Temporary “news” boycott

Posted on September 8, 2011 by 8junebugs

My biggest problem with US news today, as a consumer and as a trained journalist, is how often actual news takes a backseat to the popular news of the day. Right now, this is informing two decisions:

1) I will be skipping the 9/11 retrospectives this week, as much as humanly possible. I deeply respect every individual and family’s experience of that day’s horror and the uncertainty that followed. I do not respect the media’s unconscionable efforts to capitalize on individual loss and collective emotion. That 10 years have passed isn’t news, and I’m actually a little insulted by the insinuation that I might need or want to be reminded of what happened that day…as if I could forget.

The only exception to this is Day of Destruction, Decade of War, the documentary Rachel Maddow and Richard Engel put together on how our nation has changed since that day. (It’s DVR’d — NO SPOILERS! Oh, wait…) This makes the cut because the impact of what we’ve done to US society in the last 10 years will last longer than even the memories we carry with us today. We fundamentally changed our nation after that attack, and we lost more than we knew.

Also? I recognize that people hate Maddow for a whole bunch of reasons, but anyone who says she’s bad at journalism is, to coin the phrase, lying or selling something. She does her homework, she reports with a passion for truth (and justice, for whatever that’s worth these days), and she admits it when she gets it wrong. I realize that I was trained in the old-school style of reporting, right before it all changed, but her work, her talent, and her commitment to facts and analysis are invaluable to me right now.

2) I’m not watching the so-called debates between the Republican candidates…at least not live. The likelihood that one of them will cop to a policy position I could stomach is slim to none…and although such an admission would actually be news, it would also end their candidacy. I’ve done my homework and the posturing they have to do to win over the electorate they’ve groomed makes me physically ill. I’m not thrilled with the current administration, but today’s GOP is — and I cannot stress this strongly enough — too anti-me to accept. No one on their slate of potential POTUSes knows or cares about my interests, to say nothing of protecting or even representing my interests. A vote for any one of them would be a vote against my own rights, my own principles, and my own expectations for the future of this nation.

One candidate will pull ahead, and if it’s anyone other than Huntsman, with whom I still vehemently disagree on many levels, then god help the Grand Old Party. Either way, the primary scuffle for Top Ideologue will be over in February and Allan Lichtman, the Punxsutawney Phil of presidential odds and a prof at my alma mater, has already called this one. I have no reason to think he’s wrong (although I’ll write about it anyway)…but I urge y’all to make him right. This time, we’re not choosing the lesser of two evils — we’re deciding whether we will tread water or drown altogether.

Filed under: Boobtubage, Fourth Estate, Highway or Handbasket?, POTUS | Leave a Comment »

All over the place

Posted on August 30, 2011 by 8junebugs

These days, I have too much and not enough to blog about.

Too much

Things are settling down and I’ve had more time to return to my old (entirely entangled) favorites: religion, social justice, and politics. I’m out of practice (a little) and still feeling a bit unfocused, so I’m hesitant to start sharing on topics that are even more inflammatory than they were when I was younger…and when I was more willing to engage in flame wars. There’s even less civility in our national discussion than there was when I was starting to get my philosophical sea legs, and I care far, far more about the outcome of causes near and dear to my heart than I did even then. Perhaps because, back then, I didn’t think certain things were up for real debate anymore, not Important Things like equal protection and the 1st Amendment and the cause and effect – and overall cultural value — of feminism. I thought these were settled matters of law that could only get better in a nation that claimed a reputation for equality and tolerance. I didn’t necessarily think I’d have a flying car by now, but I also sure as HELL didn’t think women would still be paid less and abortion providers would be assassinated and racist/eliminationist dogwhistles demeaning (or endangering) a U.S. president would be acceptable “rhetoric.”

This is not the country I thought it would be when I looked ahead from, say, 1996. I thought I was a bad-ass cynic, back then; today, 1996-me looks like a naive idealist of the highest freaking order.

I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the last couple of months getting into Big Discussions on Facebook, which, however ubiquitous, ain’t the right space for the amount and kind of words I think these issues deserve. The trade-off, though, is that anyone who engages here is subject to my commenting policy (“Please use your inside voice. Opinions of all shades are welcome; malicious comments may be deleted at my discretion.”), which I’m sure is less fun…which means less engagement. So we’ll see.

There’s a US election coming up, though, and I can’t imagine I’m going to grow more comfortable about the State of This Union between now and November 2012, so I can either start writing or bust the blood vessels in my eyes from finally reaching the limit of their rolling capacity.

Not enough

Confession: We haven’t been exploring the city hardly at all — neither the city we live in nor The City across the Bay. I had a sense, when we decided to move back out here, that this blog might become “All About The O-A-K “or “San Francisco For People Who Came To Their Senses And Moved Back.” But…we like being at home. We like our simple routine with the dog walking and the dinner making and the Dr. Who watching. We like saving money, now that there’s some coming in and we can, slowly but surely, replenish the Move Without JOBZ fund. And so we spend a good deal of time at home, and our friends and family have all eaten at more restaurants in our neighborhood that we have.

So, from a “Welcome to the ‘hood!” perspective, I have little to report here…unless you want a veterinarian recommendation, because we’ve seen a lot of that guy. First for an ear infection because someone let the puppers go too long between groomings, then because Westies are prone to skin allergies and infections, and again this week because some paw swelling and tenderness that manifested at the end of a trip to Gardnerville got better but didn’t go away…and Daddy is admittedly hypochondriacal when it comes to his Rodney.

Bay Area pediatric call centers? You’re on notice for…well, sometime in the future, anyway. (I am calmer about these things, but I think that’s because I grew up with big outdoor dogs who rarely saw the vet and, as often as not, died less by illness than by vehicular dogslaughter. I have no data on which to base a puppy-related panic attack.)

Yes, we’ve become Those People, the ones who refer to each other as Mommy and Daddy when talking to the dog. Except Graham will sometimes tell Rodney to “Find Jen,” which, unsurprisingly, has mixed results.

Anyway. Comfort with the simple routine, combined with how much time I spend commuting and working each day (and how little I want to be held to account for STILL NOT RUNNING), means I haven’t set aside too much time for blogging. I’m hoping to change that, because I’ve got some things to talk about. I hope you’ll stick around.

Filed under: A life less ordinary, Courage, Fourth Estate, Happily ever after, NIMBY no more, Pop goes the culture, POTUS | 1 Comment »

Nightmares, real and imagined

Posted on July 31, 2011 by 8junebugs

Recently, we finished a monumental effort to steep yours truly in the Buffyverse. (I’ve heard that’s a controversial term, but it’s also awfully compact and convenient.) We’d debated this staggered, two-series marathon for several years – my personal pop culture reference database was woefully bereft when it came to the fictional adventures of vampires and demons, and the slayers thereof, in the late 90s, but it wasn’t a huge priority for me — seven seasons of one series and five of another aren’t, usually. And then I was faced with a voluntary-but-uninterrupted Cosmos marathon and thought to myself, “Self, one can only take so much Carl Sagan before one needs to watch David Boreanaz brood.” (Aside: One of my former colleagues talks exactly like Carl Sagan. But exactly. It must be the Brooklyn thing.)

So we picked sci-fi over science. For MONTHS. And I had nightmares about vampires and demons. For MONTHS.

I’m also all caught up on Whale Wars and we went into the new Torchwood: Miracle Day at full speed. We collapsed our usual pre-new-release Harry Potter marathon, and I finally made Graham watch Bring It On (with the help of a great deal of scotch).

We still have at least one episode of Cosmos left, not because I hate science, but because Carl Sagan’s voice is the world’s best lullaby. Plus? I’m going to watch it again later anyway. It’s brilliant, but it’s going to take time to absorb stuff I was never/badly taught as a kid.

Other than that, though, we’re out of TV to watch and a little TV’d out, if you want to know the truth. Until we sat down after dinner the other night and whined, “There’s nothing to waaatccchhhh.” So we turned on our previously recorded Gang Wars: Oakland, a 2009 series that claimed there are 10,000 gang members walking the streets of Mah New City.

“Great,” Graham said. “Now you’re going to have more nightmares.”

I didn’t have nightmares. I’ve been here for four months and I like it. I’ve lived in and around cities long enough to learn that you do the best you can to stay safe and waste as little time as possible being afraid of your neighbors. People are people, no matter where you go. Pretty much everyone’s doing what they can with what they’ve got, wherever they are.

Gang violence in Oakland is not my nightmare.

You know what is my nightmare? More kids growing up with limited opportunities, truncated education, and fear. Kids who can’t see any way but the one right in front of them. Smart kids who don’t get to learn. Talented kids without an outlet. Parents who think their own experience is the living end. Legislators who care more about being right than being good, or being kind. The “I got mine” mentality informing policies that’ll keep people who ain’t got nothing — and their kids — from ever getting anything…because somewhere along the line the American Dream became a zero-sum game. A government gambling away a future they won’t even see for principles based in pomp and circumstance.

All that? Scares the ever-loving crap out of me. Thugs in my city can put the homocide rate at a record high, but they’ll never hurt as many people as what passes for leadership in Washington right now.

Filed under: A life less ordinary, Boobtubage, NIMBY no more, OAK, POTUS | Leave a Comment »

On anger, fear, and elections

Posted on November 1, 2010 by 8junebugs

It’s not anger, in particular, that I find so offensive. It’s trumped-up anger about, say, things that aren’t true, or things that offend someone’s sensibilities but are not, objectively, any of that person’s damned business (like what I do with my body, and/or with whom).

Or violence. I find that pretty damned offensive.

For an informed voter, I act like a freaking ostrich shoving its head in the sand in the run up to an election. I’m perfectly capable of ferreting out the truth about candidates’ positions online without listening to the crap ads that, if we’re lucky, on either side of the debate, contain 5% truth.

I cannot handle it. I do communications for a living and I respect my audience(s). It incenses me to watch ads specifically scripted to appeal to the basest fears of people who already have enough troubles. It infuriates me to see inaccurate or out-of-context information shoveled at a citizenry that the ad creator (or the person paying for the ad) thinks is too dumb to check the facts.

And the dog whistles. The bloody dog whistles so saturated with privileged hatred for anyone who is (or might be) other…it stings. I wish there were a better name for the concept so it wouldn’t be in any way related to puppies.

This election cycle, even more than 2008, is highlighting the flaws in our humanity, the worst being that we are inclined to develop our own Truth and stick to it, regardless of facts proving that Truth is incorrect (I know this was recently supported by another study, but I can’t find the newer link).

Fact:

  1. something that actually exists; reality; truth
  2. something known to exist or to have happened

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but facts are not subjective.

Politicians and activists in this election cycle are doing their best to convince people of the opposite…and a lot of people want to believe it. It’s empowering to think that you can make something real by believing it hard enough, isn’t it? When you’re trying to engage a bunch of people who are, in the grand scheme of things, generally powerless, it’s an incredible tool of persuasion. If someone’s lost a lot — a job, a house, retirement funds – it’s really, really easy to access their understandable fear of losing even more. Tell them the other candidate will try to take more away, and you’ve got them. The fear of that loss opens them up to whatever suggestion you make, even if you lie to their faces.

You can convince perfectly intelligent people that your support of big business is good for them. You can get them to think that businesses trying to profit will always pay a fair wage, even without a law requiring it (my employer probably would, but I’m well aware of how unusual that is). You can even get them to scapegoat populations who possess even less than they.

Fear is that powerful.

Fear appeals, typically, are most effective when the target feels some sense of efficacy. “Ooga booga!” doesn’t work by itself–you need “Ooga booga + Do X to allay fear and feel safe!”

X = “vote for this guy right here, the one who looks like you and prays like you and knows what you want to hear, and all will be well”

(Y = Why not?)

That democrats are struggling to counter this is no surprise. When facts and reason can’t counter resistance, we don’t know what to do. We hold to the belief that people are, by nature, reasonable. We expect that we can present facts to voters and have that be enough. Although we point fingers as much as the other side, we really do try to point them at the (predominantly white, Christian, male) legislators who voted or signed orders the produced certain results. We think that should be enough.

We suck at real scapegoating.

I’m not afraid of immigrants or LGBTQI neighbors/teachers/teenagers or even of ZOMGsocialism. I am very, very afraid of a country so far gone that fear trumps facts…and would-be leaders who capitalize on that.

So I’ll vote tomorrow, and I’ll be disappointed…much like 1994 (although we were better equipped to rebound then…economically, regardless of party politics). And I’ll hope for better in 2012. I’ll hope that the people all fired up to “Take back the nation!!!!11!!!” or whatever snap the hell out of it and consider taking it forward instead.

I’ll hope for the best…and expect significantly less.

Filed under: A life less ordinary, NIMBY no more, Pop goes the culture, POTUS, Ulcer Training | Leave a Comment »

Sarah Palin and the cult of mediocrity

Posted on February 17, 2010 by 8junebugs

(I’m aware that a title like that is likely to pull in at least as many trolls as the ones I bounced from the post mentioning Mafia Wars. Yay for WordPress’s spam filters!)

Sarah Palin and the easily led automatons who think she’s the second coming scare the ever-loving crap out of me, and I’ll tell you why. They actively, loudly, derisively assert that setting aside evidence, logic, and reason makes them “real” and “better”…that determinedly NOT knowing about things makes them more knowledgeable, more qualified, more apt than someone more intellectually sophisticated.

Palin and her ilk are acting out the scariest Orwellian chapters of our high school canon, to say nothing of resurrecting the most reprehensible characters of Atlas Shrugged. They seek to know without thinking, to be experts without knowing, to lead inexpertly, and to be venerated for being “real Americans.”

So, if they’re the “real Americans,” what does that make me? A hippy commie socialist gay-loving tree-hugger? Do I have to actually be gay for that? And does it tip the scale in their direction that I’m not a vegan?

“ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.” ~George Orwell, Animal Farm, Ch. 10

Fortunately?

I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction. ~Ayn Rand, Anthem

(I posit that the Declaration and Constitution dudes would’ve dug Rand. I’m pretty sure that’s off-limits for my thesis, though.)

By working to be part of the intellectual elite (to say nothing of the environmentally conscious), I am of no interest to Palin’s crowd, and my rights, interests, and expectations are irrelevant. Because I demand evidence and citations and honest inquiry, I am clearly part of the problem. I seek to understand, for example, what words and concepts mean, instead of relying on my own perception of truth to negate empirical evidence (see: Hannity, who thinks that snowstorms in February somehow refute the fact that the last decade was the hottest on record…but who, oddly, doesn’t remark on why Dallas residents got a snow day last week.).

“In Oceania at the present day, Science, in the old sense, has almost ceased to exist. In Newspeak there is no word for ‘Science.’ The empirical method of thought, on which all the scientific achievements of the past were founded, is opposed to the most fundamental principles of Ingsoc.” ~George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 9

Palin and her party of teabaggers seek to undermine one of the most basic liberties we have: The freedom to think. The three-pound mass of brilliance I carry in my skull (like unto the one you carry around in yours) is designed to reason and understand and remember and question and respond, and asking me to set aside its incredible power is insulting. Intellectual inquiry is not a scary side effect of humanity — it is the very foundation of humanity, and what brought us down from the trees.

What? Sarah Palin doesn’t believe in evolution? Sorry…that she doesn’t believe in it doesn’t mean it hasn’t been scientifically proven. From her autobiography, Going Rogue: “But I believe that God created us. …I had just dared to mention the C-word: creationism. But I felt I was on solid factual ground.”

No. “I believe” = Faith. Faith ≠ Science. Feeling factual does not make you factual — knowing and using facts does that. Lots of people believe things that are simply not true. There’s nothing wrong with faith or even instinct, until you try to make people believe that those words mean something they do not mean.

“WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.” ~George Orwell, Book 1, Ch. 1 (emphasis mine)

“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?… Has it ever occurred to your, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation as we are having now?… The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact, there will be no thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking—not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.” ~George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 5  (emphasis mine)

Knowledge = knowing things empirically (by means of observation, experience, or experiment). Knowledge ≠ “I know because I know.” That boils down to an “I’m the mommy, that’s why” argument. I don’t know about you, but that didn’t work for me after the age of four. Palin expects her supporters to rebel against the leadership of law professor types who know what they’re talking about and follow her lead, even though she, proudly, doesn’t know what what she’s talking about. (Or she lies based on the expediency of the moment — I’m not always sure when she’s lying about something and when she just doesn’t have a clue.)

On what planet is that a reasonable request, to follow the lead of the person who knows the least? (Theoretically, the same planet on which one can consider oneself an advocate for people with disabilities but only bristle at the word “retarded” when someone from the other party uses it.*)

If I’m going to follow someone’s lead or advice, that person had damn well better know more than I do. (If I wanted to make deviled eggs the way Mom always made ‘em, I called Mom. If want to make a souffle, though, I’m calling Alicia.) This anti-intellectual movement is ridiculous…and dangerous.

What’s killing me (and what threatens the Democratic majority in Congress) is that rejecting Orwellian pronouncements in favor of evaluating and understanding evidence connotes a commitment to academic rigor, the scientific process…and civil discourse. The same principles for which we’re so vilified are the ones that keep us from fighting back against baseless, useless, senseless attacks by simply saying, “No. You’re wrong.” These principles push us to give the other side the benefit of the doubt, to listen to what they have to say, as if an uninformed opinion deserves the same weight as fact, logic, and reasoned arguments.

“…they want us to pretend that we see the world as they pretend they see it. They need some sort of sanction from us.” ~Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged (Hank Reardon to Dagny Taggart)

It does not deserve the same weight, and certainly not at the policy-making level. I don’t care if you believe that God created Adam and then Eve, or that fossil fuels are not exacerbating global warming (and the planet is warming — we’ve only changed the terminology to try to get you to understand it), or that smoking doesn’t cause cancer because you’ve smoked for 20 years and still don’t have it. You can believe whatever you want — you have a constitutionally protected right to be willfully ignorant and irrational.

Rationality is the recognition of the fact that nothing can alter the truth and nothing can take precedence over that act of perceiving it. ~Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

But do not — do NOT — attempt to foist your fact-free, stunted view of the world on the rest of the population. I do not accept Sarah Palin’s view that something can be true after scientific inquiry has proven it to be false. I do not accept that she is smart enough to be in a position of power when she can’t remember her own convictions without writing them on her hand. I do not accept that believing what a pundit tells you without questioning why they’re telling you and what they have to gain from getting you to believe them makes you an “informed” voter.

In short:

“It is not advisable, James, to venture unsolicited opinions. You should spare yourself the embarrassing discovery of their exact value to your listener.” ~Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged (Francisco D’Anconia to James Taggart)

Take note, Palin supporters: You can do better. Your brain has the same three-pound Brilliance Capacity as mine. If you refuse to use it, don’t expect me to act as though you are using it.

(more…)

Filed under: A life less ordinary, Pop goes the culture, POTUS, Worth 1 lb. of manure | 2 Comments »

Am I my brother’s keeper?

Posted on August 19, 2009 by 8junebugs

Dr. Hibbert from The Simpsons, courtesy VirginmediaFlip-Flop Amy got me started on it, so this 1,000-plus-word rant is brought to you by the letters S, T, and J.

I’m pleased to see that Remote Area Medical (RAM) is getting a fair bit of press this week for its work in Inglewood. You know where organizations like RAM are supposed to operate, though? Guatemala. Haiti. East Africa. Places with a lot less money and resources than the United States. Yet 60% of its programs are directed domestic need, because our neighbors can’t afford regular dental care, to say nothing of root canals.*

Is this what you want and expect from the United States? People who, no matter how hard they work at how many jobs, can’t afford to get their teeth cleaned or get glasses for their kids? What do you think extra root canals and kids who can’t see the board do to our economy in the long run?

Wake up, neighbors. It’s Morning After in America.

The only reason my mom was able to go from diagnosis to radiation to surgery to chemo and back again is because she was a Vermonter, and Vermonters decided years ago that medical care is a basic human right regardless of income, health, or lifestyle. As a Vermonter, she received the best care possible given the diagnosis, and her costs were minimal. Thanks to universal health care at the state level, she could go to the doctor without worrying about whether she would have to choose between medicine and a mortgage payment.

Shouldn’t everyone be able to do that? If you think otherwise, please tell me why, because I honestly can’t imagine being willing to say, “No, you can’t go to the doctor. You are not rich enough to afford the right to get well.”

It started with former Governor Howard Dean, now best known for roaring on national television and scaring grown adults away from progressive change (can you imagine where we’d be today if we were open to change in 2004 instead of the same old lesser-of-two-evils options? Le sigh…). To Vermonters, though, he’s best known for Dr. Dynasaur, the program that began ensuring health care coverage for children and pregnant women. It was a start, a strong start, and it led to the plethora of programs available in Vermont today in just about every circumstance: Unemployed, underemployed, or out of college and too old for Mom and Dad’s insurance? Whatever your situation, Vermont believes you have the right to medical attention. They believe you have a right to life, even if you have already exited the womb and left behind the protection of the traditional right-to-life crowd.

(more…)

Filed under: If it's not one thing, it's your mother, NIMBY no more, Pop goes the culture, POTUS | 3 Comments »

You know you live in DC when…

Posted on June 22, 2009 by 8junebugs

President Obama takes his girls to your neighborhood frozen custard place, and you take a detour to the grocery store.

Welcome to the neighborhood, sir. Note: Every shop on The Avenue has dog treats that are presidential-puppy-worthy.

I should’ve just stopped and gotten a picture of my own, but seriously? This really does happen all the time. But I suppose it’s the closest I’ve been to Obama. W00t! Still a fan. (And that vanilla custard is good eats.)

Thanks to the muggy weather on Saturday, I was being an industrious American, just down the street, before the Obamas arrived:

I did all of my laundry.

I carried the old TV down to the trash area (and have the bruises to show for it). It was gone in 10 minutes.

I baked three loaves of pumpkin bread with white whole wheat flour instead of AP (because I had it) and flaxmeal instead of oil. I froze two of the loaves. I’d be happier with this recipe if it didn’t contain so much sugar…but the flax certainly balances it out.

I also baked the Weight Watcher chocolate muffins and froze half. I’ve spoken of these before–sheer genius.

I harvested my first balcony tomato! And then added it to a sweet pepper, cucumber, red onion, basil, fresh-ish mozzarella, and balsamic vinaigrette for a lazy variation on Bread Salad.  Instead of making croutons, I’ve just been ripping up raw spinach and tossing in the “salad.” It has been pointed out to me that this is a spinach salad, but that friend has never had Bread Salad and doesn’t understand the need to pay homage.

(I will be eating more spinach salad, though. I grabbed one from “Chaotic Cafe” in Tysons Galleria on Friday, and it’s sparked a craving. I’ve got more red onion, plus mushrooms, and shrimp…)

I went looking for a recipe for something else and happened upon Bread & Honey’s post on “burrito night,” which led to a batch of vaguely Mexican rice, most of which went into the freezer (I froze individual portions with a very handy silicon muffin pan). I think this will help my burritos immeasurably.

These days, between work, school, and upcoming travel, it seems prudent to cook and bake as much as I can when I can, then put it away for later. By Thursday morning of a given week, I am done with the whole cooking/eating…thing. I can’t be bothered. And a slab of homemade pumpkin bread with lots of omega-3s is a hell of a lot better than, say, Famous Amos cookies that have been in the vending machine in the student lounge since the Clinton Administration.

How was your weekend?

Filed under: A life less ordinary, POTUS, Tastes Like Chicken | Leave a Comment »

Dormant policy wonk

Posted on March 12, 2009 by 8junebugs

Are you wondering why I haven’t bitched or moaned about politics lately, or commented on the stimulus package or TARP or earmarks? Because I do realize there’s a shocking lack of political content on here this year. It’s for the best reason ever, though:

President Obama and the good folks of MSNBC are doing a fantastic job of calling bullshit for me.

I cackle gleefully while watching press conferences. I applaud the president for his courage and perseverance in the face of a fawning majority and a flailing minority. I actually do think the steps he’s taking are the right ones. They may not be the only right ones, but they are logical and well-reasoned and supported by experts with nothing to gain from their implementation.

And I have yet to come up with any complaints about the right or the left that don’t eventually get air time from Rachel Maddow (my big phat girl-crush), Keith Olbermann (my tv boyfriend), and, less exuberantly, Chris Matthews (for U.S. Senate!?) and Joe Scarborough (played by Chandler Bing). David Shuster is the heir-apparent, but I like a little more sarcasm with my news.

I don’t watch David Gregory, even though he’s a fellow Eagle. I’m not a fan, and I am content to mourn Meet the Press along with its sorely missed late host. And I’ve strayed, perhaps permanently, away from CNN.

 The era of objectivity in journalism is fading away — in a world where D.L. Hughley has a news-based show on CNN, I don’t know where we’ll find another Jennings. Those guys — Jennings, Brokaw, and Rather — came up through the ranks and earned the anchor chairs with blood, sweat, and lack of tears. Now…well, now anchors are celebrities, not reporters. If they’ve covered a war, they were embedded. If they’ve covered a tragedy, they’ve likely inserted themselves in the story.

I saw this while still in school, studying journalism and watching reporters cope with 9/11. There was no way to report on the attacks, especially around here, without showing emotion. Once viewers accepted that, even rewarded it, objectivity in reporting became less critical. Add to that the relationship the Bush Administration had with the press, and you get weak or biased reporting as the norm. The “with us or against us” mentality did nothing for the Fourth Estate.

And then there’s the 24-hour news cycle that the old-time anchors didn’t have to feed. I’m often torn between my nurtured need to Know Everything Right Away and the soothing monotony of the nightly network news.

I find that I’m hopeful, as the new administration takes hold and the face and flavor of journalism is shifting again. I’m hopeful when I see a president take the hit for a bad appointment decision…when I see him say, “my bad,” apologize, and move on. I’m hopeful when I watch Maddow alternately question the ever-loving sanity of entrenched Republican diehards and have a thoughtful, respectful conversation with Megan McCain. And I remain hopeful — more hopeful than skeptical — about our chance for recovery at home and abroad.

Filed under: Fourth Estate, POTUS | Leave a Comment »

So say we all

Posted on January 20, 2009 by 8junebugs

If you missed it, if you need to hear it again, if you need to read it to know the time has really come, here you go:

Transcript of President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address

The Price and Promise of Citizenship

Millions of Americans flocked to my neighborhood this week to see Obama take the oath and assume the power of the presidenct. Why? Because he’s the first African American president? Certainly. Because Obama-the-candidate embraced the technology and energy of a rising generation and connected with supporters on their terms? Of course. Because this is OUR presidency?

Yes.

Obama has not said, “It will all be okay.” He has not said, “I’ll make it all better.” He has not said, “Don’t worry about it.”

Notice: the price of citizenship comes before the promise.

He has called on all of us, in the tone of JFK, to work with him to meet the challenge of our age. We know what our country can do for us and, for the most part, what we can do for our country. We do not yet know what we can really do for the world, for the cause of good, for the future of humanity. But the 44th president of the United States, in addition to all of his historic personal qualities, believes in us.

And nothing is more inspiring than the confidence of a leader in your promise and principles.

We have stalled progress for eight years — whether because we had the power or because we lacked it – and we, as a nation, have missed global and local cues. President Bush made difficult decisions, yes, and deployed our military and economic forces with all the power of his office. He did so, however, with a rigid mindset and a lack of interest in things he did not already understand. The vision that George W. Bush brought to the Oval Office was an outdated one that stopped at the end of his nose, and he leaves office without any more perspective than that which he brought in.

As we face the next four years, my faith in the new president springs as much from his ability to learn as from his ability to know. He is a bridge between generations, between nations. President Obama carries within him the best of this country’s history and its promise. Regardless of what the mirror shows on the surface, I look at him and think, “finally, a president who looks like me…like what I want to see in myself.”

I’m reminded, as the power peacefully changes hands, of the 43rd president’s claim to be “a uniter, not a divider.” On this day, such an inward-facing claim sounds as hollow and false as it turned out to be. The heart of America does not open to the individual promise of a leader — the heart of America, reborn in each new generation, thrills to a bold call to action, rises to meet the challenge of a leader who believes in those who will follow…and lead as they are called.

Filed under: POTUS | 3 Comments »

President Ciggy McPuffer

Posted on December 8, 2008 by 8junebugs

Tom Brokaw called Obama on his smoking habit this weekend.

I would love to rant and rave about this, to use my mom as my soapbox and scream at the POTUS-E for presenting a poor example to his children and to the country. “Damn it, Mr. Almost-President, you should be perfect!”

I can’t do it.

First of all, I don’t need a president without any vices. After the last 8 years of high and mighty holier-than-thous running the show and sneering at a past president who got caught with his pants down, I am still more comfortable with the pants-less POTUS than with one who thinks God speaks directly to him. A wise woman I admire once said that she wishes GWB would just get an extramarital blow job instead of invading other countries without appropriate intelligence or an exit strategy.

Are the two linked? Don’t know — it’s not my field, and I certainly don’t advocate extramarital affairs. But I do think the evangelical level of self-denial and repression is unhealthy and can lead to a dangerous sense of hypermorality and assumed infallibility, which, hey, might make a guy more prone to unilateral decision-making.

Second, imagine you’ve just gone through a tough campaign, and your prize for winning is to wake up realizing that you will, for the rest of your life, be in the public eye and have secret service protection. For the REST OF YOUR LIFE. Better put a half-court in the Rose Garden, Mr. President-Elect, because your days of playing H-O-R-S-E with a couple of pals from the office are over.

Third, the man is inheriting two wars with rapidly dwindling ranks in the armed forces. He’s stepping into the worst economy in two and a half generations. Americans who travel abroad find it easier to pose as Canadians because our international reputation is in the shitter. If you follow the rhetoric in certain Middle Eastern countries, you might wonder if Mr. Obama will be presiding over the nation during World War III.

To top it all off, his mother-in-law is coming to live with him. She sounds wonderful and I applaud all of them for the decision, but…damn.

Let the man have the occasional cigarette, as long as he’s off by himself in a quiet corner and not puffing into his young daughters’ faces, or mine. It’s still better than an extramarital blow job and invading a sovereign nation without cause.

Filed under: POTUS | 2 Comments »

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