An old joke:
::ring ring::
Hello?
Honey! Don't get on the Interstate! I just saw on TV--some lunatic's going the wrong way!
Hell, it's not just one...it's hundreds of 'em!
Tonight, for the second time in just over a year, I met some nutcase going the wrong way on the Interstate at night.
So that was one brief horror. The rest of the evening was actually pretty good: my girlfriend and I had an exceptional meal at Koto and a relaxed visit to Borders.
But my bookstore-induced relaxation was interrupted when I used one of the computers to look up a title I couldn't find (Al Franken's Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations). Yes, it's in stock: it's in the "humor" section, in section C; You Are Here. So I went to section C...and there was NO humor section, no matter how many times I walked back and forth willing it into existence.
I began loudly pontificating on the bad-for-business choice of placing a disinformation machine right in the middle of your bookstore with the words "Title Finder" over it. I normally don't get worked up over stuff like that (at least not in public), but the section I found myself in was full of twisted, wretched books written by twisted, wretched people: Coulter, Hannity, O'Reilly...oh my! With each passing second, I could feel my capability for rational thought draining out of me, being replaced with opium dreams of how great the world would be if rich, white Texans ruled it and told everyone what to think. Would I be saved in time, or descend into an Orwellian nightmare?!
Surely this was some kind of trick, a vast, right-wing conspiracy to prevent people from buying "undesirable" books! Fortunately, the moment of horror was brief: my girlfriend found the book, way on the other side of the store. I fled the section before being tricked into buying any of the evil brainwashing books, and left the store with only good brainwashing books.
So there you have it: two brief horrors in reverse chronological order. Them enjoyed you hope I.
Posted by Chris at October 17, 2003 09:59 PM | TrackBackJeez, always the last to be told about things. Nice site, Chris.
I do want to comment that both "sides" have problems giving a fair and accurate representation of their side. Both are so convinced they are right that they refuse to see what the other side is saying. I don't think it's really fair to claim one side is "brainwashing" while the other is not.
Personally, I think both the right-wing AND the left-wing need given a good quick kick in the ass. But then, I'm a minimalist: the liberals AND the conservatives both meddle in private affairs far too much. I disagree with creating laws to "protect the citizenry from itself," a trait that both sides do quite often. I think the conservatives are right when they declare the need for "personal responsibility" (even though they do not themselves practice it), and I think the liberals are right when they push for social reform (though I do not always agree with the particular social reform they are pushing). Frankly, I think we should reduce the government's role in society, increase the strength and ability of state's rights, and place the rights of the individual at the top, as it was originally intended to be. Abolish victimless crimes. Reduce the size of the government, reduce the standing army (if not remove it entirely!). Switch the majority of government subsidy systems (welfare, medicaid, social security) to a slightly more autonomous group of daughter organizations. Privatize NASA (but continue to help subsidize it, just not wholly, and not with quite the iron fist they have in the past). Encourage small business loans and subsidies, methods for people to have no excuse to sit on their ass and NOT start that company making widgets like they always talked about. Discourage ways to allow the population to become complacent.
Gah, sorry, rambled there. But hey, that's a good thing, it's a sign your site has caused me to actually (gasp!) think.
Posted by: Nabil at October 22, 2003 09:11 AMNabil! Welcome! Sorry about the late notice...I haven't talked to you since I finished the damn thing up. I was remiss, and I apologize from both sides of my mouth. :P
You're 100% correct: both sides of the media are often guilty of deliberatly skewing facts and engaging in questionable practice (see later entry, Ellipses are...good). Because I'm left-leaning on most issues (though I agree with many of the "conservative" views you comment on), and because I just finished Al Franken's "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them," I tend to more easily see through the right's media transgressions. But in the future I WILL also post entries exposing the left's guilt on similar matters. Spinsanity does pretty well with this, though it's often called leftist as well. I think people on the right forget that sometimes, when people report that you're an asshole, it's just because you're an asshole, and doesn't really indicate media bias.
The Foam's category archive says it all: the point is to cut through the bullshit on both sides. Because if we don't, the media becomes irrelevant and bypassable, and all information becomes untrustworthy. That's not good.
Jabber jabber jabber. Thanks for commenting.
Posted by: Chris at October 22, 2003 09:36 AM