Curtis Dahlgren
What the heck just happened? Some odds and ends (very odd)
By Curtis Dahlgren
"Think things can't get any worse? Think again, if the parasites win and we get a one-party government." — Curtis Dahlgren www.renewamerica.com/columns/dahlgren/081103
"LET THEM EAT CAKE." [France, 1700s]
"LET THEM EAT THEIR YOUNG." [Stalin to Ukrainians, 1920s]
"WELLS GOING DRY? LET THEM DRINK ETHANOL." [21st century "green" America]
Rush Limbaugh had an attitude on Friday the 13th. Just to paraphrase a few of his comments, he said that the political and journalist Lefties ("Marxist-socialists") don't like the Constitution or America's Founding. He said that "we are up against people who are for tyranny . . they itch for power . . pathetic bunch of losers . . hen-pecked husbands . . idiots, lunatics . . . [and] they don't know Jack."
If you wonder what brought that all on, have you been asleep, or what? I've only bought one New York Times in the last year and it had an article entitled "Our Imbecilic Constitution." I've only bought one Washington Post this year, and a casual perusal of its pages would give you the impression that everything is normal, all's right with the world. So I thought would scan one day's USA TODAY to prove otherwise: that the situation is SNAFU.
The headline in the upper right corner of page 1A (7/10/12) was about a Hollywood divorce (you call that news?). The headline that caught my eye was "Prolonged sitting could put you at risk for early death"; sitting less that three hours a day could add two years to life, study says." Why do you think I quit college?
But actually, the most important story on page 1A was "School is too easy, students report; findings argue for challenging classes" ("the notion that kids are going home with a backpack loaded with 70 pounds of books — that's not happening.").
Go right to page 1B for this story: "Are you upwardly mobile? Not likely" ("43% of those from the lowest fifth remain there; 53% made it at least to the middle class; 4 percent made it to the highest income group"). [I don't think the headline writer read the story very well; to connect the dots with page 1A, this story proves the value of a good K-12 education. "Fifty-seven percent of college grads have more assets than their parents," but 46% of those without a degree do also! Think about that. Is college over-rated?]
"It's what you learn after you know it all; that's all that really matters!" — UP magazine (Porcupine Press)
Page 1D of Tuesday's USA TODAY lists the top ten grossing movies of the week — and the operative word there is GROSS. They grossed a total of $177 million. But the BIG story on 1D was about "Fifty Shades of Grey" — a fiction trilogy that has sold 20 million copies (there's another 200-plus million dollars, but I say to myself, I wonder how many dollar bills those readers and movie fans dropped into the offering plate last weekend?).
Tuesday's section C, Sports, was the most encouraging section (All-Star game rosters were the youngest since 1967). At least we know a few boys who haven't been sitting on the couch playing video games all their lives. However, page 8C featured a story about a LPGA player who posed nude for ESPN.
[Was this "strip" necessary? [no pun intended]. I mean like, we already knew what a female looks like. Didn't we??]
OH — and page 1A featured the obligatory article about the weather ("the first half of the year has been the USA's warmest on record"). Where were the stories about Europe last winter and all the people who froze to death? If one reads the whole article, it correctly blames the jet stream for the "heat records." Some years it's El Nino/La Nina, and usually the jet stream and sun spots are involved. Worldwide, this is only the earth's 11th warmest year so far (many of the hottest years were in the 1930s before the coming of the freeways). Two newer studies continue to cast doubt on the certainty of man-made global warming.
Anyway, page 6A may have touched on the most important issue in the paper. Letters to the editor deal with Monday's upcoming vote in the Senate on the so-called "Disclose Act" (which could be more appropriately called the Corporate Individual Donor Harassment Act). Going into the weekend, finding news about this Big Deal on Monday was almost impossible.
This is how dictatorships sneak up on people — even on those of us who are full-time news junkies!
P.S. Another news item I heard this week was that in 53 percent of "households," the woman says that she is the bigger, or only, breadwinner. Like I said, what the heck has happened to us?
In November 2008, America had a AAA bond rating, but no more. Black unemployment is up to over 14%, and there are fewer people working today than November 2008. Colorado's burning, corn's drying up in the Midwest, and Washington DC was out of power earlier this month (a taste of things to come under the current EPA?). Drilling is off-limits in the Gulf, and logging and oil exploration are almost non-existent on Federal lands. Even the Washington Monument is closed for a year or so.
The national debt now equals the annual GDP, and annual budget deficits now exceed the entire 1992 federal budget! We need about 300,000 new jobs every month to keep even with population growth, but we're not even coming close. Over 8 million people receive "disability" ('crazy' checks, etc.) — more than the population of New York City. And "truth in advertising" is optional when it comes to the DNC.
And the White House continues to rule against the will of the people (the 1996 welfare reform law was just overturned by Executive Order). So much for not wanting the Court to overturn laws passed by the representatives of the people; "let the executive branch do that"!
PPS: Only about 31 percent of the population wanted the Supreme Court to uphold ObomaCare, and like I said, we have more sado-masochists than that!
If the 7/10 USA TODAY shows us nothing else, it's that nudity, porn, and bondage are becoming "mainstream." Whether the glass is half-full or half-empty depends on which side of the looking-glass you're standing on. And whether you're into S & M.
© Curtis Dahlgren
July 15, 2012
"Think things can't get any worse? Think again, if the parasites win and we get a one-party government." — Curtis Dahlgren www.renewamerica.com/columns/dahlgren/081103
"LET THEM EAT CAKE." [France, 1700s]
"LET THEM EAT THEIR YOUNG." [Stalin to Ukrainians, 1920s]
"WELLS GOING DRY? LET THEM DRINK ETHANOL." [21st century "green" America]
Rush Limbaugh had an attitude on Friday the 13th. Just to paraphrase a few of his comments, he said that the political and journalist Lefties ("Marxist-socialists") don't like the Constitution or America's Founding. He said that "we are up against people who are for tyranny . . they itch for power . . pathetic bunch of losers . . hen-pecked husbands . . idiots, lunatics . . . [and] they don't know Jack."
If you wonder what brought that all on, have you been asleep, or what? I've only bought one New York Times in the last year and it had an article entitled "Our Imbecilic Constitution." I've only bought one Washington Post this year, and a casual perusal of its pages would give you the impression that everything is normal, all's right with the world. So I thought would scan one day's USA TODAY to prove otherwise: that the situation is SNAFU.
The headline in the upper right corner of page 1A (7/10/12) was about a Hollywood divorce (you call that news?). The headline that caught my eye was "Prolonged sitting could put you at risk for early death"; sitting less that three hours a day could add two years to life, study says." Why do you think I quit college?
But actually, the most important story on page 1A was "School is too easy, students report; findings argue for challenging classes" ("the notion that kids are going home with a backpack loaded with 70 pounds of books — that's not happening.").
Go right to page 1B for this story: "Are you upwardly mobile? Not likely" ("43% of those from the lowest fifth remain there; 53% made it at least to the middle class; 4 percent made it to the highest income group"). [I don't think the headline writer read the story very well; to connect the dots with page 1A, this story proves the value of a good K-12 education. "Fifty-seven percent of college grads have more assets than their parents," but 46% of those without a degree do also! Think about that. Is college over-rated?]
"It's what you learn after you know it all; that's all that really matters!" — UP magazine (Porcupine Press)
Page 1D of Tuesday's USA TODAY lists the top ten grossing movies of the week — and the operative word there is GROSS. They grossed a total of $177 million. But the BIG story on 1D was about "Fifty Shades of Grey" — a fiction trilogy that has sold 20 million copies (there's another 200-plus million dollars, but I say to myself, I wonder how many dollar bills those readers and movie fans dropped into the offering plate last weekend?).
Tuesday's section C, Sports, was the most encouraging section (All-Star game rosters were the youngest since 1967). At least we know a few boys who haven't been sitting on the couch playing video games all their lives. However, page 8C featured a story about a LPGA player who posed nude for ESPN.
[Was this "strip" necessary? [no pun intended]. I mean like, we already knew what a female looks like. Didn't we??]
OH — and page 1A featured the obligatory article about the weather ("the first half of the year has been the USA's warmest on record"). Where were the stories about Europe last winter and all the people who froze to death? If one reads the whole article, it correctly blames the jet stream for the "heat records." Some years it's El Nino/La Nina, and usually the jet stream and sun spots are involved. Worldwide, this is only the earth's 11th warmest year so far (many of the hottest years were in the 1930s before the coming of the freeways). Two newer studies continue to cast doubt on the certainty of man-made global warming.
Anyway, page 6A may have touched on the most important issue in the paper. Letters to the editor deal with Monday's upcoming vote in the Senate on the so-called "Disclose Act" (which could be more appropriately called the Corporate Individual Donor Harassment Act). Going into the weekend, finding news about this Big Deal on Monday was almost impossible.
This is how dictatorships sneak up on people — even on those of us who are full-time news junkies!
P.S. Another news item I heard this week was that in 53 percent of "households," the woman says that she is the bigger, or only, breadwinner. Like I said, what the heck has happened to us?
In November 2008, America had a AAA bond rating, but no more. Black unemployment is up to over 14%, and there are fewer people working today than November 2008. Colorado's burning, corn's drying up in the Midwest, and Washington DC was out of power earlier this month (a taste of things to come under the current EPA?). Drilling is off-limits in the Gulf, and logging and oil exploration are almost non-existent on Federal lands. Even the Washington Monument is closed for a year or so.
The national debt now equals the annual GDP, and annual budget deficits now exceed the entire 1992 federal budget! We need about 300,000 new jobs every month to keep even with population growth, but we're not even coming close. Over 8 million people receive "disability" ('crazy' checks, etc.) — more than the population of New York City. And "truth in advertising" is optional when it comes to the DNC.
And the White House continues to rule against the will of the people (the 1996 welfare reform law was just overturned by Executive Order). So much for not wanting the Court to overturn laws passed by the representatives of the people; "let the executive branch do that"!
PPS: Only about 31 percent of the population wanted the Supreme Court to uphold ObomaCare, and like I said, we have more sado-masochists than that!
If the 7/10 USA TODAY shows us nothing else, it's that nudity, porn, and bondage are becoming "mainstream." Whether the glass is half-full or half-empty depends on which side of the looking-glass you're standing on. And whether you're into S & M.
© Curtis Dahlgren
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