10 December 2010
About 0900 this morning, the Comcast service tech arrived. As we expected, the noise on the line was negligible. Most people are in school, at work, or sleeping in. He was thorough and checked both the feed line from the node and our drop line. Both were operating at nominal status. They still are at 1647. As more people log on in the evening we expect to see, the familiar service disruption caused, at least in part, by insufficient bandwidth. We now have a software tool we can use to check the signal/noise ratio.
We were told that there were some local cabling/hardware problems that may have been dealt with yesterday. We were both focusing so hard on not attacking or offending the poor tech that neither of us jumped down his throat when he used the offensive “issues.”
Chanukah ended last night at sundown. All the celebratory things have been packed away for next year. We didn’t expect a white Chanukah but we’re a lot more likely to experience one than the Maccabees. Snow happens in Israel but not with any predictable regularity. There is one ski area there, Mt Hermon, with nearly 28 miles of trails. But the Hasmoneans weren’t the type to play in the snow and neither are the ultra-orthodox who live in Israel and the West Bank today.
We have a 36-hour break before the weather becomes arctic in nature. I’m hopeful that the worst of winter will be over by the time we begin spring semester classes. Not at all likely.
Shabbat Shalom.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
9 December 2010 Turn off the alarm, except for…
Today is the end of fall semester classes for me. I met with Dr. Baxter this morning, cut the Art-History review session and don’t plan to take either final at the appointed time and place. I asked Dr. Baxter to e-mail me a copy of the exam so that I can see what’s on it and answer some of it. I believe he will. He asked for my phone number as well as my e-mail address with the potential for lunch in the future. Since he brought it up, I would be happy to meet him for lunch. We’ll see what the future brings. As it stands now, he has taught the best history course I’ve ever been enrolled in.
Today’s temperature reached 42°F at 1400. 45 minutes later, it has fallen two degrees and is headed down into the 20s for the night. Today’s low was 15°F.
I’m ready for a break in classes. I realized last night that I’m carrying half of a full academic load using today’s standards. 6 credit hours doesn’t seem like that much. A full load was 15 hours when I was an undergraduate. Both Selective Service and the Veterans Administration required a minimum of 15 hours either to retain student deferment (2-S) or to draw the meager pittance that was the GI Bill benefit for Vietnam vets.
We are experiencing internet service problems due to noise on the line between the nearest node and us. We’ve been losing all connectivity when it rains. The lasts three nights, we’ve been unable to connect to websites because the noise creates a delay in connection, resulting in the connection timing out. This necessitates that we call Comcast to complain and document out loss of service so that we can insist that they credit us for loss of service. Now we’ll have to wait for the service tech to show up again and tell us that nothing can be done to correct the problem. If we don’t call in when it happens, their billing office won’t credit us. Wednesday night we discovered that the customer service person on duty can initiate the credit process instead of us going through another 30-minute song and dance with the billing office. Last night the CS rep we drew didn’t want to do it because our problem might not be resolved and that would require another credit be issued, resulting in inefficiency.
I don’t believe he was overly amused when I stated that I wasn’t worried about how efficiently their clerical processes were, but how effective their service delivery was. This month’s Comcast bill should be interesting. I can keep calling; actually, we rotate the duty, as long as they fail to provide service.
Cell phones, cable companies, ISP’s seem to be replacing used car dealers as the most unlikable people. The service techs that show up to try to fix our problem are nice people. Their employers are about as trustworthy and likeable as any other legal monopoly.
I’d planned on sleeping in tomorrow, turning off the alarm, after getting up at 0500 or 0600 every day so far this week. But I have an appointment to fix the internet/cable at 0800-1200 tomorrow.
Today’s temperature reached 42°F at 1400. 45 minutes later, it has fallen two degrees and is headed down into the 20s for the night. Today’s low was 15°F.
I’m ready for a break in classes. I realized last night that I’m carrying half of a full academic load using today’s standards. 6 credit hours doesn’t seem like that much. A full load was 15 hours when I was an undergraduate. Both Selective Service and the Veterans Administration required a minimum of 15 hours either to retain student deferment (2-S) or to draw the meager pittance that was the GI Bill benefit for Vietnam vets.
We are experiencing internet service problems due to noise on the line between the nearest node and us. We’ve been losing all connectivity when it rains. The lasts three nights, we’ve been unable to connect to websites because the noise creates a delay in connection, resulting in the connection timing out. This necessitates that we call Comcast to complain and document out loss of service so that we can insist that they credit us for loss of service. Now we’ll have to wait for the service tech to show up again and tell us that nothing can be done to correct the problem. If we don’t call in when it happens, their billing office won’t credit us. Wednesday night we discovered that the customer service person on duty can initiate the credit process instead of us going through another 30-minute song and dance with the billing office. Last night the CS rep we drew didn’t want to do it because our problem might not be resolved and that would require another credit be issued, resulting in inefficiency.
I don’t believe he was overly amused when I stated that I wasn’t worried about how efficiently their clerical processes were, but how effective their service delivery was. This month’s Comcast bill should be interesting. I can keep calling; actually, we rotate the duty, as long as they fail to provide service.
Cell phones, cable companies, ISP’s seem to be replacing used car dealers as the most unlikable people. The service techs that show up to try to fix our problem are nice people. Their employers are about as trustworthy and likeable as any other legal monopoly.
I’d planned on sleeping in tomorrow, turning off the alarm, after getting up at 0500 or 0600 every day so far this week. But I have an appointment to fix the internet/cable at 0800-1200 tomorrow.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
8 December 2010 Here comes sunshine!
Today is forecast to reach 29°F and to be partly cloudy. Tomorrow, 38°F and sunny. Tonight, is expected to be 13°F, brutally cold but at least the winds are projected to be light. Three days of sunshine before a rainy weekend should brighten the attitudes of many people. This early cold snap is going to drive up the demand for firewood. However, while it is being called “early” I noticed that the record low for 7 December was set only four years ago, just after we moved in and well before we had managed any serious acclimation or installed our wood stove.
Yesterday’s VA optometry reports were good. I’m being treated for glaucoma. The visual field exams that test for and record loss of peripheral vision were essentially unchanged. The intra-ocular pressures were both recorded as 12 mm/Hg, very acceptable in a patient under treatment.
These pressures are measured by using a tonometry device. Several are available and such pressure checks should be provided at every eye exam.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonometer (more than most will ever wish to know.
Glaucoma is one of the insidious-onset disorders that can arrive and do great damage before the patient has any idea of the loss of peripheral vision. I was diagnosed during a routine exam for contact lenses. Fortunately, I found a good ophthalmologist who confirmed the diagnosis and initiated treatment. The VA system is good about following up and monitoring treatment. I use two different topical ophthalmic drops every day and don’t miss doses.
Even with thorough treatment and commitment on my part to not miss doses, I am aware of a decided loss in peripheral vision compared to what mine once was. I’ve had to increase the amount of caution I use in crossing streets on foot or in driving into cross traffic or changing lanes in traffic. This really bothers me. In the late 1990’s I spent quite a lot of time in the ophthalmology office. I was quite often the only one in my age group and it hammered home the nature and severity of the disease while making me feel older than I was. Now, my age has begun to catch up to my infirmities.
I met the professor who will be teaching the course on volcano logy. He seems interesting and I think I will enjoy hearing what he has to teach. He provided me a basic physical geology text to help me ramp up my knowledge of geology. We wound up comparing back injuries. He isn’t that old and I tend to ignore mirrors.
The Novocain component of the steroid injections into my shoulders has worn off and hauling wood up onto the deck and inside reminded me that anesthesia is not a cure.
Tonight we will dine on grilled chuck eyes and home fries with onions and mushrooms. The home fries will take the place of shredded potato latkes. We’ll celebrate the final night of Chanukah with something fried in oil, observing tradition.
Yesterday’s VA optometry reports were good. I’m being treated for glaucoma. The visual field exams that test for and record loss of peripheral vision were essentially unchanged. The intra-ocular pressures were both recorded as 12 mm/Hg, very acceptable in a patient under treatment.
These pressures are measured by using a tonometry device. Several are available and such pressure checks should be provided at every eye exam.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonometer (more than most will ever wish to know.
Glaucoma is one of the insidious-onset disorders that can arrive and do great damage before the patient has any idea of the loss of peripheral vision. I was diagnosed during a routine exam for contact lenses. Fortunately, I found a good ophthalmologist who confirmed the diagnosis and initiated treatment. The VA system is good about following up and monitoring treatment. I use two different topical ophthalmic drops every day and don’t miss doses.
Even with thorough treatment and commitment on my part to not miss doses, I am aware of a decided loss in peripheral vision compared to what mine once was. I’ve had to increase the amount of caution I use in crossing streets on foot or in driving into cross traffic or changing lanes in traffic. This really bothers me. In the late 1990’s I spent quite a lot of time in the ophthalmology office. I was quite often the only one in my age group and it hammered home the nature and severity of the disease while making me feel older than I was. Now, my age has begun to catch up to my infirmities.
I met the professor who will be teaching the course on volcano logy. He seems interesting and I think I will enjoy hearing what he has to teach. He provided me a basic physical geology text to help me ramp up my knowledge of geology. We wound up comparing back injuries. He isn’t that old and I tend to ignore mirrors.
The Novocain component of the steroid injections into my shoulders has worn off and hauling wood up onto the deck and inside reminded me that anesthesia is not a cure.
Tonight we will dine on grilled chuck eyes and home fries with onions and mushrooms. The home fries will take the place of shredded potato latkes. We’ll celebrate the final night of Chanukah with something fried in oil, observing tradition.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
7 December 2010 Things overheard in a Veterans’ Affairs waiting room.
Remembering that this is the 69th anniversary of the Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor. There was no mention of Pearl Harbor by any veteran I saw or overheard today.
Overheard in the Eye clinic this morning. Two televisions in the waiting area were tuned to Fox News.
“Obama is a Muslim.”
“Obama is a secret Muslim.”
“Obama is ruining the nation.”
“He said during his campaign that he wanted to “change America fundamentally. That means socialism.
“The unemployed and the lazy are destroying this country. They’re unemployed because they don’t want to work.”
The lazy welfare cheats on disability get $60,000/year.”
“They should kill the wiki leaks guy and his whole family to make the point.”
“They’re trying to destroy Christianity. They’re gonna demolish the Catholics first then the rest of us.”
“He’s trying to give all the jobs and college loans to “those people.” “Mexicans?” “Those too!”
In the outpatient surgical waiting area, one television, tuned to Headline News.
There was no Fox-induced paranoid ranting, no talk of “war on Christians.” There was random and casual conversation among the patients in that area.
I’ve had my limit of Fox News for the year. The misconceptions, lack of understanding of the Constitution, anger at minorities, and just plain uneducated, poorly read paranoia were thick enough to cut with a knife. I don’t know what made the difference in the two rooms other than the television. The patients were assigned to the waiting areas by medical service.
All answers and guesses welcome.
Overheard in the Eye clinic this morning. Two televisions in the waiting area were tuned to Fox News.
“Obama is a Muslim.”
“Obama is a secret Muslim.”
“Obama is ruining the nation.”
“He said during his campaign that he wanted to “change America fundamentally. That means socialism.
“The unemployed and the lazy are destroying this country. They’re unemployed because they don’t want to work.”
The lazy welfare cheats on disability get $60,000/year.”
“They should kill the wiki leaks guy and his whole family to make the point.”
“They’re trying to destroy Christianity. They’re gonna demolish the Catholics first then the rest of us.”
“He’s trying to give all the jobs and college loans to “those people.” “Mexicans?” “Those too!”
In the outpatient surgical waiting area, one television, tuned to Headline News.
There was no Fox-induced paranoid ranting, no talk of “war on Christians.” There was random and casual conversation among the patients in that area.
I’ve had my limit of Fox News for the year. The misconceptions, lack of understanding of the Constitution, anger at minorities, and just plain uneducated, poorly read paranoia were thick enough to cut with a knife. I don’t know what made the difference in the two rooms other than the television. The patients were assigned to the waiting areas by medical service.
All answers and guesses welcome.
Monday, December 6, 2010
6 December 2010 Baby its cold outside!
The high for the day was 27.64 °F at 1404. The thermometer, or the digital depiction of an analog thermometer, has been sliding slowly downward, aiming at a bottom of around 15°F sometime around midnight.
I slept in this morning and enjoyed the extra hour quite a lot. Today’s hike with Mike was done in red-cheeked, runny-nosed, small-talking mode as we lurched down valley and then back up with a ten know wind in our faces. Loki enjoyed the opportunity to scent mark the new fallen snow. There were two red pit bulls that periodically appear along the road and menace other dogs and people who walk by. They are part of a pack of four owned by someone along the west valley wall. I really don’t trust them when they are out. They exude aggression and malice. Both Mike and I are prepared to defend ourselves if necessary. Loki is on a lead and would be at a decided disadvantage if they ever decide to attack. I continue to hope that the owner will retrieve them and keep them secured. Pit bulls in this neighborhood are suggestive of a need to proceed with care and to avoid seeming curious about anything.
The morning, after our return home, was spent bringing firewood onto the deck and layering old pool cover material around the well filter housing to provide some more protection from the cold by holding in a bit more heat from the lamps that are burning inside the housing.
Current activities include laundry, this blog, and little else. Dinner will be salad and chili over linguini. Last night’s white beans and greens went down very well and will join what passes for the rotation around here. It was greatly aided by Gloria finding a package of sweet Italian sausage to replace the mildly spiced sausage I had intended to use.
CNN “TRENDING: Huckabee draws contrasts between him and Palin
I just don't understand how it is that a person can read these polls day after day and the narrative is constantly everybody but me," Huckabee told Politico.”
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/06/huckabee-draws-contrasts-between-him-and-palin/#more-138304
Cassi Creek:
Huckabee, former Arkansas Governor, Fox News paid proto-candidate, Southern Baptist ordained, is complaining that he is not receiving the amount of respect he feels he should.
It is probably time for someone with more patience than I have to remind Huckabee that respect is earned, not demanded. He may poll well in comparison to Palin, Romney, and Gingrich. Those polls are conducted primarily by questioning people who would vote GOP/teavangelist in the first place. That sorry collection of un-announced candidates are all hoping to hit the same GOP/teavangelist voter base; the culturally reactionary, bible thumping bigoted, anti-intellectuals that Richard Nixon played to in pitting hard hats against students.
Huckabee has a history of letting his evangelism intrude into political life. He was known for issuing pardons to many felons who underwent jailhouse conversions. Two of his more notorious interventions into the legal system resulted in the deaths of law officers in other states and subsequent rape and murder by yet another Huckabee-pardoned felon.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/01/AR2009120102601.html
This intrusion of religion into government is highly disturbing. Yet it is eclipsed by Huckabee’s statement that he would like to re-write the Constitution to make it compliant with biblical law as accepted by the Sothern Baptist Convention and found in the King James Bible.
Huckabee does not believe in evolution. He is opposed to birth control education and would outlaw all abortions. His professed religion chooses to retain women in a subservient position not that greatly different from the status of women in Afghanistan under the Taliban.
He is supposedly personable, well spoken, possessed of some sense of humor, and would be a good dinner guest in comparison to Palin’s abrasive and English language deficient nature. He may feel that such demeanor combined with his fundamentalist evangelical position makes him worthy of respect. I don’t. He deserves neither respect nor political office. As with Palin, Romney, and Gingrich, Huckabee deserves to be nothing more than they are today, demagogues who pick up where Joe McCarthy and Ross Barnett stopped.
I slept in this morning and enjoyed the extra hour quite a lot. Today’s hike with Mike was done in red-cheeked, runny-nosed, small-talking mode as we lurched down valley and then back up with a ten know wind in our faces. Loki enjoyed the opportunity to scent mark the new fallen snow. There were two red pit bulls that periodically appear along the road and menace other dogs and people who walk by. They are part of a pack of four owned by someone along the west valley wall. I really don’t trust them when they are out. They exude aggression and malice. Both Mike and I are prepared to defend ourselves if necessary. Loki is on a lead and would be at a decided disadvantage if they ever decide to attack. I continue to hope that the owner will retrieve them and keep them secured. Pit bulls in this neighborhood are suggestive of a need to proceed with care and to avoid seeming curious about anything.
The morning, after our return home, was spent bringing firewood onto the deck and layering old pool cover material around the well filter housing to provide some more protection from the cold by holding in a bit more heat from the lamps that are burning inside the housing.
Current activities include laundry, this blog, and little else. Dinner will be salad and chili over linguini. Last night’s white beans and greens went down very well and will join what passes for the rotation around here. It was greatly aided by Gloria finding a package of sweet Italian sausage to replace the mildly spiced sausage I had intended to use.
CNN “TRENDING: Huckabee draws contrasts between him and Palin
I just don't understand how it is that a person can read these polls day after day and the narrative is constantly everybody but me," Huckabee told Politico.”
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/06/huckabee-draws-contrasts-between-him-and-palin/#more-138304
Cassi Creek:
Huckabee, former Arkansas Governor, Fox News paid proto-candidate, Southern Baptist ordained, is complaining that he is not receiving the amount of respect he feels he should.
It is probably time for someone with more patience than I have to remind Huckabee that respect is earned, not demanded. He may poll well in comparison to Palin, Romney, and Gingrich. Those polls are conducted primarily by questioning people who would vote GOP/teavangelist in the first place. That sorry collection of un-announced candidates are all hoping to hit the same GOP/teavangelist voter base; the culturally reactionary, bible thumping bigoted, anti-intellectuals that Richard Nixon played to in pitting hard hats against students.
Huckabee has a history of letting his evangelism intrude into political life. He was known for issuing pardons to many felons who underwent jailhouse conversions. Two of his more notorious interventions into the legal system resulted in the deaths of law officers in other states and subsequent rape and murder by yet another Huckabee-pardoned felon.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/01/AR2009120102601.html
This intrusion of religion into government is highly disturbing. Yet it is eclipsed by Huckabee’s statement that he would like to re-write the Constitution to make it compliant with biblical law as accepted by the Sothern Baptist Convention and found in the King James Bible.
Huckabee does not believe in evolution. He is opposed to birth control education and would outlaw all abortions. His professed religion chooses to retain women in a subservient position not that greatly different from the status of women in Afghanistan under the Taliban.
He is supposedly personable, well spoken, possessed of some sense of humor, and would be a good dinner guest in comparison to Palin’s abrasive and English language deficient nature. He may feel that such demeanor combined with his fundamentalist evangelical position makes him worthy of respect. I don’t. He deserves neither respect nor political office. As with Palin, Romney, and Gingrich, Huckabee deserves to be nothing more than they are today, demagogues who pick up where Joe McCarthy and Ross Barnett stopped.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
5 December 2010 Russia can see what Americans won’t
http://www.politicususa.com/en/foreign-sarah-palin-traitor
Foreign Press Says What America’s Won’t: Sarah Palin is a Traitor
Posted on December 1, 2010 by Sarah Jones
Sarah Palin has made it to the big time; she’s now being called out by international media. Yesterday, the Russian newspaper Pravda (this same paper has been quoted in numerous Right Wing publications when it criticized President Obama, and was considered a paper of merit at such time) eviscerated Sarah Palin for her unrelenting attacks upon the democratically elected President, at a time when America needs to stand together, united. When members of the International Press call Sarah Palin out for her lack of American patriotism, it’s time for the American Press to pay attention. It’s about time someone did.
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey writes in Pravda:
“By attacking the democratically elected President of the United States of America at a sensitive time in her country’s history, she shows the tact of a boorish drunkard bawling obscenities at a funeral….
. “Nary a word about her outrageously destructive actions toward our current President. And why is that? Because Ms Palin is doing the dirty work for the Republican weaklings; sowing seeds of division, suspicion, hatred, and rage against a sitting President.
“And those, my friends, are not the actions of a patriot. True Glasnost has arrived when the International Press says what the American Press will not. Sarah Palin is no patriot. “
Cassi Creek:
My friend Julius Pratt provided the link above. Thanks, Julius. Truth in Pravda after all!
What this boils down to in the end is what some of us have been saying all along. Palin is nothing but an opportunist, willing to proliferate hatred, bigotry, religious intolerance, and intellectual emptiness for money and fame. When we are forced to listen to her rhetoric, we find it is essentially the same ugly tirade spewed by the members of the Westboro Baptist Church.
If the Russians, who have still to form their own version of a working democracy in the western manner can see the warning flags around Palin, we have to be very blind indeed not to see them tearing in the ill wind that flows from her.
I'll stop short of calling her a traitor because the legal definition, giving aid and comfort to an enemy state does not apply. But the GOP/teavangelists are intent upon overturning our last election by any means possible. That makes them enemies of the state, determined to circumvent and defy the Constitution that has provided our stability since we forged our nation. And Palin is certainly ready to overturn the law of the land, willing to bring about a theocracy with herself as grand inquisitor. That, makes her and her backers enemies of these United States.
Please read this article and pass it on to everyone you can think of.
Foreign Press Says What America’s Won’t: Sarah Palin is a Traitor
Posted on December 1, 2010 by Sarah Jones
Sarah Palin has made it to the big time; she’s now being called out by international media. Yesterday, the Russian newspaper Pravda (this same paper has been quoted in numerous Right Wing publications when it criticized President Obama, and was considered a paper of merit at such time) eviscerated Sarah Palin for her unrelenting attacks upon the democratically elected President, at a time when America needs to stand together, united. When members of the International Press call Sarah Palin out for her lack of American patriotism, it’s time for the American Press to pay attention. It’s about time someone did.
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey writes in Pravda:
“By attacking the democratically elected President of the United States of America at a sensitive time in her country’s history, she shows the tact of a boorish drunkard bawling obscenities at a funeral….
. “Nary a word about her outrageously destructive actions toward our current President. And why is that? Because Ms Palin is doing the dirty work for the Republican weaklings; sowing seeds of division, suspicion, hatred, and rage against a sitting President.
“And those, my friends, are not the actions of a patriot. True Glasnost has arrived when the International Press says what the American Press will not. Sarah Palin is no patriot. “
Cassi Creek:
My friend Julius Pratt provided the link above. Thanks, Julius. Truth in Pravda after all!
What this boils down to in the end is what some of us have been saying all along. Palin is nothing but an opportunist, willing to proliferate hatred, bigotry, religious intolerance, and intellectual emptiness for money and fame. When we are forced to listen to her rhetoric, we find it is essentially the same ugly tirade spewed by the members of the Westboro Baptist Church.
If the Russians, who have still to form their own version of a working democracy in the western manner can see the warning flags around Palin, we have to be very blind indeed not to see them tearing in the ill wind that flows from her.
I'll stop short of calling her a traitor because the legal definition, giving aid and comfort to an enemy state does not apply. But the GOP/teavangelists are intent upon overturning our last election by any means possible. That makes them enemies of the state, determined to circumvent and defy the Constitution that has provided our stability since we forged our nation. And Palin is certainly ready to overturn the law of the land, willing to bring about a theocracy with herself as grand inquisitor. That, makes her and her backers enemies of these United States.
Please read this article and pass it on to everyone you can think of.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
4 December 2010 It is time to deflate Palin and her ego
CNN
“That was until a store employee told the reporter that press were not permitted to speak with customers inside the store, or leave the roped-off cafe area that had been designated for them.
"It's a Sarah rule, not our rule," the employee said, apologetically. Another store representative told reporters that the strict rules were handed down via Palin's publishing house, HarperCollins…”
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/03/palin-book-signing-a-tightly-controlled-operation/#more-138131
By Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
Friday, December 3, 2010; 6:00 PM
Sarah Palin has found a new opponent to debate: John F. Kennedy.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/03/AR2010120303209.html
Cassi Creek:
Palin’s 2nd book, ghostwritten, as is everything she publishes or posts, is proving the H.L. Mencken axiom – “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”
Also applicable
It has been apparent from the beginning of the 2008 campaign that Palin, despite five years purportedly studying journalism and communications, is unfamiliar with English as a first or second language. The presence of one complete and grammatically correct sentence in anything posted, printed, or published over her name is certain proof that not only did she not write it, but also that she has also not read it.
I have no idea at all what would cause any group of people to line up in a manner suggestive of East German shoppers hoping for real sausage in 1960, in order to buy a ghostwritten book and then to have it signed by an egocentric who has already come to believe that she actually wrote the book. Nor, if I were working for a legitimate media organization, would I quietly roll over, tits up, and allow the figurehead of a cult to dictate how I could do my job. Palin can refuse to talk to legitimate correspondents – she’s going to last longer if she does. There are no legitimate reasons that Ms. Petulance should be allowed to restrict the freedom of speech rights of anyone showing up in a bookstore, or the rights of the working media to interview those citizens. Somehow, the irony of such brazen disregard for the 1st Amendment freedom of the press fails to occur to the woman who “studied journalism.” It should certainly, have occurred to those members of the real working media.
This media avoidance smacks loudly of how dictatorships behave when faced with a press asking questions that the dictatorship wishes to avoid answering, or can’t answer. The media has the power to halt this behavior quickly, fairly, and permanently. Most of Palin’s public appearances have no real political merit. They serve only to keep her face and name in front of a public that has already decided to join her in bigotry, hatred, and intellectual emptiness.
CNN, CBS,MSNBC, and all the other media corporations should announce an immediate and ongoing boycott of all non-events involving Palin that do not directly pertain to announcing her candidacy for 2012. Unless she does that, no other public appearance is of sufficient value to merit airtime or column inches.
Charles M. Blow writing for the New York Times calls for an essential blackout on all things designed to maintain her prominence.
She Who Must Not Be Named
By CHARLES M. BLOW
Published: December 3, 2010
“People on the left seem to need her, to bash her, because she is, in three words, the way the left likes to see the right: hollow, dim and mean. But since she’s feeding on the negativity, I suggest three other words: get over it. “
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/opinion/04blow.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a212
Hollow, dim, and mean seems an accurate description of a woman who remains stuck in her middle-school days. Her ability to pass notes, start rumors, and call names has been amplified by technology; technology invented and manufactured by those intellectuals she hates so much. She hasn’t matured in intellect, ability, or behavior since those days when her athletic prowess made her meanness acceptable within her peer group. She’s simply found that using technology she can insult and exclude people in front of a much larger audience.
I’d like to see the media, the real media, generate a Palin blackout until such time as she actually files as a candidate or until the lack of attention causes her to explode and display the true depths of hollow dim, and mean.
How about it, CBS, CNN, and others? You know she’s not really newsworthy. Return her to the small town she crawled out from.
“That was until a store employee told the reporter that press were not permitted to speak with customers inside the store, or leave the roped-off cafe area that had been designated for them.
"It's a Sarah rule, not our rule," the employee said, apologetically. Another store representative told reporters that the strict rules were handed down via Palin's publishing house, HarperCollins…”
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/03/palin-book-signing-a-tightly-controlled-operation/#more-138131
By Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
Friday, December 3, 2010; 6:00 PM
Sarah Palin has found a new opponent to debate: John F. Kennedy.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/03/AR2010120303209.html
Cassi Creek:
Palin’s 2nd book, ghostwritten, as is everything she publishes or posts, is proving the H.L. Mencken axiom – “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”
Also applicable
It has been apparent from the beginning of the 2008 campaign that Palin, despite five years purportedly studying journalism and communications, is unfamiliar with English as a first or second language. The presence of one complete and grammatically correct sentence in anything posted, printed, or published over her name is certain proof that not only did she not write it, but also that she has also not read it.
I have no idea at all what would cause any group of people to line up in a manner suggestive of East German shoppers hoping for real sausage in 1960, in order to buy a ghostwritten book and then to have it signed by an egocentric who has already come to believe that she actually wrote the book. Nor, if I were working for a legitimate media organization, would I quietly roll over, tits up, and allow the figurehead of a cult to dictate how I could do my job. Palin can refuse to talk to legitimate correspondents – she’s going to last longer if she does. There are no legitimate reasons that Ms. Petulance should be allowed to restrict the freedom of speech rights of anyone showing up in a bookstore, or the rights of the working media to interview those citizens. Somehow, the irony of such brazen disregard for the 1st Amendment freedom of the press fails to occur to the woman who “studied journalism.” It should certainly, have occurred to those members of the real working media.
This media avoidance smacks loudly of how dictatorships behave when faced with a press asking questions that the dictatorship wishes to avoid answering, or can’t answer. The media has the power to halt this behavior quickly, fairly, and permanently. Most of Palin’s public appearances have no real political merit. They serve only to keep her face and name in front of a public that has already decided to join her in bigotry, hatred, and intellectual emptiness.
CNN, CBS,MSNBC, and all the other media corporations should announce an immediate and ongoing boycott of all non-events involving Palin that do not directly pertain to announcing her candidacy for 2012. Unless she does that, no other public appearance is of sufficient value to merit airtime or column inches.
Charles M. Blow writing for the New York Times calls for an essential blackout on all things designed to maintain her prominence.
She Who Must Not Be Named
By CHARLES M. BLOW
Published: December 3, 2010
“People on the left seem to need her, to bash her, because she is, in three words, the way the left likes to see the right: hollow, dim and mean. But since she’s feeding on the negativity, I suggest three other words: get over it. “
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/opinion/04blow.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a212
Hollow, dim, and mean seems an accurate description of a woman who remains stuck in her middle-school days. Her ability to pass notes, start rumors, and call names has been amplified by technology; technology invented and manufactured by those intellectuals she hates so much. She hasn’t matured in intellect, ability, or behavior since those days when her athletic prowess made her meanness acceptable within her peer group. She’s simply found that using technology she can insult and exclude people in front of a much larger audience.
I’d like to see the media, the real media, generate a Palin blackout until such time as she actually files as a candidate or until the lack of attention causes her to explode and display the true depths of hollow dim, and mean.
How about it, CBS, CNN, and others? You know she’s not really newsworthy. Return her to the small town she crawled out from.
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