Over the last week, I’ve ranted about the media, now it is time to move onto something with a little less controversy.  Who are we kidding, I got nothing.  Putin is not so subtly threatening us with Nukes; ISIL wants to make more videos of useless gore; and, people around the globe are struggling to make sense of all the chaos.  Meanwhile, there are hearings and interviews about Benghazi, and much discussion about several past September 11th events, and how it relates to the upcoming 9/11.  In other news, NATO had a big Summit, and while there was much chest pounding and leaf throwing, with the dawn of a new week, many Americans are still wondering from where, and from whom, the next blow will come.  It is often said around here that one of the most heinous of old world curses was, “may you live in interesting times.”  Well for most of us, we appear to be living that curse.  Then again, are we worse off than say 70 to 100 years ago?

    Looking back through history, you can take several periods of time and see that maybe we aren’t any different than we were those decades ago.  After all, at one point in the 1930s, we were engaged in a slow recovery from a depression, while Europe was especially hard hit with rampant inflation and the spread of fascism.  Meanwhile in Asia, Japan was running roughshod over China, and we were hearing about the Rape of Nanking, the sinking of the USS Panay.  All of this was about the same time we were dealing with the annexation of Austria, Czechoslovakia, and the collapse of the Versailles Treaty.  The only difference between then and now is that we’re hearing about things faster, and with greater stridency.  The names have changed, the alliances are different, but the concepts are with us regardless of decade.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t find comfort in any of this, especially since to me, we’re just repeating history.  

    Knowing this, I would find far greater comfort in knowing that this time we’re going to do something without waiting for the worst to force us to do something.  We shouldn’t need a December 7th or a September 11th to awaken from our torpor and hope that the world will “do the right thing” without us.  Unfortunately, many with the power to stop things early, before the costs become too high in lives, appear to have never read a history book.  I’m not saying that this is a time for bombastic action, but it clearly isn’t a time for sitting on thumbs either.  There are a lot of options in the global/historical playbook, but the one we know that absolutely doesn’t work is appeasement.......  ~ Michael S. Pauley

In light of my last posting about information, I thought I would share something with you.  I had a friend the other night tell me that if Chet Huntley or David Brinkley were still around to watch the news, then they would be more than highly disgusted.  I had to agree, since I can recall from my youth a time when you got the news without commentary.  (Remember the days before Cronkite started his antics?  Yeah, I’m that old.)  The interesting thing about this phenomenon is that the pundits reel you in with things as simple as an inflection in their voice.  You know we’ve all heard some pundit/anchor on a news network use the expression, “THEY SAAIIID.......”  Which naturally makes it sound like the Report/Anchor/Pundit isn’t buying it, but this is their story, so we’re bound to report it.  

    What ever happened to just telling me what happened during the day without some putz adding a spin?  Now we have a Nancy Grace or a Greta or worse yet, a Bill O’Reilly or his anthesis, Chris Matthews, spinning so hard that it hurts my eyes/ears just to watch them.  (Yeah, even in the no spin zone, that guy spins like a top cutting off anyone that might even remotely disagree with him!)  Bloviating Bill, as we call him, and leg shaking Chris, have convinced me that you could probably get more useful real time information from the Home Shopping Network.  On that topic, in my humble opinion, Bill and Chris are just opposites sides of the same coin, a plugged nickel.

    I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it yet again here.  At night, when I have time to listen to the news, please stop trying to entertain me, or in most cases, nauseate me.  Give me the news, the simple “what the hell happened today” kind of news, not an out of context snippet that is designed to upset me, influence me, or otherwise brainwash me.  While we are on the subject, these “Media Watch” type shows are equally annoying.  While the concept might be sound, what you get instead is another pundit telling us about the bias of other pundits, by showing us clips that clearly show the bias being carried out at the other news network.  Really??  Why not hire a hooker to teach celibacy to a group of monkeys at the zoo.  It makes about as much sense! ~ Michael S. Pauley   

Literacy and over information can lead to the same result.  For example, we wonder at how an Imam can interpret something and issue a Fatwah, that has no real basis in their own written religious works.  Yet, we don’t bat an eye at how MSNBC, CNN, or Fox News, will listen to a press conference or speech, and give us their twist on things.  I know I’ve harped on this before, but most of us have day jobs.  We come home from work, and get a short snippet of a press conference, and then some commentator’s spin on what was said.  You can listen to these various networks, and wonder if they were participating in the same press conference.  This is why I no longer rely on the networks.  The best I can do is listen to them, and divide by two to get to the truth.  The other method is to look at the source.  Several times I’ve gone to the DOD page to listen to what Rear Admiral John Kirby really said, since I can count on the news media to screw it up.  Similarly, gangs and thugs like ISIL don’t check the source either.  Instead, thanks to the raging illiteracy in their part of the world, they only know what they are told.  So, some “Holy” man can tell them what to think, and because of their blind adherence to this bizarre sicko, they don’t bother to check the source of his rant.  How can we marvel at this, when some of us are doing it too?   I agree that some of us can’t help it.  We have day jobs, families, obligations, and there aren’t enough hours in the day to read through the massive amounts of information that are available to us.  Left with so little time, and so much information, we are relegated to relying on the talking head on the idiot box to sum it up for us.  Who is worse off?  Clearly they are, but we should still be aware that much of what we are hearing may not be the best, most accurate information.  Something to think about, since the last thing we as a society should ever want is someone doing our thinking for us.  Just for giggles, when you get a minute, check out other sources, take a look at what DOD really said, or maybe even cruise some other government websites for transcripts or footage.  You just might be really surprised that some moron that pontificates at you for an hour with four commercial breaks, just might have his head up his ass. ~ Michael S. Pauley