Friday, July 09, 2004
Summer Reading, II
Yesterday I finished Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. An enjoyable book, though some times the visions of my imaginations where influenced by flashes from the educational show Wishbone (isn't it a pity how most of the educational shows I used to watch and love aren't on anymore? Actually, a lot of kids watched Wishbone. It was a good show.). My boyfriend said Mark Twain is hilarious. While I wouldn't use hilarious to describe Tom Sawyer (perhaps that is because of my personal definition of hilarious. To say it is hilaroius is to say that the reader should be cracking up once or twice every chapter), there are still very funny parts. The afterword said, though, that often The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is praised more then Tom Sawyer, so one day I might perhaps read Huck Finn. However, now it is on to Dune Messiah, if I can get to the library before Sunday.
Sunday, July 04, 2004
Time v. Talk Radio!
Michael Moore gets his first doubtful approval from me with the quote in this article, saying “I don’t like this film being reduced to Bush vs. Kerry.” However, that's not what this post is about.
From TIME:
"Today people get their news and, just as important, their attitudes from more rambunctious sources: from the polarized polemicists on talk radio and cable news channels, from comedians and webmasters. That’s poli-tainment, and as practiced by Rush Limbaugh and a host of right-wing radio hosts, and by Matt Drudge on the internet, it hounded Bill Clinton’s presidency while spicing and coarsening the standards of political discourse, Corliss writes."
Ouch. Play nice, kids! Notice, of course, that it's only the "right-wing radio hosts" that are slandered as "poli-tainment" and Matt Drudge, who, if you notice, posts links to articles (does he write anything on his website himself? Hmm, pretty hard to pull of poli-tainment if you're not doing any writing EDIT]: I may be wrong there. I think Drudge does write short articles, but a lot of his stuff is just links to other articles). The sources cited here do have their opinions, and they speak up about them. Oh, my! They don't claim to be indifferent, but they aren't in the entertainment industry. To these right-wingers, the facts are the most important part of what they do. I'm sure it's the same with many left-wingers out there too.
Just a question, sirs. What is Michael Moore's movie? An unbiased documentary? I find that highly doubtful. I'm sure it crosses that "poli-tainment" line.
http://www.time.com/time/press_releases/article/0,8599,660927,00.html via drudgereport.com
From TIME:
"Today people get their news and, just as important, their attitudes from more rambunctious sources: from the polarized polemicists on talk radio and cable news channels, from comedians and webmasters. That’s poli-tainment, and as practiced by Rush Limbaugh and a host of right-wing radio hosts, and by Matt Drudge on the internet, it hounded Bill Clinton’s presidency while spicing and coarsening the standards of political discourse, Corliss writes."
Ouch. Play nice, kids! Notice, of course, that it's only the "right-wing radio hosts" that are slandered as "poli-tainment" and Matt Drudge, who, if you notice, posts links to articles (does he write anything on his website himself? Hmm, pretty hard to pull of poli-tainment if you're not doing any writing EDIT]: I may be wrong there. I think Drudge does write short articles, but a lot of his stuff is just links to other articles). The sources cited here do have their opinions, and they speak up about them. Oh, my! They don't claim to be indifferent, but they aren't in the entertainment industry. To these right-wingers, the facts are the most important part of what they do. I'm sure it's the same with many left-wingers out there too.
Just a question, sirs. What is Michael Moore's movie? An unbiased documentary? I find that highly doubtful. I'm sure it crosses that "poli-tainment" line.
http://www.time.com/time/press_releases/article/0,8599,660927,00.html via drudgereport.com
Iraq
Congratulations to the new government in Iraq. If anyone didn't notice (and I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't), power was handed over to the Iraqis -
two days before the deadline.
two days before the deadline.
Hate Speech and Voting Responsibly
Ah, Campaign 2004. The joy, the insanity. The hate speech.
I walked into Barnes and Nobles today, and in a prominent display they had dozens of political books. All well and good. Here are a few of the titles: "The Bush Hater's Handguide," "The I Hate George W. Bush Reader (Apparently, there's a whole series of these, from attacking the President's cabinet to attacking the whole GOP)." These books might very well make good points. But the titles just turn me off right away. To proclaim such extreme hate is to show that you blind partiality. If you hate something, nothing will change your mind about it, nothing will quench your raging rhetoric, and everything is available for you to twist and use in your hate reign.
The hate campaign is a terrible thing, a terrible thing for Democrats, a terrible thing for Republicans, for homosexuals or heterosexuals, for pro-life or pro-choice. It's just not right.
Vote for Kerry. Vote for Nader. Vote for Bush. By all means, vote for who you think is right. But don't you dare cast a hate vote. Don't you dare ruin democracy that way. You step back and think about this rationally, think about who you're voting for and why. "Anybody but Bush" is a sick mantra. How can we sink to such mindless, degrading hate speech? And degrading is what it is. Can we not put enough effort into this year's election to know why we're voting for who we're voting for? Are the inflammatory words of a few impassioned people going to shift our foundations, our beliefs and our convictions? Are we going to forsake our honor?
It shames the country when we cast hate votes. It shames America because that is not the way our republic democracy is supposed to work. We insult the election when we do that, we insult the candidates, and we insult our fellow countrymen, because we try to steal their votes because of our senseless hate.
Take the hate out of this year's election. Put intelligence and honor back in.
I walked into Barnes and Nobles today, and in a prominent display they had dozens of political books. All well and good. Here are a few of the titles: "The Bush Hater's Handguide," "The I Hate George W. Bush Reader (Apparently, there's a whole series of these, from attacking the President's cabinet to attacking the whole GOP)." These books might very well make good points. But the titles just turn me off right away. To proclaim such extreme hate is to show that you blind partiality. If you hate something, nothing will change your mind about it, nothing will quench your raging rhetoric, and everything is available for you to twist and use in your hate reign.
The hate campaign is a terrible thing, a terrible thing for Democrats, a terrible thing for Republicans, for homosexuals or heterosexuals, for pro-life or pro-choice. It's just not right.
Vote for Kerry. Vote for Nader. Vote for Bush. By all means, vote for who you think is right. But don't you dare cast a hate vote. Don't you dare ruin democracy that way. You step back and think about this rationally, think about who you're voting for and why. "Anybody but Bush" is a sick mantra. How can we sink to such mindless, degrading hate speech? And degrading is what it is. Can we not put enough effort into this year's election to know why we're voting for who we're voting for? Are the inflammatory words of a few impassioned people going to shift our foundations, our beliefs and our convictions? Are we going to forsake our honor?
It shames the country when we cast hate votes. It shames America because that is not the way our republic democracy is supposed to work. We insult the election when we do that, we insult the candidates, and we insult our fellow countrymen, because we try to steal their votes because of our senseless hate.
Take the hate out of this year's election. Put intelligence and honor back in.
Summer Reading, I
Summer is when I finally get some time to read what I want to read, and I started off this summer with Dune by Frank Herbert, a sci-fi book that practically started a cult following. Let me tell you, it wasn't the easiest book to get into. It's long, and I don't have the best reading habits when it comes to long books, but I managed to get all the way through (I was so determined not to quit). At first, I had a very hard time understand why it has such a following. It was interesting, yes, but to me, it wasn't engaging enough for such a fan base. However, between watching the Sci-fi channel's miniseries Children of Dune and finishing the book, I came to understand the attachment more. It truly is a great story, an epic, and a tragic family history. I think that's what I really came to connect with, the fate of the Atriedes family, how despite their best efforts, they ended up plunged in betrayl and death and tragedy. Now the whole Dune series has been slotted into my summer reading. I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a sci-fi/fantasy epic.
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