GOP Radio: Dumbin it Down!

I don't mind conservative talk radio as long as it's smart...but it isn't. In fact, they make an extra effort to dumb down everything to a set of emotional talking points. These points include libreral left, suicide bomber, bush haters, attacks on Christians, terrorists, MWD, Saddan Hussian amoung many. I was listeninging the other day and Shawn Hanity bashed some liberal caller whoo suggested that the UN in Iraq might be a good idea.

Off he went. "The UN failed in Africa (?), Bosnia, bla, bla. Then he distilled the entire Middle Eastern geo-political mess into the fact that "they hate us, and they send suicide bombers to kill us." That's when I drov off the road (not really) but I yelled and cursed. Then it hit me. Hanity on his radio show pulled the classic conservitive dumb down of a complex situation.

"Torrists bad, suicide, American good, kill terrorist." H was talking to my son's third grade class, only he was actually talking to nearly the entire continent.

It's basically fast food political dogma and America is getting fat on it.

Fires, fires, fires…

Smoke in San Diego and all over Southern California. I've lived in SD all my life and never seen anything like the fires we've had these last few days. Still plenty of smoke and ash in the air. Julian is getting hit today. School is closed for a second day and the place I work has told people they can stay at home. Several of my colleagues live in some of the fire areas. I haven't heard from them but I hope they are ok.

SD was saved Monday by a lack of Santa Ana winds. If they had blown, it could have been truly disastrous. As it was, the winds remained calm. Still, many houses burned many lives altered.

Here are some interesting articles on GOP linguistics by a Berkeley Prof...

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/10/27_lakoff.shtml

And here is a Newsweek piece detailing where your 87 billion is going...

http://www.msnbc.com/news/985304.asp?0cv=KA01

Good Article from the AlterNet:

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17022

Shows the back room workings of the neocons and the real reasons for taking over Iraq. WMD and terrorists are just what they told us. So the marketing was a lie, show me marketing that isn't.

This also explains why Iraq isn’t in the hands of the UN…because we want our military in the heart of the Middle East to project at Syria and protect Israel. Leave Afghanistan and Bosnia to the UN. We want control in the Middle East to control terrorism.

The creepy thing is, I'm not sure Bush understands this. He thought Iraq was a threat because of WMD. No WMD, so heads are rolling (Rumsfeld and Powell out for 2nd term). Cheney might even be losing the ear of the pres. He is the secret leader of the neocons. They will have to balance take over plans with political blowback.

If Bush gets a second term, we might see troops in Syria.

Reminds me of the Domino theory, no commies, just Arab extremists and the countries that love them.

Is this a bad strategy? Not sure. They knocked down our buildings and killed our people. Israel is an example that you can't stop a terrorist. All it takes in one guy and backpack full of c4 at Disneyland and we are screwed.

Anyway enjoy...

The New Religocentrism

Why are certain strains of Christianity or any religion for that matter, so filled with belief-exclusivity and their our righteousness? I've written on this topic before and recent news about a general's comments have me at it again.

The portion of the general's comments most interesting are the ones that claim Islam is the worship of idols, and that the general worships the "real" god. This intelligent, accomplished man (not easy to become a general) seriously believes that all other religions are idol worship, and that he has the one hold on religious truth? Patently absurd, but thouroghly ingrained in his brand of fundamentalism.

I think at the institutional level, intolerance of other religions comes from competition, like Coke vs. Pepsi. (I'll write about my theories on religious institutions behaving like corporations someday, but you get the jist.)

At a personal level, (back to the general), it seems the harder someone clings to a religion and a dogma, the more frightened they really are. What are they frighten of? That there really is not god or that the whole religious thing is merely that, a religious thing meant to comfort and inform.

The general shouldn't loose his job or be demoted, and he certainly has the right to say what he thinks, but he should keep his views quiet so people don't think he's an idiot. Five billion people on the planet, 50 major religions, 5000 years of religious history (and a lot more), and this one general thinks he's it right.

I'm calling that religocentrism;)

GOP Tone

It's all about tone. I say this to my wife from time to time. "Its not what you say, but the tone you use." The same can be said for the hyper conservative rhetoric on the radio. I took a quick tour of the AM dial at lunch the other day and realized why I listen mostly to inane sports chat instead of conservative radio. Conservative radio get me blood boiling and I don't want to run off the road. It’s not the views so much as the self righteous tone and the killing dead of any real debate.

There are two types of callers: insiders who issue dittos and spit and chew and slap each other on the back and outsiders who get drilled and hammered until they are mush. No exchange of ideas, no debate, just hammer, hammer, hammer.

"Hey Rush, that was a goodt one, you done hammered him goodt."

I realized now that the Democrats are not ineffectual, but rather the GOP rhetoric has become incredibility overheated. The poor Dems are still stuck in the days when your politics where just a part of you, not your entire identity, and certainly not a revolution.

But high octane rhetoric needs fuel and I hope the Dems don't give it to them. It's counter intuitive, but maybe the approach is to be quieter, stronger, more well-informed. The louder they scream, the quieter and more resolute we become.

Very Zen.