vandalism, you might try mixing in egg whites (you didn’t hear that from me!).  They dry hard as a rock.  And yeah, the mud stencil artist might well be pissed at my suggesting this.