Former Dem VP Candidate Wants Chance To Explain Recent Comments

(Mar. 21, New York City) Just days after being forced to resign from the Hillary Clinton campaign finance committee, Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman ever to run for Vice President in a major party, has asked the producers of the Oprah Winfrey Show if she could be a guest. Ferraro had made some very controversial remarks about democratic presidential frontrunner, Barak Obama, a senator from Illinois. Oprah herself has campaigned for Obama and is considered to be one of his high profile supporters.

Ferraro made comments to a small newspaper in California several weeks ago which reached the national headlines days later. She stated, in part that “He (Obama) would not be where he is if he was white”. That and other comments she made where met with swift indignation and outrage from many influential groups and individuals in the Democratic Party and across the country. Even when confronted by the media about the tone and tenor of her opinions, she refused to back down from them. She accused the media of protecting Senator Obama and that anyone who “dares to make a public statement critical of him” is automatically called a racist. After days of hanging tough, she finally resigned from her post with the Clinton campaign.

Now, apparently, Ferraro is seeking to further explain her comments and herself to a large audience. Her spokesperson, Florentina Fusco told reporters at a news conference that “Ms. Ferraro believes she has been misunderstood, that her comments, as reported in the press were taken out of context. She wants to appear on the Oprah Show so she can have a national dialog with black women who sit home and watch TV all day, eating Doritos and drinking cheap wine, will come to understand her.” Ms. Fusco continued, “Geraldine Ferraro made history as a woman, a white woman and she knows that some dull minded, poorly educated white women love to watch Oprah too. She intends to speak to all of them, even those who haven’t the brains to understand her.”

The Oprah Winfrey Show, which airs from Chicago, has high Nielsen ratings and reaches an audience in the millions daily. Oprah’s audience is vast across all demographic, geographic and economic segments of society. Many high profile politicians and celebrities have used an appearance on the Oprah Show to make apologies for offensive statements or other embarrassing public missteps. Wilma Martin-White, the senior producer for the Oprah Show said in a telephone interview that “We will take Ms. Ferraro’s request under consideration. We will really have to examine her motives and her message. We have many, many people, important people, who want to be on Oprah. Right now we’re trying to book that Jersey hooker who brought down Eliot Spitzer. Larry Craig from Idaho and J.J. Walker have been trying to get on this show for months. Ms. Ferraro will just have to be patient.”

Ms. Ferraro, who had just delivered the keynote address to the Associated Aryan Affiliates in Rupture, Idaho, spoke briefly with some white reporters before boarding her flight to appear at the Daughter’s of the Confederacy Council in Biloxi, Mississippi. Ferraro commented, “Oprah’s telling me to be patient? She wouldn’t even have a TV show if she was just a semi-obese white lady. I’ll be patient, alright. Tell her that I don’t have to wait to appear on Hannity and Combes.”


Copyright © 2008 TBC All Rights Reserved

GOP Presidential Hopeful Came Back With Even Fewer.

(March 18, Tel Aviv, Israel) Having just completed a fact finding tour that took him to Iraq, republican presidential candidate, Senator John McCain of Arizona, stopped in Israel to meet with high ranking officials, bolster his standing with American Jewish voters and to demonstrate the broad scope of his confusion.

Traveling with fellow senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the trio spent their time in Iraq visiting with top commanders and rank and file soldiers. The bulk of their time on the ground was spent within the heavily fortified and protected “Green Zone”. McCain, a staunch supporter of the war in Iraq since the outset and a vocal advocate for the so called “surge”, the GOP candidate appeared to enjoy his time in that battle torn country. “My friends, yes, this surge is working. You bet it is”, commented McCain while on a military transport aircraft on his way to Israel. “Look, we have to defeat them here. Iranians are training Iraqis to become Al Qaeda and they have vast support from Iraqis who wish they were Iranians”, said the somewhat befuddled McCain. Responding to reporters questions the 71 year old former Navy pilot, POW and cradle robber became visibly agitated. “Hey, my friends, I did not pick this to be the transcendent issue of our time. This war on terror, on Islamo-Facists who hate our way of life, uh, that was up to them. I can promise you this; I will follow Osama Bin Laden to the gates of hell. I will find him and everyone he knows. I will beat him like a mangy dog. That, my friends is what a McCain presidency will be all about.”

When questioned about what potential role Senator Lieberman, a renegade democrat, might play in a McCain administration, the candidate warmed up considerably. “Joe Lieberman is my friend. I am proud of him as a Jew, as a Joe and as a regular Joe who is a Jew. As a Joe Jew, Joe understands the transcendent issue before us. We must keep Joe and all Jews, both in Israel and elsewhere safe from Hamas, Hezbollah and the Islamo-Facists who hate ice cream, music, bagels and wrestling. My friends and Jews, this is our calling. This is what I have prepared my entire life for. This is why I live on Maalox and V-8.” After this statement the senator retired to his cabin for the remainder of the flight. Sources close to the candidate say he had been suffering from a mild case of sun stroke from his time in Iraq. They added that he was receiving an IV drip of Red Bull, Viagra, Ginko Baloba and Pamprin.

Upon arriving in Israel, McCain met with top Israeli officials including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his cabinet. Matters of security, American financial aid, trade and American financial aid were the top items on a tightly packed agenda. After hours of intense meetings, McCain gave a brief statement to reporters. “Israel is important to Jews and to me. My friends, Israel is a Jewish state but can continue to co-exist with the Palestinians as long as they keep them oppressed, segregated, deprived of all human rights and behind a big, tall cement wall. I support the Palestinians to seek their own destiny provided Israel can bomb them at will, assassinate anyone they please and continue to occupy their land. America supports this and has been a good friend to Jews and Israel. Nothing will change when I live in the White House.”

Before boarding his flight back to America, McCain commented at the Ben Gurion Airport noting that the Jewish Holiday, Purim, was being celebrated that day. “My Jewish friends, I am glad to be here on Purim, the Jew version of an American favorite holiday, Halloween. We all know what Halloween means to us and Purim to Jews and how Halloween was a major cause of the Holocaust. Jews everywhere should trick or treat today just because they can.” Before the addled senator could make an even larger assh*le of himself then he already had, he was quickly hustled onto the waiting aircraft by several Marines.

Copyright © 2008 TBC All Rights Reserved

SHOCKED BY WHAT WE HAVE WROUGHT, AWED THAT THIS PRESIDENT HAS SURVIVED IT

The patient was identified many years ago. There was pathology present, chronic illness with acute episodic flare-ups of various maladies. For an extended period of time the physicians merely observed, they did not intervene beyond some management issues, a few palliative measures conducted more for their sake than the patients.

As time went by new physicians took over management of this patient. They seemed to share very different views and opinions regarding the pathologies involved, the manifestations of the various ills the patient had exhibited in the past and his potential to act as a vector, a carrier of some contagions that could pose a wider threat. Without timely, accurate clinical data available, they relied on theories and the past history of the patient. Discarding the clinical course the previous team of doctors had charted, they began to plot a new path. They could, in their minds, solve all the problems ailing the patient while also eliminating the possibility his illnesses would spread.

They began to develop their plans even as some of the consultants and specialists called in voiced grave doubts regarding the efficacy of what they were planning. Their concerns and doubts were ignored. This team of doctors was experienced. They were seasoned experts in a broad range of specialties; many had worked well together in the past on other difficult cases. Their past success had given them a collective confidence, an arrogance, actually, that would prove fatal.

Best practices demand that prior to any procedure and certainly one of the magnitude planned, the entire battery of diagnostics and imaging modalities be employed. No operation can be commenced without a wealth of information. The doctors do not want to be surprised once the patient is open on the table. In this particular case, this group of doctors was not very diligent in the pre-op phase. They relied on dated imagery and old diagnostic information that was not only aged and suspect, in was seriously flawed. Using improper data is the surest way to make erroneous decisions and undertake actions that are doomed to fail. That is precisely what happened in this tragic case.

The fear of a malpractice suit never crossed the minds of these stubborn doctors. This team, individually and collectively, felt absolutely immune to any negative repercussions resulting from their actions. They were so bold in their certainty that prior to the actual procedure they offered a glowing prognosis: not only would their operation be a success, the patient would be healed beyond anyone’s expectations, this patient’s recovery would usher in a new era of robust health and wellness for many other patients similar to this one. The threat of a widespread, virulent contagion would forever be eradicated and never again would there be cases of this pathology again. They were not simply performing their miracle on this one patient but, by virtue of that one operation, many others would be healed, cured and brought to a level of wellness they long aspired to.

What transpired since has been the typical cascading of events. The patient has been a clinical nightmare and, truly to the disbelief of anyone familiar with the case, the patient had languished in critical condition for four entire years before a new approach was implemented. The suffering and trauma from that four year state of near death has taken a toll that has not only dramatically impacted the patient’s ultimate chances for recovery but his survival. That he has lasted this long, endured so many invasive procedures, lost so much blood and been clinical dead untold times is miraculous. Now, five years later, to announce that he has achieved partial recovery based on the drastic measures taken one year ago, four years into the raging illness, is an almost criminal statement. Having left the patient in such abysmal condition, under the care of so many grossly incompetent doctors defines neglect and tragedy of the highest order. Other patients have watched this course; some have grown sicker while others have lost all confidence in the abilities of the institution for which all these doctors worked is capable of anything beneficial.

Looking at the patient today one cannot help but feel pain. Pain mixed with anger that such an abomination was permitted to be perpetrated. Arguments pro and con are rhetorical at this point. What’s done is done and even now, the life of the patient hangs in the balance.

This clinical presentation provides a brief summary of our patient, Iraq. Iraq has endured what George W. Bush and his cast of maniacal imbeciles have inflicted upon it and its ultimate prognosis now, even this far along, remains no better than 50-50. Soon, this group will abandon the patient and leave the case management for another group to resolve. That is part of their arrogance, ineptitude and abject cowardice. They have admitted defeat, kept the patient on life support for five years and will soon exit the arena.

We have a stake in Iraq’s recovery. Everyone does. America, Iraq’s geographical neighbors, every one has an interest. The failures so sadly and blatantly demonstrated during the course of the last five years has not only inflicted irreparable harm on our patient, Iraq and it’s people, but on people all over the globe who once possessed faith and confidence that America could and would cure ills. Their faith has been shattered as they have witnessed what has transpired in Iraq.

It is beyond shameful that the original planners and implementers of this operation had not the fortitude, intelligence and judgment to adhere to the adage, “First, do no harm.” This applies in medicine and geopolitics especially when military intervention is chosen as an option to the exclusion of all others. First, do no harm. How many lives would have been spared had someone in authority, someone in this administration of lunatics, some one brave individual among them would have voiced our prime responsibility to first, do no harm.

The operation may have been a success but the patient is just about dead.


Copyright © 2008 TBC All Rights Reserved

Obama Addresses Our National “Racial Stalemate”

(March 18, Philadelphia, PA) If democratic presidential hopeful, Barak Obama’s speech given here earlier today has any longevity beyond the 37 minutes it took to deliver it and the hours since spent analyzing it, is largely irrelevant. Virtually forced to speak about race relations in America after his pastor, Jeremiah Wright’s controversial remarks entered the public domain, the Illinois Senator’s speech was political, personal and extremely important. It was a speech that only he could give.

As the product of a mixed race, broken home, the Harvard educated lawyer is poised to become the first African-American presidential candidate. Currently engaged in a bitter, often hostile, contentious battle with his opponent, New York Senator, Hillary Clinton, their contest is as historic as it has been divisive. Issues long simmering throughout our society, matters anchored to the thick, gnarled roots of history, have emerged in all their ugliness demanding attention.

Obama, as the first viable black presidential candidate obviously injects an overdose of race into the contest while the infusion of gender stares out at us as Mrs. Clinton seeks to be our Commander-in-Chief. Race and gender; two long time, hot-button issues not only in politics but in society as a whole. As each issue is possessed of its own complexity, history and legacy, they are not of equal weight in the collective conscious nor in reality. The differentiation between them is obvious and apparent. To equate the struggle of women to vote and for equal rights in the workplace is to put it on par with one of the most sordid, tragic, cancerous chapters in our nation’s history.

Obama deftly presented his thoughts on the state of race relations today and yesterday emphasizing the “generational” differences in the black populace. Collective memory is as long as is the history that shaped it. Anger bred from centuries of inhumanity once condoned by the US Constitution does not easily diminish. When the ramifications of that history reverberate throughout every aspect of our culture to this day, minds must be opened or, if not opened, at least exposed to some simple yet profound truths.

The primary fight between Clinton and Obama has been hardcore, sometimes counterintuitive but, in many ways, played out predictably. The demographics of the votes cast reflect the inherent divisions within our society despite evidence that significant numbers of voters have not aligned with race or gender. It has all been confusing, to a degree surprising and sadly, virtually preordained to have devolved to the place it has.

Senator Obama, no matter his true motivations, reasons or purposes did, in fact, across the street from where our Constitution was written, stepped into the breach having taken ownership of the podium exposed by this devolution of discourse. Attitudes and opinions were not necessarily Obama’s targets; after all, they are notoriously difficult to change. It appeared that he was after our nuanced neural processes, that mysterious, infinitely complex apparatus from which our attitudes and opinions form and reside. It was if we were all being asked just to “think” about this, just to try to imagine the other side of the coin be it black and white, male or female, us or them. For all our technical sophistication and digitally enhanced awareness, we should be challenged to think.

Maybe time does heal all wounds, a lot of time. Perhaps after the last of the generations that remember America before women could vote, the Civil Rights movement and subsequent legislation, Jim Crow, forced bussing, race riots, water hoses as crowd control, boycotts, marches, the Equal Rights Amendments fight, the 1940’s, ‘50’s, ‘60’s and 70’s have passed on, race and gender will exist less conspicuously in the fabric of that society, those future days and times.

We know that thus far time has not promoted much healing; actually, time has been an enemy in the sense that we have allowed far too much to elapse before being asked to think about the things we need to think about. That time elapsed saw many well intentioned but inherently flawed attempts to reconcile the past with the present. They are far too numerous to mention. Most did more harm than good and what good did manage to see the light of day was usually tainted and blemished from the fires that forged it.

Possibly we are moving to a better place. The issue of “race” as a black and white history, of one intimately and monogamously related to our Civil War is morphing into the multicultural spectrum that defines more and more of us. The evolution of our nation has been in a new phase for many years with the influx of non-eastern Europeans; Hispanics, Asians and mixed race people of every combination are more numerous now than Caucasians. This should not be viewed with fear or associated as a cause for any of our many social problems. It is what it is, we are who we are.

The question of whether or not having a black man as the President of the United States will or will not promote any kind of “healing”, whatever that means, should not be asked at all. It is unanswerable on its face. A more appropriate question and one with far broader ramifications for our future as a united country might be, can this man make us think and are we willing to think about what we need to?

To be continued…sometime later this year.

Copyright © 2008 TBC All Rights Reserved Posted by broodingcynyc at 3:10 PM 0 comments

I never laughed so hard when I heard the news about Elliot Spitzer. That made my week. This scumbag attorney general and Governor tried to ruin one of my companies with false accusations and had me wasting time in a mountain of paper for weeks on one of his fishing expeditions. I had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight this crook. Hell I would have given him all the hookers he wanted if I would have known that's what he liked!

Well Governor all I can say now is HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA! Has anyone ever noticed when these democrat sick freaks go around accusing people of wrong doing, its usually the one doing the accusing that's doing the wrong?

Elliot, have your wife give me a call if she needs a good divorce attorney, you have my number!

(March 13, 2008, NYC) Another high profile politico falls victim to their own foibles. This is hardly a story. The hypocrisy of a former New York State Attorney General whose career was made by destroying others is mind-numbing and laughable. Ironies hang all over this sordid tale like seaweed on a buoy. Perhaps there is some sort of cosmic justice, some unseen celestial force moving matter and circumstance so that what does go ‘round will indeed come ‘round. This is one way to look at the public disgrace of the recently resigned governor of New York State, Elliot Spitzer.

Certainly there are a variety of perspectives from which to view this particular scandal. The last few days have seen every angle covered and speculated on from the secret needs of powerful men, to their unconscious desire for risk threw the entire gamut of New Age pseudo-science that provides endless theories for every and any physical, mental, emotional, psychological, societal or behavioral malady. Who really cares? Who really wants to know?

Aside from the collective voyeuristic glee of witnessing the fall from power of a
wealthy, privileged man whose entire life was lived well above the hardscrabble realities of most, there is in this case a distinct element of retribution: somehow Spitzer deserves this. He certainly made his share of enemies throughout his career and was never shy in staging their public humiliation.

Every cliché’ related to glass houses and being careful about who you step over on your way up because they will be waiting for you on your way down is appropriately true. Elliot Spitzer was the quintessential scumbag with ‘small man syndrome’. Whatever drove him will most likely never be known to anyone but him. That’s fine. The best thing is that this one little, bitter, angry, egotistical man is removed from the position of power he held and would have continued to misuse and abuse.

FLAGS REMAIN AT HALF STAFF
Official Period of Mourning Ends

(March 12, NY, NY) We have not been here for awhile. Our absence was circumstance driven initially, intentional thereafter. The Brooding Cynyx suffered a great loss last week when one of our own, actually, the original driving force who established are “Mission” passed away on the third of March. He had taken a terrible fall down a flight of stairs on February 16, was admitted to the Critical Care Unit and never left the building alive.

In the wake of his death, the Cynyx, collectively, decided to cease posting for a period of mourning. Out of respect for our newly deceased Cynyc Emeritus, we felt it would be inappropriate to engage in our usual activities, the time and efforts associated with bringing our loyal readers the quality of news, commentary, satire and observations that you have come to expect and most certainly deserve.

Yes, some said that our Emeritus would not have wanted us to cease posting. After all, it was by his mandate we began doing that which we do. However, the profound nature of the loss warranted a powerful gesture here, on this blog, to mark his passing.

His unremarkable death belied his remarkable life. Among many accomplishments of a Marine Corps veteran, a blue collar worker, husband, father and friend were the things he gave to so many. By example he taught; he taught all those things that no school could ever begin to teach. He taught the intangibles and he taught them well.

He taught a full advanced curriculum in character, integrity, honesty and strength. The core courses included powerful lessons about sacrifice, tolerance, patience and humility. By his living example the education he provided was on-going until he expired that one last time and the cardiac monitor went monotone. Pride and dignity were demonstrated daily in his life and most certainly in his death: A Marine to the end. The lessons he learned as a 19 year old on Parris Island added to the inherent traits and strengths his by birth, by time and place.

Possessed of a child like faith of the highest order, parts of his life were more than tests of that faith. If there ever was the proverbial “hard luck guy”, it was him. But, despite circumstances and choices, playing a poorly dealt hand, he was also an original “Stand Up Guy”. He carried his load with a quiet strength and grace that put him in a class of his own. If he had a temper, it was so rarely in evidence that one could be forgiven for seeing him as passive. That would have been an error. He was anything but passive; his “uncommon valor” was his most remarkable virtue.

He and his generation have received their due justice in recent years thanks to popular books and films depicting the major events from the Great depression, World War II through the sixties and seventies. He was part of it all, one among millions yet, recognized for his uniqueness even by his peers.

He passed quietly into what lies beyond. He stepped lightly along that ill defined line until he felt the time was right. Called home, released from his earthly burdens, he will always remain.

We lost one of our own this week. Without going into to much detail, we lost a good man this week. A man with faults just like the rest of us, a man who did what he could to provide for his family. He did not discover any great cure, or a new planet or invent a new machine to make him millions, he was just a man. A man who cared for his son, a man who was a provider for his wife for more than fifty years, he was just a man. A man who raised kids, who put some of those kids through college, who are now, doctors, who might discover the cure, he was just a man. A man who served his country, his community, his family, he was just a man. Tread lightly Marine and thank you for just being a man.

Obama and Mrs. Bill Clinton please, keep the game going. Between them they have about five minutes of experience working in government. The only thing these two are good at is shady land deals, and dealing with scumbag fund raisers. Where else but the Democrat primary can you be loosing and call yourself the front runner, or what other party can you promise change, and not know what your going to change, let alone how to change it or what your going to change it to?

I sure am glad the Pennsylvania primary is a month away because this perversion of the process has to continue. This is better than watching a Comedy Central combined with the Spice channel marathon. I have seen more "Three Stooges" slapping and more anal exploration between Obama and Clinton in the last few weeks, more than Mr. Bill Clinton could have dreamed up with a five dollar hooker, a fat intern and a El Producto Blunt, and one of these idiots is going to have a chance at the most powerful office in the world. God help us.

(March 6, NYC) Everyone probably feels the same level of emotion when they think of their Dad. We can all recall images from our past, summon up glimpses of our youth, and recollect the countless gestures of kindness, patience and plain old love. Dad died the other day.

He was sent off yesterday with a Mass in the church were so much of his life, and ours, was the site of milestones. Baptisms, Communions, Confirmations; all the rituals of Roman Catholicism that were ours by birth. The pews in that fine old house of worship had provided refuge and respite for our family, friends and neighbors for almost a century.


It is a bit odd to consider that this proud, quiet man lived his 76 years within a radius of under 10 miles. Aside from his years in the Marine Corps, the streets he played on as a child were the very same as those he walked just weeks before his death.


Death often comes like a thief in the night; it did not for him. His was a death that was a bit protracted, not measured in agonizing months but rather as days that elongated and warped, trudged into weeks that felt like years. It would be easy to read too much into his last weeks; such a hospital scenario lends itself far too readily to hyperbole. There was a dramatic component to it all that went beyond the clinical realities that kept his trapped in a body that was failing. Could he hear? Did he experience pain? Was he aware that we were there?

Each of us began the trip home from a far flung location. We had all scattered when we came of age for reasons and circumstances partially chosen, and somewhat seemingly pre-ordained. Miles and years evolve into distance, distance that is measurable and infinite at the same time. He began his final journey very near where it had all begun. That was not a bad thing. There is something to be said for that kind of consistency, that level of comfortability and acceptance of self and life.

There were times in the past when we thought they should move, Mom and Dad could not still be there? Yet, they remained while that neighborhood rode the varied waves of change, good and bad, up and down. They were witness to generations born, grown and moved; where they, and they alone, had outlived lived all our original neighbors. It was from this place our lives were shaped and we are as much a part of it as was he.

That place remains and will for a longer time than we can imagine now. It will change for good and bad and see the comings and goings of more generations. But, for the first time in nearly 80 years it will forever be altered, not noticeably, not dramatically. His absence will change the place and all those who live there now and those who will come to live there never knowing who he was.

At least we, all of us, knew him and for that, we have been blessed beyond measure.

Be well, Dad.

Walk gently home to see those you have missed for so long. They have been waiting.

BUSH WANTED LUNAR ECLIPSE SHOT AT ALSO

(Feb. 20, Washington, DC) Tonight in the Pacific Ocean, west of the Hawaiian Island, the USS Lake Erie will launch a specially modified missile in an effort to blow up a satellite that is falling to earth. The United States spy satellite has been dysfunctional since December 2006 and is expected to crash to the earth sometime in March. The decision to blow it up with a missile was made by President George W. Bush who has never, during his tenure as Commander in Chief, passed up an opportunity to blow something up.

Initial projections from NASA, the NSA, CIA and CNN predicted the errant satellite would not pose a threat to earth as its orbital altitude decreases. However, additional computer models indicated the 5000 pound object was falling at a rate of speed upwards of 21, 500 miles per hour. The real threat aboard the satellite is its full tank of frozen, toxic hydrazine propellant. Rear Admiral Gus “Harry” Nevus speaking to reporters at the Pentagon earlier said “Heck, if we were certain it was going to land in New Jersey or Iowa, someplace like that, we’d just let the old girl drop. But, it might hit someplace that matters and then we could have troubles”.

Commander of the guided missile destroyer USS Lake Erie (whose name is classified), charged with executing this challenging task, was interviewed via phone from the bridge of his ship. “I assure you the Staff and Crew of this fine vessel are well prepared and honored to be trusted with this mission. We have no doubt we will succeed. Besides that, even if we do miss, there won’t be any collateral damage”, commented the Annapolis grad. He added, “This mission is about doing good. We are so accustomed to doing bad that the notion of doing good is good. We enjoy launching missiles where ever we are told to. Shooting one into space to prevent a catastrophe on earth, well, that is a noble chore. Frankly, I and my crew are bored with launching missiles at Middle Eastern countries. This will be a nice break. Besides, the President says we get some R & R in Honolulu if we hit the b*tch on the first shot. Believe you me; we need some R & R”.

After meeting with tribal leaders and journeymen warriors in the African nation, Ghana, President Bush visited with the traveling press. He answered a wide variety of questions with incoherent, rambling, fragmented utterings better understood by the tribal leaders then the press. “We can’t have it. That’s as simple as I can say it. My generals and admirals, the folks on the ground around there told me we had to blow this satellite up. I agreed. We can’t have some satellite just smashing into our country…our, er…ah,…planet. I won’t have it. I’m the decider and I decided, let’s blow the f*cker up”. The President then departed for a rhino ride, safari and green monkey hunt. Once atop the rhino, over his shoulder, a smiling Bush yelled to the press, “Hey y’all, they tell me we might be able to see the explosion from here.”

Earlier in the week, Mr. Bush caused some controversy when he announced that he ordered the Navy to shoot missiles at the lunar eclipse which will occur tonight. He made comments while on board Air Force One saying, “That eclipse doesn’t know who it’s dealin’ with. No force or influence can or will interfere with military actions. We are prepared to blast that eclipse out of the sky if we have to but, of course, that is a last resort. We can negotiate but…” Presidential aides cut Mr. Bush off mid sentence and escorted him to a private cabin.

Copyright © 2008 TBC All Rights Reserved

IT’S THE STORY, NOT THE DEATH
Voyeuristic Element of Infotainment

(Feb. 18, New York, NY) It’s never about a person; it is always about an event. This is an old complaint, a tired observation and commentary on who we are, as a people, when it comes to life. Not the phony arguments about “Life” as posited by the right wing conservatives. (Their hypocrisy is another matter.) Life, as in, that time each human being spends on earth as a sentient, cognizant being fully imbued with all the capabilities, emotions, desires, etc… as we all are. There is a baseline of commonality beyond those that define a species.

The theories and arguments are really not important. Even cancer has an unknown etiology. It’s not about movie and TV violence, violent music lyrics, video games or sports. It is not about somehow being culturally immune to and callous about the loss of human life. Notions like these seem to say that we were somehow victims of some force or forces that somehow mysteriously altered us. We don’t know how, when or where this mystery alteration occurred nor what precisely created it. This entire line of thinking is such a flimsy, cheap, overused, excuse that most people seem to accept it as fact. May there exist some modicum of truth within these arguments? Perhaps. Are there external cultural influences that affect some of us more profoundly than others? Sure. Has our threshold for mayhem, murder and catastrophe been heightened by what we are exposed to in the various media? Most certainly.. But all of these elements have the feel to them that we were victimized. Victimization, such as this would imply, supposes mass susceptibility, negation of logic, reason and emotion on a vast scale that seems inherently implausible.

A female psychiatrist is hacked to death in the “Silk Stocking District”, Manhattan’s Upper East Side, in the 19th Precinct. Five college students are murdered, shot to death, sitting in a geology lecture at Northern Illinois University. The body of a female student is discovered in the desert outside Las Vegas: she had been raped, murdered and her corpse had lain in the badlands for approximately one week prior to discovery. Some distraught teenager shoots up a shopping mall in Omaha. The list goes on and a new list is being generated as this is being written.

During a recent week of events involving the unnatural loss of life, the Newark (NJ) Star Ledger reported that the City of Newark had actually gone 33 days WITHOUT a homicide. Points of reference? The absence of unnatural death was NEWS; news worthy of being reported. What does that indicate, if anything? Everything is relative, right? Certainly it is. Cable news outlets cover a single isolated abduction, murder or other crime with a zest and zeal unabashedly sordid and exploitive. Microphones are thrust into the facing of miners weeping wives as the fate of their husbands trapped underground is uncertain. Witnesses and survivors relate their experiences over and over again as if they are recounting a verified alien abduction. We eat it up. We suck it all in and quickly thirst for more.

There is a “chicken or the egg” component to this phenomenon. Do we drink it all in because it is put in front of us in all its sensationalistic, Technicolor, hi-def, pod-casted digital wizardry or is the media writ large merely satisfying our appetites? Yes, this debate has been on-going since the 1970’s. Perhaps most of the questions that define the issue are rhetorical, they merely serve as prompters for us to take a look at ourselves.

Copyright © 2008 TBC All Rights Reserved
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