Now as soon as I get back on the computer (Monday-ish) I'll be slapping down some pics just because my kids are damned cute. Until then, though, it's time to crown Asshat of the Week:
Fox News, as representative of All Media
I'll admit to not surfing much for news, so I can speak primarily for Fox. But I'm sure that on every other media outlet, the 5-minute sound bites before and after Christmas sounded somewhat like this:
This year has been the worst year of shopping EVER!!!!!!!!!! Consumers sat on their asses and marked the end of an era, the entry into utter financial ruin as the worst depression since the Ungandan Ass Lick of 1266 BC, and a major challenge for the upcoming president Barack Obama, who has promised to sweep away all misery and suffering by bailing out more shit than Bush. So with sales down, retailers, except Wal-Mart (but we won't mention them because they aren't writhing in agony or getting all of Patrick M's Christmas cash (less 89 cents change)), are cutting their prices like a pack of horny teenagers in an 80's slasher flick. Prices are being cut by 90,000,000,000%, but scared, frightened, poor, huddled masses lack the balls to max their last credit card buying more shit. I guess the economy's fucked now.Okay, there may be some exaggeration there, but considering this report was replayed over and over and over in the 3-minute sound blurbs I was subjected to while driving around in the pre- and post-Yuletide hour, it got me to thinking that, in all medial, if it bleeds, it leads. And the way the economy is being framed, it resembles removing a burst hemorrhoid with a chainsaw (Leatherface style for you 80's slasher flick lovers). Either way, it was damned annoying. Thus as they get my attention in a good way more often than not, they must also bear the shame of earning the title of Asshat of the Week.
13 comments:
And so what of it if the masses went on a spending spree the likes of which we've never seen? I suppose you can buy a lot of shit with the oodles upon oodles of fiat money the damn Federal Reserve is printing up.
Sure, head on out an buy up a 60" high-def before February's transition to digital and a Blu-Ray player to boot.
It won't matter anyways because we all know the revolution will NOT be televised.
The media could be your asshat of the week for many weeks coming, too.
Patrick,
Before you were born news came on once a day for either an hour or a half hour and then you had the local news.
That was it.
Once cable showed up and news broadcasts switched to 24/7 all of the sudden we started finding out a lot of stuff that we never knew before. Then the news became sensationalized. Then we started to get spin.
I also note that as cable news grew so did the number of americans on anti depression medication (wonder if they are linked?)
According to my retail insider sources we could be looking at the loss of 10,000 retail stores in the first half of 2009.
Cannot help but wonder why so many companies went out so far on a limb that one bad season and they are out of business....
You need to limit your intake of news to one hour a day maximum.
Soapie: You're starting to sound almost cynical.
Beth: This was just a particular week. I'm sure, with the coming of Obama, I'll find an asshat or two around. Consider there are also 535 asshats in congress, 50 states, plenty of talking heads, the last few weeks of the Bush Administration, and the whole rest of the world. Christmas week is just naturally slow.
Tao: I'm not saying the economy isn't in the tank. That is a news story. But it's the focus on the sales numbers when everybody could be taking a few mental days off anything that isn't expected that really chaps my ass.
Then we started to get spin. [emphasis added]
Actually, I thought we just began to recognize it because there were options.
I also note that as cable news grew so did the number of americans on anti depression medication (wonder if they are linked?)
I thought that was caused by the increased push by the drug companies to sell meds.
And as for news intake, I got less than an hour on the days before and after Christmas. The problem was that it was the same 3 m9inutes over and over.
Starting?? Dare I say Patrick, all good men live for their own rational self interest and no other. Unfortunately, some do it without regard to the rights of others.
Soapster: That's less cynical and more eloquent. Kind of makes me feel funny.... :)
Soap...good point but it has some flaws, first is to assume that "rationality" exists and that humans are capable of being rational.
Sometimes individuals focus on "self interests" they forget that those only exist within a bigger picture...
"Soap...good point but it has some flaws, first is to assume that "rationality" exists and that humans are capable of being rational."
I'm afraid I find the fatal "flaw" being that of Kantian philosophy which suggests precisely what you've said.
"Rationality is the recognition of the fact that existence exists, that nothing can alter the truth and nothing can take precedence over that act of perceiving it, which is thinking—that the mind is one’s only judge of values and one’s only guide of action—that reason is an absolute that permits no compromise—that a concession to the irrational invalidates one’s consciousness and turns it from the task of perceiving to the task of faking reality—that the alleged short-cut to knowledge, which is faith, is only a short-circuit destroying the mind—that the acceptance of a mystical invention is a wish for the annihilation of existence and, properly, annihilates one’s consciousness." - John Galt
"In everything one thing is impossible: rationality."
--Friedrich Nietzsche
John Galt was the creation of someone's imagination; an ideal type at best.
Man may aspire to the logic and vision represented by John Galt but man is incapable of achieving the vision.
Man is petty and insecure and unable to recognize those who may be their better. Man frolics and celebrates mediocracy
"In everything one thing is impossible: rationality."
Dare tell yourself as much when you're stranded on an island and the only means you've to sustain yourself is by employing it.
"John Galt was the creation of someone's imagination; an ideal type at best."
This is true. Regardless, the proclamations ring just as true for any man willing to accept them.
For roughly the past 50 or so years Americans by and large have dismissed rationality in place of irrationality. Having done this philosophically we've seen the results politically have we not.
Irrationality gives us our welfare state. It provides us with Medicare, Social Security, and a plethora of goodies which any rational being would know capable of leading us to statism and the demise of which it has become no?
Find yourself one day on that deserted island. Irrationality and blind faith will lead you to believe that food and fresh water will fall from the sky so long as you pray for it.
On the other hand, rationality would dictate that you and you alone must attempt to catch a fish, kill a mongoose or bird, and seek out vegetation which might contain water.
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