Update, Nov. 8, 2012
This blog is run by an imperfect human being. As such, it might not always live up to its purported vision of being “positive.” Anger and disgust, human emotions, sometimes interfere. If we could be like Vulcans (fictional alien race in Star Trek), life might actually be boring, would it not? If I were a Vulcan, this blog would lack any emotions.
However, I advocate against being like the Ferengi (another fictional alien race in Star Trek) who take lessons from Ayn Rand (figuratively, of course). I find extreme selfishness and greed to be abrasive to the human spirit. We “hue-maans” detest such extremism. Only “hue-maans” who cling to their barbaric animal roots would relate to the Ferengi and Ayn Rand. Only anarchists who unwittingly create chaos would seek role models in a fictional alien race and Dagney Taggart, John Galt, and crew.
Should I apologize for this emotionalizing which leads to words like “horse shit” or “bastards” or … the worse possible… “f…”? Should I apologize for getting in touch with my feminine side – the emotions? Should I remain completely logical and when I diverge from that course, shut my mouth? After all, things said in the course of emotion can often be false. And that is certainly possible with my emotions. But the difference between me and someone like Allen West is this. At least I am willing to acknowledge this fact about me. I don’t allow my ego to create an egomaniac, if at all possible.
A long-lost male relative who suddenly surfaced to the family in the 1980s once told me about his disgust at being FORCED to acknowledge his feminine side. Oh, really? FORCED? By whom? Who FORCED him to acknowledge his feminine side and is it REALLY that bad to do so? I don’t recall being FORCED to acknowledge my feminine side. If I remember correctly, the only coercion I received was from an ex-Marine who jumped down my throat when I once said, “I FEEL….” “MEN DON’T DO THAT,” this ex-Marine exclaimed. “Men don’t ‘FEEL!'” … this ex-Marine reiterated! You know. I did not do as this relative did with his beef and tell people, “I refuse to abide by conformity to the principle that “men don’t feel!” I just took this advice and tucked it away in my knowledge bank, realizing I need to consider the various ways of thinking about how “men” are! I don’t need to embrace any ONE way – as fascists would have us do.
We are humans. We are diverse in our ways. We are not animals.
Tioga Herald 
Broadcast Media
Rupert Murdock once pronounced free broadcast television and radio as being as good as “dead,” due to cable television. Did anyone notice the smile on his face? After all, Murdock makes tons of money from cable television. That’s money that you and I pay in expensive cable television bills and no choice for lower-cost subsets of cable television channels which would exclude Murdock’s channels and be more palatable to us. And people complain about the small amounts of tax dollars (in comparison to what I probably pay Murdock) used for PBS and NPR? Give me a break.
Murdock might as well have been explicit and said, “I intend to destroy free local broadcast television.” For this is his intent – destroy his competition, as are the secret missions of Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, and other big box retailers. Don’t compete, but destroy – like a Roman warrior and the Mafia which identifies with the Roman Empire.
So someone says to me, “you have a choice if you don’t like cable television, you can cancel it!” Oh, I can, can I? So, my choice is like black and white. Receive everything or nothing? I am abrasive to that thought that “I have a choice.” I don’t have a choice. And the one choice I do have, the big guys like Murdock wish to eliminate that choice, too!
I don’t have a choice. Sure, I can turn the channels I don’t enjoy off. I can even set up my remote to bypass such channels and only move to channels I enjoy. But I still pay more for the bundled packages than I would if offered a package with a more delightful menu – and paid less. It is not right for my dollars to go to something I don’t agree – particularly for politics and religion for which I disagree. I also don’t figure I should pay for the bundling of sports into my packages either. Give me the ones I DON’T want to receive as “pay as you go.” I attended Syracuse University football games in Syracuse. It was pay as you go. I had a choice to purchase a bundle for season’s tickets or pay as you go. Even the bundled season’s tickets were “pay as you go” – for one team only.
Sports have become far too commercialized, due to this boondogle called cable television. And while on this subject, consider how much more of my tax dollars have paid for stadiums than for public broadcasting! Yet millions of us never watch sports! Where is the justice in this? Where are the supposed “choices?” There are none.
And now Rupert Murdock, with the finger prints of paranoid Tricky Dickey on his actions, wishes to eliminate free local broadcasting. Better to control the “herds” of animal slaves, don’t you know? When will we the people stop this jerk and others like him? We won’t, as long as we continue to dismiss what I say with, “you DO have choices” and brush my main point aside. I do not have choices when I am precluded from purchasing what is acceptable to me. That is elimination of a choice. Preclude me and make me out to be troublemaker and you are all working for big business, not for the people.
Imagine the creation of “family-friendly” cable television packages – just for James Dobson and his looney tune worshipers. It’s a win-win situation for right and left wing – as well as spreading the wealth, rather than concentrating it in the hands of a few people like Rupert Murdock. Imagine what I could do with the extra money NOT wasted on cable television shit which I don’t wish to view! The only ones who lose are greedy selfish monopolists – and I don’t give a damn if they lose.
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