OT - 10 steps to fascist police state

My daughter is in the upper 1% income bracket that some of you seem to
despise... She does not watch the news on TV or read the front section
of the newspaper - if you were to ask her she would not have a clue
who Cho is/was, and could not care less if she tried... She does not
watch Rosie, Idol, or Dancing with the Stars, or other TV garbage...
She listens to CD music or radio stations (no talk radio), watches
movies as she chooses, reads magazines and books, works on her
projects, cooks gourmet meals, and works hard at her profession...
We have discussed this and she says in the past listening/watching/
reading the garbage the media passes off as news/entertainment only
made her feel 'crazy'... She is much happier without knowing who
killed who yesterday; and being that it is not anything she can
change, why abuse her psyche and emotions by watching it...

Let me challenge you to every day for a week to skim the news on the
BBC, New York Times, Washington Post, Pravda, ABC, NBC, Google, and
Yahoo.. Really pump up on the news (you are going to find that they
all run much of the same stories, even Pravda is hard to tell from any
other paper at times) At the end of seven days of doing this ask
yourself how you feel; good?

Then spend a week and do not do any of those things; read books, get
an audio CD course on Spanish/French or whatever, go for a walk after
supper instead of watching the news, etc... At the end of seven days
ask yourself how you feel...

Let me know how it comes out...

denny

On 26 Apr 2007 07:49:16 -0700, Denny wrote:

My daughter is in the upper 1% income bracket that some of you seem to
despise... She does not watch the news on TV or read the front section
of the newspaper - if you were to ask her she would not have a clue
who Cho is/was, and could not care less if she tried... She does not
watch Rosie, Idol, or Dancing with the Stars, or other TV garbage...
She listens to CD music or radio stations (no talk radio), watches
movies as she chooses, reads magazines and books, works on her
projects, cooks gourmet meals, and works hard at her profession...
We have discussed this and she says in the past listening/watching/
reading the garbage the media passes off as news/entertainment only
made her feel 'crazy'... She is much happier without knowing who
killed who yesterday; and being that it is not anything she can
change, why abuse her psyche and emotions by watching it...

Let me challenge you to every day for a week to skim the news on the
BBC, New York Times, Washington Post, Pravda, ABC, NBC, Google, and
Yahoo.. Really pump up on the news (you are going to find that they
all run much of the same stories, even Pravda is hard to tell from any
other paper at times) At the end of seven days of doing this ask
yourself how you feel; good?

Then spend a week and do not do any of those things; read books, get
an audio CD course on Spanish/French or whatever, go for a walk after
supper instead of watching the news, etc... At the end of seven days
ask yourself how you feel...

Let me know how it comes out...

Or you could stick your head in the sand and hope that those of us who
are paying attention will take care of you.

Is that warm, dry sand, or cold, wet sand?

"Don Tabor" wrote in message
...

Or you could stick your head in the sand and hope that those of us who
are paying attention will take care of you.

"Steve Foley" wrote in message
...
Is that warm, dry sand, or cold, wet sand?

"Don Tabor" wrote in message
...

Or you could stick your head in the sand and hope that those of us who
are paying attention will take care of you.

The funniest stuff I saw on TV the past few years (this was at relatives
home,we pulled our cable in 2000) was Jay Leno asking questions to people on
the street.

Example!

Leno: "Who is the Vice President?"
Clueless ditz: "Um...I dunno".

I'm sure Ms. Clueless, though, has an opinion.

Thing is, it was over and over. And other surveys bear him out.

Matt Barrow wrote:
"Steve Foley" wrote in message
...
Is that warm, dry sand, or cold, wet sand?

"Don Tabor" wrote in message
...

Or you could stick your head in the sand and hope that those of us
who are paying attention will take care of you.

The funniest stuff I saw on TV the past few years (this was at
relatives home,we pulled our cable in 2000) was Jay Leno asking
questions to people on the street.

Example!

Leno: "Who is the Vice President?"
Clueless ditz: "Um...I dunno".

I'm sure Ms. Clueless, though, has an opinion.

Thing is, it was over and over. And other surveys bear him out.

There was a game show on the aire a few years ago did the same thing. It was
really funny to watch until I started thinking about the fact that those
idiot's votes counted as much as mine did.

Gig 601XL Builder wrote:

There was a game show on the aire a few years ago did the same thing.
It was really funny to watch until I started thinking about the fact
that those idiot's votes counted as much as mine did.

And look what it got us........

"ManhattanMan" wrote in message
...
Gig 601XL Builder wrote:

There was a game show on the aire a few years ago did the same thing.
It was really funny to watch until I started thinking about the fact
that those idiot's votes counted as much as mine did.

And look what it got us........
Just before the 1996 elections, CATO Institute did a survey of how much
people knoew about government power (Constitution, structure of government,
spending practices...). The results were telling by self-identified groups:

(Rough estimates)

Democrats: 25%
Republicans: 55%
Independents: 60%
Libertarians: 85+%

"Gig 601XL Builder" wrDOTgiaconaATsuddenlink.net wrote in message
...
Matt Barrow wrote:
"Steve Foley" wrote in message
...
Is that warm, dry sand, or cold, wet sand?

"Don Tabor" wrote in message
...

Or you could stick your head in the sand and hope that those of us
who are paying attention will take care of you.

The funniest stuff I saw on TV the past few years (this was at
relatives home,we pulled our cable in 2000) was Jay Leno asking
questions to people on the street.

Example!

Leno: "Who is the Vice President?"
Clueless ditz: "Um...I dunno".

I'm sure Ms. Clueless, though, has an opinion.

Thing is, it was over and over. And other surveys bear him out.

There was a game show on the aire a few years ago did the same thing. It
was really funny to watch until I started thinking about the fact that
those idiot's votes counted as much as mine did.
We've all surely seen the polls that says something like 60%+ of people
think "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" is
from the US Constitution.

Worse, in Congress it's probably 98%.

Or you could stick your head in the sand and hope that those of us who
are paying attention will take care of you.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Don, (please take this as kindly rebuttal) what do you think your
paying slavish attention to the news accomplishes?

Does your knowing that Cho butchered a bunch of innocent kids change
one thing? Do you feel better knowing all the details of his deranged
spoutings and savagery? Does your knowing change anything?

Does your knowing that Sunnis and ****es slaughtered each other, once
again, last night contribute to a solution? My gawd, they pray to
the same prophet from the same book and then go out and slaughter each
other in the name of the prophet!

Does knowing that the head of the world bank is stuffing his
girlfriend with money (among other things) do anything at all to
improve your lot in life or that of your family?

Now I could go on with endless rhetorical questions about current
news, but I've made my point adequately... Not one of these things
that you "are paying attention to for me" is meaningful in any way in
your life or mine... They are all things that have already
happened. Unless you have a time machine they are fait accompli, over,
finished, poof... You cannot in any way change them...

Now, lets say you feel that following the news makes you a more
informed voter... OK, so you vote for Goodolboy for Senator because
you feel he represents your interest better than his opponent.. As
soon as Goodolboy hits DC who does he represent? You? hah
He represents his majority or minority whip, who represents the
power brokers in their party... You don't even enter the equation...
You elected someone to represent you and he is representing HIS party
once the vote is cast you don't even exist in his world until the
next election...

Not following the rest of the sheep who drool in front of the idiot
tube is not the same thing as ignorance as to what is going on...

cheers - denny

On 27 Apr 2007 04:38:35 -0700, Denny wrote:

Don, (please take this as kindly rebuttal) what do you think your
paying slavish attention to the news accomplishes?

Does your knowing that Cho butchered a bunch of innocent kids change
one thing? Do you feel better knowing all the details of his deranged
spoutings and savagery? Does your knowing change anything?

Does your knowing that Sunnis and ****es slaughtered each other, once
again, last night contribute to a solution? My gawd, they pray to
the same prophet from the same book and then go out and slaughter each
other in the name of the prophet!

Does knowing that the head of the world bank is stuffing his
girlfriend with money (among other things) do anything at all to
improve your lot in life or that of your family?


The problem is that if I, and other rational people, do not pay
attention, solutions to those problems will be proposed and enacted
which in many cases will be useless if not worse than the problem.

Now I could go on with endless rhetorical questions about current
news, but I've made my point adequately... Not one of these things
that you "are paying attention to for me" is meaningful in any way in
your life or mine... They are all things that have already
happened. Unless you have a time machine they are fait accompli, over,
finished, poof... You cannot in any way change them...


But we can prevent some of them from happening again, or prepare to
deal more effectively with them if we cannot. Much as we analyze
aircraft mishaps to learn from our mistakes and those of others.


Now, lets say you feel that following the news makes you a more
informed voter... OK, so you vote for Goodolboy for Senator because
you feel he represents your interest better than his opponent.. As
soon as Goodolboy hits DC who does he represent? You? hah

Actually, I am gathering signatures to run for the 14th Senate
District in Virginia this fall as the Libertarian Party candidate.

Don