While many parents worry about their children being influenced incorrectly by the types and content of television programs they view.
I worry about the types and content of television programs they view!
I know; I worry too much.
I watch less than 50 hrs of television a year. 13 hrs of that content is Ice Road Truckers. The rest is made up of various Discovery Channel type of programming with the exception of; at least, one episode of Jeopardy a year. I don’t really need to know how many children Tom Brady has fathered or whether Brett Favre is sleeping with Brittany Spears or which celebrity decided to reveal that she wasn’t wearing panties. By the way, is there some sort of Demi Moore – Ashton Kucher divorce pool or what? I get it all, whether I want to or not, through Yahoo news when I check my email.
I also don’t care if Sean Hannity is still talking on Friday about a piece of political minutia he decided to harp on, on Monday. I do not care what outrages Bill O’Reilly. (The ‘poor man’ is trapped in the vacuum of ‘all over the board’.) And “Oh by the way, you ain’t sticking up for me.” I’ve seen enough of PBS’s format to know they are running out of people to say nothing eloquently while on Prozac with their ‘inside voice’. Why do I know about Anderson Cooper’s personal life through his news stories? Does Rachel Maddow know that the ‘chip’ between her legs is showing through the lesbian angst revealed in her discussion of economics or anything else? Ed Schultz, I’m sorry, I still remember your conservative radio talk show. I really hope you are making more money now. Chris Matthews has come along way from Tip O’ Neil’s staff but he lost all credibility when tingles started running up his legs. Keith Oberman, good riddance, I don’t know how it is possible, and I really don’t care that you are stilling pulling down a multi-million dollar salary talking to less people than I do. But hey; that Dartmouth Agricultural College degree in PE sure did fool a lot of people into thinking you were intelligent. At least, it’s Al Gore’s Current TV that you are losing money for. I do not mind his ill-gotten gains dissipating. He after all, is one of the few who can compete on your level of phoniness.
It was tough for him growing up in the home of a segregationist Senator, as a father. He did struggle through 4 years of Yale, on the resources of family investments in Occidental Petroleum, before graduating with a GPA less than George Bush’s. He should have plenty of money still to support Oberman though. His winners and losers choices have been a mixed bag and probably a financial break even. He made a monetary killing being the shrill-in-chief ‘snake oil’ salesman for the anthropomorphic global-warming hoax; but lost big-time because the hoax was discovered long before his heavily leveraged companies could cash-in with cap & trade legislation. Don’t count his political connections out yet. He scored big again when the Obama administration loaned $529million of US Stimulus money to the Finnish car company where he had a equity position. Of course, they used that loan to immediately get an IPO and go public. Gosh, I hope he cashed out before this week's news that their car is less efficient than the standard USA SUV. Or that news of another idiot type of Solyandra political loan is breaking. You reported on this, right Keith? It is funny; I didn’t even hear this mentioned by the occupiers on Wall St.
By now, the smart ones should be asking: Hey Donnie, for someone who claims to not watch TV, it seems you have strong opinions about it? OK, you’re right, a little clarification is necessary here. First, my opinions are strong about everything. Second, my 50 hours are by choice, as opposed to when I eat at truck stop restaurants; surrounded by big screen televisions, showing various news channels.
The point is, I do not choose to follow the Drone Entertainment News (Right or Left). I also am a big fan of argument. This is accomplished by the thoughtful presentation of ideas and points of view without interruption and through the author’s chosen words and format. Whether by essay, book or article; there is time to digest, evaluate and seek divergent thought. The absence of attitude (shrillness, condescension or rudeness) is peaceable and grants perception leading to, at least, understanding the author’s point.
I suggest you go to the Drudge Report; not for the headlines (which to me, at times, are entertaining) but because of his smartness to list links to so many divergent periodicals and news sources. In the center column below the headlines are links to pundits of all political stripes.
I read articles from:
Politico
Reason
The Economist
Salon
Slate
The Weekly Standard
The American Spectator
Business Daily Investor
Wall Street Journal
Forbes
I also read the essays of:
Charles Krauthammer
Jonah Goldberg
Thomas Sowell
Walter Williams
Mort Zuckerman
George Will
Mark Steyn
But without competition, my favorite reading is books. Anything regarding US History (good, bad and ugly) is a passion. The other
passion is theology. Either way, through the years, my passions vie for dominance. Usually, during an election cycle, politics/history becomes the majority of the 10-15 books I read a year.
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