Overheard at the hairdresser’s
Yesterday I went for some R&R at the hairdresser’s.
I tend to find this rather relaxing. It’s a chunk of time in which absolutely nothing is expected of me except to sit there, perhaps sip some chamomile tea, read a People magazine (or worse) while I wait, and chat about whatever comes up—often, the topic is the always-fascinating one of hair and its vagaries.
I tend to keep it light. I certainly don’t want to talk about politics. For one thing, I assume that I am odd woman out on that score, as I usually am in any social gathering in which I happen to find myself. For another, this is a break, not a busman’s holiday.
But yesterday there was a woman in the chair across the way from me who was talking to the woman cutting her hair, and I couldn’t help but overhear her (it’s a small salon) say:
“John won’t even let me say the words ‘Fox News.'”
Ha ha ha. One can laugh, or one can cry. Here’s a woman, no doubt proud of her modernity and independence from her husband, making a little joke whose irony she probably has no way to perceive. But her little yuk depends on the following:
The notion that her husband tells her what to do and what not to do.
That the best way to deal with competing narratives (or even facts that challenge your narrative) is to shut yourself off from them.
Beyond that, that it’s good to pretend they don’t even exist, and to ban their very mention from your house and your life—except, perhaps, to make a little joke that lets another person know that you’re on the side of truth and good, just like they are.
When you think about it, it’s no surprise that many leftists support the Islamists’ demands for censorship of any speech they deem to be blasphemy. Fox is the leftists’ blasphemy. And many of them would dearly love to wipe it off the face of the earth.
And they don’t see a thing wrong with that.
In times of religious enthusiasm purity trumps liberty. She is just boasting about how devout her household is.
I have colleagues who boast about never watching Fox News, even as they complain about having in-laws or relatives who watch it. Somehow they think they are more informed than their relatives just because they refuse to look at or consider certain news sources. They would say something along the lines of not wanting to get information from a “biased” source, but the bias of the “mainstream” media sources never registers in their minds.
If asked to demonstrate the bias of Fox News, I’m sure they’d point to shows like Hannity or O’Reilly, even though those are talk/opinion shows and not straight news shows (because they never watch them, so how would they know what they are actually like). Meanwhile they watch “The Daily Show,” “The Colbert Report,” “Ellen,” and so on, and fancy themselves urbane, clever, and informed by doing so.
God, I hate it when some leftist goes off on his “Faux News” rant.
I’m a musician. Musicians are mostly far leftist (except for the lovable members of my band, the Old Dawgz, who uniformly don’t give a shit). Musicians have a difficult time leaving their politics at home, and often insist on bringing them to the workplace.
I don’t know why this rant doesn’t embarrass them. An opposition press exists! For God’s sake, get over it!
I feel the same way about hairdresser time. A couple of hours to feel pampered while browsing People and shelter magazines.
Had a similar experience four years ago, not long after Palin burst onto the political scene at the GOP convention. At the time, I remember being stunned at the level of mocking vitriol heaped on her and her family by the MSM. It was a turning point in my opinion of the press, but I digress.
Anyway, the woman seated in the chair next to me was talking about Palin with her hairdresser. She literally hissed, “I HATE her. Hate her. HATE her.” I thought she would start foaming at the mouth.
I’m in a Diocesan Scripture class and last year one of the instructors was ridiculing Palin. I was beside myself, and almost didn’t take the final 4th year. No wonder the Governor is a former Catholic. grr….
CV, after four years, The Palin derangement syndrome thrives. Derision, mockery and downright hatred springs unfettered from the minds of too, too many people.
Sarah Palin is beautiful, intelligent, successful, independent yet married, Christian, fertile, loving, maternal, pro-life, and armed. And she apparently possesses a joie de vivre that many on the left lack. But it must be hard to be joyful when all you see around you is misery and injustice and prejudice.
Oh, Lord, get a load of the latest meme:
http://minx.cc/?post=333008
Remember when Palin was called stupid for writing notes on her hand?
This is gonna be fun.
Hey, I won’t let my wife say “MSNBC” either.
I’m all for wives who keep their trap shut when they know that what they’re tempted to say will make their husband’s hair burst into flames.
What wants to come home to that?
Romney & Ryan give new meaning to R&R.
What does it mean that leftists are sympathetic to islamists? Well for one, both groups believe that the West oppresses non-Western cultures and peoples. They are also on the same page in opposing free enterprise and democracy. They are also implacable and humorless to a fault.
I’ll make a deal with you guys. After Romney loses the election, I won’t come back here and say “I told you so” if you guys will just agree to acknowledge that Romney is an idiot and that our party absolutely MUST put for forward a better candidate for the White House after Obama’s second term.
Honestly, I don’t know what it’s going to take. Most of the people in positions of leadership in our party need to go. It’s time for a bloodletting, and a big one. Without that, we’re just going through the motions.
“There are none so blind as he who will not see.”
They consider themselves so sophisticated and informed and yet refuse to acknowledge the voices of something like 50% of their countrymen.
It would be funny if the results of their ignorance weren’t so threatening.
I wasn’t happy about Romney being the nominee, but the more I know of him the more I like him. No Republican could go through a campaign without a full-out assault by the MSM. All Romney did in this video was sound conservative. I saw a poll done on Yahoo.com where over 70% of the respondents agreed with him, and a further 4% weren’t sure. I read a column today likening this to the Chik-Fil-A tsunami that the left brought down upon themselves.
Rob: I have to say you’re a poor observer of what’s going on. Who would that candidate you’re looking for have been, the one who would have survived the onslaught of the 24/7 assault of the MSM, combined with whatever the Obama campaign would have done to destroy him/her? Although I’m sure you could come up with a fantasy answer, it would be just that: a fantasy.
And if I make you limit it to those who actually were willing to run this year, your assertion becomes even more absurd. How does the party “put forth” a better candidate? Does it order one from central casting?
Look what they did to Ryan within a couple of days of his being tapped as VP, just as an example. It would happen to anyone, unless a model of perfection comes up. No such person exists, and certainly no such person entered the running this year.
I have hopes for people like Rubio, etc., for the future. But I have no doubt whoever it is will be a target of invective and lies far worse than we’ve seen so far.
As for Romney, he’s no idiot, and no candidate can avoid giving the opposition some ammunition and making some unforced errors. We’re dealing with human beings here.
Romney is no idiot. Does anyone really believe Herman Cain or Newt would have been a better candidate. We might have been in a bit better shape if conservatives had not been so eager to promote their flavor of the month without the slightest bit of vetting. Many of these flavors had attractive positions and features, but tell me which one would have been better at talking about the economy, foreign affairs,and social issues than Romney. It seems to me that conservatives who are looking for the Messiah might consider switching parties.
Tonight Bret Baer opened with a report from the Pentagon and Congress that it’s most likely the assault on the Libyan consulate was tied to Al Queda. Out of curiousity I checked CNN and MSNBC both of which were running stories about the Romney gaffe.
I’d surmise that ignorance is bliss, but those on the left seem so unhappy that I have to abandon that supposition.
Neo: I have to disagree with you on one thing. I don’t think the media can get any worse than they are now. There isn’t any lower they can go.
I think they are even worse now than they were in 2008. Obama is their precious and they have gone all in. No pretense of being objective, they have debased themselves. No pride, no shame and a horrible disservice to the people in this country that rely on them for information.
expat: not sure why you’re dissing conservatives and I’m sure most of them already have a Messiah. The debates in the primaries with all those flavors of the month probably made Romney a stronger debater and better candidate.
And if the Republicans lose in Nov you better bet the party will be fractured. Not that it will matter after that.
Romney is an idiot
You may not like Romney – that’s fine – but objectively he’s no idiot, and it is ridiculous to assert otherwise.
Back to the main topic, I agree with Neo’s original post but, I would add that the main reason Fox is so vilified and mocked is to keep them from being watched. They don’t want people getting non-approved information.
As one who was not for Romney in the primaries, I second what neo said in reply to Rob.
I think Romney is doing as well as any other candidate would be doing right now. In fact, I consider it a small victory that he’s only down by the margin of error (and thus MAYBE ahead) at this point. He is still standing strong in the middle of a Finger-of-God media hurricane. He’s fighting hard. Can’t ask for much more.
Of course, I’m as pessimistic about the election as Rob is, but not for the same reasons (which probably makes me more pessimistic, since I think it has only marginally to do with candidates – the problem is systemic and cultural).
I never gave even my favorite potential candidates above 50/50 odds of winning.
But regardless – onwards…
In Ohio, it is not uncommon to find Fox News Channel on waiting room TV’s. Doctors’ offices often have the CNN Health Channel with the photogenic Surgeon General wannabe, Sanjay Gupta.
ahem
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/09/19/cbs-poll-gop-voters-getting-more-enthusiastic-about-election-huge-edge-over-democrats
And yet Fox News’ ratings are far above CNN and MSNBC. Sounds just like all of those Rush Limbaugh experts who never listen to his show. They’re perfectly content to hear only the carefully excerpted comments presented by the MSM as the latest “controversy”. Amazing how such a big, fat, idiot, liar, druggie has has the most popular talk radio show for 20+ years, huh? They’re too scared to listen to Rush or watch Fox because they might actually make sense.
Some people understand the idea of local and outside.
Some don’t.
Especially today when the lefts cry for a long while is that “everything is political”.
In almost all the years of living in America to today…
Isolating or keeping to one side, was always an arbitrary choice, and that peace in the local sphere USED to be more valuable. So many kept their politics to themselves AS A PRIVATE MATTER (which gave them the freedom to make their own choices without others interests telling them). Given 1968 and the revolutions civil war in the bedroom, half the population is usually interested in fighting inside the home, rather than considering it a bastion outside of the world, and we know all the canned narratives provided by ideology that we spit them out without even a bit of thought as to some things.
True to form, convergent thinkers always think that there is one answer…
All you gave us was that one statement…
“John won’t even let me say the words ‘Fox News.’”
And out of that comes full cloth a huge story that is a complete assumptive – totally made up from whole cloth and just picks one assumption — if there was no other information but that sentence.
Its interesting to note the story that came out is classical, right out of womens studies textbooks of oppression. And neo knows it (I think) hence the irony, and points as to modern, and independent.
So WHATs the problem here?
First of all, the missive is accepted as truth… What if she was lying? What if she was tearing a page out of the classic story to create an oppressive tail to seek sympathy from her sisters, or to hurt his good name, as she might be contemplating divorce.
Now that too is cut from the whole cloth of imagination…
But its interesting that we are so conditioned we believe that story right off the cuff.
In fact, it’s so repeated in various forms, valid problems that don’t fit that mold are not taken half as seriously as lies or stretched truth that does appear to fit that form. And not only that, the responses to such tend to be canned also.
Let me use my imagination for a second to give a few alternatives.
Perhaps she is a leftist, and he is apolitical. Therefore, like a lot of leftists, she turns on fox news not to learn, but to get worked up. Then when its over, he has a worked up person challenging him left and right, and all the freak he wants to do is watch a bit of the ball game before going to bed.
That fits it too… but its off script… as is questioning validity and testing for lies
(in fact. Its rude and not pc, and there are those that will respond too in reflex that way rather than just accept that, that is the reality of it, good or ill)
The point I am making is that there ARE valid reasons that would not be ironic unless you think like a feminist in that she should have the freedom to do what she wants including destroying the family and that he ha no right to forbid that which would preserve it. However, her forbidding him from things — just cause she don’t like it, or feminists told her its bad, etc… is perfectly fine… even if it destroys the family, and is not about saving it.
So to me, this irony thing points to the fact that a modern, independent woman, is a farce as it sets her up for civil war games in the home against her own, and there is nothing left for the competition with the outside world, and no where to go to get away and rest.
Look at the narrative. Completely oblivious to the concept that she would find perfectly fine if she was in a church or synagogue, and the concept of sanctity… and sacred… and a time and a place for everything…
What if you see your home as a sacred place, a place where you can get away from the outside world where your guard is up. Where you don’t want your home life to be open like soviet living where the state is there too… what if that’s what you want in your home? Better not marry a western woman I just learned, as her militancy, even if she doesn’t see it, will have outsiders looking at her relationship, and shaming her out of her sacred safe place.
The irony here is that the claim is that no man can have such a place if his wife wants something different, and that her caving was ironic, but not caving and fighting would be confirming of independence and modernity…
Interesting that you have verse and converse, and the middle ground that erases both is not acceptable… its fight… and never have peace…
Could be a reason why we dysfunctionally can’t get along any more with our classic mates…
Could be why a lot of men are marrying people who think zero point and peace in the home is a valuable concept…
My travels and lessons of world wide wisdom not modern feminism (which declared war on mates, and declared the destruction of family, and the creation of a Marxist state as their unchanging goal), have taught me a different irony…
If there is light in the soul,
there will be beauty in the person.
If there is beauty in the person,
there will be harmony in the house.
If there is harmony in the house,
there will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation,
there will be peace in the world.
–Chinese proverb
so feminist politics and reasons and missives as to what is right, what is wrong, and the default stories that take the place of a imagination… Makes womens souls heavy, which makes them ugly, and you can apply that to the rest of that proverb.
Voila… its true… the people before us new more about living than we do. but then again, we have had a whole lot of that erased because of the fulfillment of that proverb!
If there is darkness in the soul, there will be ugliness in the person
If there is ugliness in the person, there will be disharmony in the house
—–(the children will not be taught, the disharmony gets passed on as does the darkness)
If there is disharmony in the house, there will be disorder in the nation
—–(feral kids with no culture, no morals, no parental love as they are too busy, cause social problems, and can be manipulated to feed crisis, and be used to create disorder for the sake of power)
If there is disorder in the nation, there will be war in the world…
How we doin?
Here is some more wisdom that applies to this social lesson.
ALL of them apply in different ways…
“A bridle for the tongue is a necessary piece of furniture.”
“A clever person turns great troubles into little ones and little ones into none at all.”
So what does a not so clever person do? listen to others tell her how to make misery?
How to turn little problems into big ones? Remember, the left represents the manipulable, not the clever — so by definition, if you agree with their modernity, your not clever, and all so apt to turn little troubles and private ones into big ones.
[by the way, whatever happened to the idea of privacy and not airing out your personal laundry with the neighborhood? Oh, yeah, that went out with respect for your husband and the inability to count tasks he does as work and having value]
“A hundred men may make an encampment, but it takes a woman to make a home.”
[and a home is not a battle field, that would make it an encampment — and what you do on a battle field, your not allowed to do at home, so there is a time and a proper place for things.]
“A jade stone is useless before it is processed; a man is good-for-nothing until he is educated.”
“A man’s discontent is his worst evil.”
“A person whose heart is not content is like a snake which tries to swallow an elephant.”
“A reed before the wind lives on, while mighty oaks do fall.”
“A rumour goes in one ear and out many mouths.”
“A vacant mind is open to all suggestions, as a hollow mountain returns all sounds.”
“A whitewashed crow soon shows black again.”
“A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows public opinion.”
[That goes for women too]
“Abroad we judge the dress; at home we judge the man.”
“Better be kind at home than burn incense in a far place.”
“Better the cottage where one is merry than the palace where one weeps.”
And LASTLY
“On entering a country, ask what is forbidden, on entering a village, ask what are the customs, on entering a private house, ask what should not be mentioned.”
N-Neocon…Your 5:10pm to rob? A*M*E*N..!!
40-44-States, Nov.6: Romney.
Wow atflgr. Thanks.
So, were you in Brookline or Newton? All our friends are libs and the women are far worse than the men. I can have a conversation with the men, but the ladies just get hysterical, literally.
One of my most memorable conversations was early in the Obama administration when high speed rail was being pushed. I tried to point out that something that untried was going to be far more expensive and take much longer than could predicted. No, no, no, and our friend put her hands over her ears.
Then there’s the multi-millionare Marxists who won’t invite us over any more because of me…
I have to say, Romney has grown on me.
I have a strong belief that anger springs from fear. We are evolved that way…when faced with something dangerous, we flee or fight. To fight, we have to be angry.
The reason that Fox News is so hated by libs is that they fear its success and influence.
LEFTISTS WHO REFUSE TO WATCH FOX OR READ NRO OR THE WSJ ARE LIKE MEMBERS OF A JURY WHO ONLY LISTEN TO ONE SIDE OF A CASE.
THEY CAN’T REALLY MAKE A DECENT OR JUST DECISION.
THEY’RE INSANE FOR THINKING AND INSISTING THEY CAN.
I DON’T KNOW A SINGLE RIGHTWINGER WHO DOESN’T READ THE NYTIMES OR CNN OR KEEP UP WITH THEM VIA THE WWW.
IN FACT, PEW RESEARCH SHOWS THAT LIMBAUGH LISTENERS ARE MORE INFORMED AND BETTER EDUCATED THAN CNN’S.
IF THESE LEFTIES HEARD BOTH SIDES – AND WATCHED THE ROMNEY CONVENTION, FOR INSTANCE – THEN THEY’D SEE THE LIGHT.
OR MANY WOULD.
THAT’S WHY LEADERS ON THE LEFT ARE SO ADAMANT ABOUT KEEPING THEIR FOLLOWERS FROM WATCHING IT.
OR LISTENING TO TALKRADIO.
THE ONLY WAY THEY CAN KEEP THEM ON THE PLANTATION IS TO LIE TO THEM, AND THE ON LY WAY THE LIES WORKS IS IF THEY’RE NOT FULLY INFORMED.
Dear Rob,
On what basis would you say Romney is an idiot?
Is there a philosophy that he espouses that bring Romney’s idiocy level on par with Obama’s?
Obama’s general foreign policy and economic policy and understanding of business are near my 16 year old daughters (actually she’s uttered smarter sentiments that Obama to my delight)
What we have here is an every present situation where entertainment/academia/journalists who all haven’t earned a living and yet have a big microphone influence people like you and mothers and daughters and fathers and sons everywhere.
Fortunately there is a large sector of people who do know what it takes for a government to exist. It takes a private sector. Government takes from the private sector in order to exist. If that government becomes the blob (see the 1964 movie) it becomes more burdensome to the private sector.
That is not idiocy. That is truth.
“everything is political”
Sebastian Haffner, who grew up in Germany between the wars, observed differing reactions when things calmed down after the great inflation was brought under control:
“The last ten years were forgotten like a bad dream. The Day of Judgment was remote again, and there was no demand for saviors or revolutionaries…There was an ample measure of freedom, peace, and order, everywhere the most well-meaning liberal-mindedness, good wages, good food and a little political boredom. everyone was cordially invited to concentrate on their personal lives, to arrange their affairs according to their own taste and to find their own paths to happiness.”
BUT
“A generation of young Germans had become accustomed to having the entire content of their lives delivered gratis, so to speak, by the public sphere, all the raw material for their deeper emotions…Now that these deliveries suddently ceased, people were left helpless, impoverished, robbed, and disappointed. They had never learned how to live from within themselves, how to make an ordinary private life great, beautiful and worth while, how to enjoy it and make it interesting. So they regarded the end of political tension and the return of private liberty not as a gift, but as a deprivation. They were bored, their minds strayed to silly thoughts, and they began to sulk.”
“To be precise (the occasion demands precision, because in my opinion it provides the key to the contemporary period of history): it was not the entire generation of young Germans. Not every single individual reacted in this fashion. There were some who learned during this period, belatedly and a little clumsily, as it were, how to live. they began to enjoy their own lives, weaned themselves from the cheap intoxication of the sports of war and revolution, and started to develop their own personalities. It was at this time that, invisibly and unnoticed, the Germans divided into those who later became Nazis and those who would remain non-Nazis.”
If Romney is an idiot; what the heck does that make Obama? A fool, an imbecile, a dullard, a dolt, or just a plain ol’ fashioned numskull?
Oh, I was hoping you were going to say, “the woman said she had voted for Obama last time but was discouraged and wasn’t going to this time.”. Bummer.
The problem is both sides have their own news. I keep dropping “bitter clinger” references on my FAcebook “friend’s” comments about the 47%. The amazing thing is, they are so ill informed they think I’m poking fun at the evil Republicans and have no idea I’m making fun of them.
We know all of their arguments and talking points. They’ve never even heard half of ours. My Mom has and wears a Code Pink shirt to my house because, “they are for Peace.”. I had to tell her they dress up like vaginas.
She said she hadn’t heard that. I told her of course she wouldn’t. “Her” news wouldn’t report that. She snickered at the idea of “her news” and “my news.”. Thems the facts, though.
We have a hate-hate relationship with Fox News. Bill O’Reilly is arrogant and ignorant. When gas prices go up he blames the oil companies. When they go down, he doesn’t notice. Sean Hannity is slightly better. He has this awful habit of returning to his script no matter what his guest said. Great follow-up question? Never gong to happen on his show. And then we have “I am curious” Greta. How does she have a job? She’ll give us twenty minutes of John McCain or Lindsey Graham and two seconds of Allen West. Glenn Beck was good, despite how much I disagree with what he said, but Fox fired him.
Want news? Go to the web. want left-wing propoganda? Read the Times.
All that my wife watches is Fox News…Brrr…I think she might be a conservative or something…even worse, like a Fox News addict or a vampire. I don’t watch any news. It’s too depressing. I live my own life with my own hobbies like, gardening and writing and avoiding political discussions like the plague.
Rob?
I was one of those who argued – rather vigorously – against Romney, throughout the primaries.
But the more I’ve watched the Romney campaign – post those primaries – the more I’ve been pleased with what I’ve seen …and the more I’ve come to understand that I was simply wrong.
Because I’ve come to think we did get the right guy, and the best candidate.
Romney has turned out to be the right guy in the right place at the right time. He’ll make an excellent president. More importantly, for the precarious times ahead, he’ll be a competent commander-in-chief.
As for the rest of it (“it” being the polls and the worry and the fear of what will happen if the incumbent is re-elected): I’ve thought the election was a slam dunk for the good guys for the past year, no matter who won the primary.
By which measure, I refer to my signature line of “out here in the real world”, and how I’m pretty sure this election plays out.
Just so:
Out here in the real world, people are still fearful over their jobs. They don’t feel secure, or settled. Their lives, their futures, their children’s (and grandchildren’s) lives are all hanging in the balance. They feel it deep down in their bones, and they know the reason for that insecurity.
The American people (unlike the liberal press), aren’t so stupid and blind that they fail to recognize the failure that yet sits in the White House, and what that poorly equipped and immature individual has allowed to happen to this country during a tenure delineated by political dysfunction and fiscal mismanagement bordering on dangerous irresponsibility.
I don’t trust the polls …maybe even less than I trust the media. I don’t trust their lies. I know they’re lying.
They’re all about the lie, because they’re still invested in some failed and broken dream they refuse to admit was wrong from the beginning …because they were wrong to invest their faith in a little man who demonstrably hasn’t been able to do the big job he was elected to do. His failure is their failure. And so they lie. To all of us …but mostly to themselves. That’s sad, bordering on the sadly pathetic. Mostly, I just feel sorry for them.
What I trust though, is the price of gas when I roll up to the pump. What I trust though, is what my grocery bill looks like. What I trust though, is those empty houses, and the neighbors who had to move, and the for sale signs in front of once prosperous and happy homes. What I trust though, is the essentials of life and the reality all around me that no lie can hope to hide.
Because what I trust this political season, is the heartbreaking story all those things tell.
And because what I trust is that Americans …and granted some of them may not be quite so politically astute as others …are paying attention to those essentials and the story too. Just like me. And you.
And I see little things. Little portents. Like: where are the bumper stickers? Where are the yard signs? They’ve gone missing, you know.
Oh, I have the bad day occasionally, pondering this or that poll, and doubt can gnaw through the things I trust, and the things I see. And give a bit of power to the lie.
But it don’t last, that bad day. Because this one is in the bag.
Next year is going to bring a new administration. And America will finally get back to business again. And we’ll clean up the mess as quickly and as best we can. You’ll see.
David- Brilliant post. Thank you.
Sorry; I read it incorrectly-Davisbr
Whenever I’m in the US I flick between the three cable news channels quickly. As soon as I see what meme a channel is pushing I move on. As a kid in the 50s I used to listen to Radio Moscow, The Voice of America and the BBC World Service. It was pretty obvious that VOA and Radio Moscow were doing propaganda, while the BBC was the reasonable voice in between. Then the Brits invaded Suez and suddenly the BBC was shouting propaganda and the VOA was the man in the middle! Even at 14 I could easily see that things change if you have a dog in the fight. It took longer to see that all media – including the reasonable middle – is a carefully prepared product designed to influence the audience. Listening to both sides helps filter out the wishful thinking and just plain BS on both sides.
My morning routine while commuting to work is to switch back and forth between Morning Joe on MSNBC and the Fox and Friends morning show (Sirius airs both).
It’s a bit like experiencing whiplash on a daily basis but no one can say I don’t get both points of view 🙂 The frequent commercials can be pretty annoying though (main advertisers on both seem to be Viagra peddlers and gold merchants).
I used to be a devoted listener to NPR Morning Edition and All Things Considered during my commute, but not anymore. Good features, but the Juan Williams firing really turned me off (so I turned NPR off).
Honestly, I think Bret Bair’s 6 pm news show on Fox is one of the best news programs out there. Fair and balanced 🙂 He always has a good short panel discussion (Krauthammer is a regular).
IMO, most people who ignore or disparage Fox if still buy into the myth that the MSM provides objective journalism these days. My parents are among them.
CV – If it’s available in your area, I suggest tuning in to C-SPAN radio. There’s nothing better than hearing an entire event – a speech, hearing, press conference, etc. – as opposed to the one or two phrases from the event that each news outlet chooses to publicize.
Regarding Fox, I watch it less than before. I really miss Tony Snow hosting Fox News Sunday & Brit Hume hosting the evening news (Baier is good, but…). I have no use for the morning show bubble-heads or evening line-up of O’Reilly, Hannity & Greta.
Good to hear other people are subjecting themselves to ideological whiplash by listening to both sides. Excellent point about CSPAN radio Lizzy. It reminds of my dad’s advice regarding the NY Times back in the 50s. “By all means read the article reporting an important speech, but read the transcript. They don’t always report it honestly.”
Half the world (if not more) is the female gender so I am not sure why any man/husband will try to tell their wives what to think.
To be honest, I think this whole idea is just over rated because I don’t know of any men who try to force a woman to think/vote his way.
Great article! Thanks.
I like to watch MSNBC’s Morning Joe (in short bits) because it gives you a good idea of what the DC & the MSM elites are currently thinking, and the narratives they’re currently pushing. Also UP with Chris Hayes is kind of amazing because the panel is always so far left and unfiltered that you get to see their endgame (without all of the anger that most other MSNBC hosts display). Be prepared, though, because you will feel like you’ve entered an alternate universe.
Good advice, Lizzy, but I don’t think listening to C-Span during my commute would put me in the right frame of mind for the upcoming workday (or, in the evening, the whole dinner/homework/laundry thing). It might put me to sleep, however.
Although I consume a lot of news, I am a dial hopper and squeeze in music, the Catholic Channel and whatever else strikes my fancy when I am in the car.
Not unlike those squirrels chasing shiny objects that we’ve been hearing so much about lately 🙂
I second FenelonSpoke’s sentiments regarding davisbr’s comments. Well done.
On reflection, I think another reason Romney may have been a good choice is that he’s squeaky clean.
The Reds are going nuts trying to find something to smear him with (Seamus the Dog on the roof 30 years ago? Whoa.) He’s obviously a smart guy, he has successful experience in government, he has successful experience in the private sector, he’s not a drunk, not a druggie, not a libertine, hasn’t gone through multiple marriages, has no shady deals, nothing. They’re reduced to scrambling for torn off mattress tags and overdue library books (“Bastard! Suppose someone else wanted to read that book!”). Character assassins have their work cut out for them.
Rob is a troll.
Folks, this should be obvious: the Lib-terds are going to put up posts like Robs until the election. The point is to create lack of enthusiasm among the Republican base. In other words, “both parties suck and the Republican candidate is an idiot, and I’m right-of-center so pay attention to what I say, and get demoralized and … don’t bother to vote.”
Classic DemonCrat subterfuge.
Rob is a troll.
I live in an area with spotty AM reception, so in my car I tend to flip between NPR and the local AM talk station (home of Rush Limbaugh and similar shows).
On NPR every single “news” story is slanted pro-Obama and anti-Romney. A typical NPR “news” break begins by reporting that President Obama said such-and-such at a campaign stop today, followed by a sound bite helpfully provided by the Obama campaign organization. That’s their idea of “news” — a free 30-second Obama radio ad.
If they mention Romney it’s always critical. They have spent a week hammering him over that selectively-edited “secret” video (helpfully provided by the Obama campaign organization).
And yet people who listen to NPR consider themselves well-informed. I guess it’s because all the announcers sound like androgynous psychotherapists.
A fascinating difference between leftists and conservatives is that the former want to use the government to silence opposition, whereas the latter hope that opposing voices will be rejected by the marketplace.
While I’d love to see NPR come a-cropper, I don’t want it silenced by the government, but rather have its subvention withdrawn. After that, they’re on their own (most likely to follow the trajectory of Air America, but one can only hope). I detest MSNBC, but would protest any effort by a future government (obviously not this one) to shut it down. Bankruptcy would be wonderful; governmental action would be deplorable.
Yet it is commonplace to hear leftists want Fox and Rush Limbaugh silenced by the government. Creepy.
Paul A’Barge: Actually, I don’t think Rob is a troll. He is, however, a person who’s got it in for Romney. The great majority of his comments here have been on that one subject, but they are pretty consistently from the perspective of someone from the right who just doesn’t like Romney at all.
There are such people, you know. 🙂
If he is a troll, he’s done an awfully good job of impersonating someone on the right. Just to take one example of what I’m talking about, see this.
I wasn’t a big fan of Romney, but he is our only hope. So far, he’s been doing OK. Playing it fairly safe (wise with the Obama tag team, the gotcha media), but sticking up for his principles. He’s going to win; the commies are going to lose. Thank Christ.
Lizzy:
I had the weirdest experience with listening to Rush Limbaugh. My parents were Goldwater Republicans, country club Episcopalians, and my dad idolizes Wm. F. Buckley. He thinks of Rush as a blowhard; he’s heard his schtick of bragging about how smart he is, and that really turns Dad off (old-school Southern gentlemen don’t really like that stuff).
But our mother (more conservative, and from a plainer, middle-class family) said a few years ago that they’d “even listened to Rush a couple of times,” with a guilty air.
After my Damascus conversion back to my patriotic roots, my brother-in-law, an old lefty, accused me of getting my talking points from Limbaugh. I indignantly rejected this (hell, he’s a redneck and a fat hick! popular in the trailor parks! you know).
I mentioned this to my (paleo-conservative) kid brother, and added, “How would I be able to listen to Rush Limbaugh in NEW YORK?” Bob laughed, and said, “Well, it’s easy — he broadcasts from there!!!”
He gave me the station number (AM 770) and I tuned in, furtively: feeling like I was listening to Radio Free Europe from a Soviet worker’s housing block.
And the weirdest feeling crept over me: I was listening to this genial, intelligent, sometimes funny man who was Making Perfect Sense. Oh, my God. I agree with Rush Limbaugh!!!
Yet another of my signposts on the road known as “What else have They lied about?” There are many.
I swear, if Rush were broadcast in every workplace around the country, the electorate would have a lot more horse sense. And to think that I celebrated when I heard he’d gone deaf: yes, I was that bad. :-(((
The rise of progressive liberalism in the last 20 years is probably best explained, by first explaining how peer pressure conformity can be employed on huge swaths of people made to feel guilty for living relatively prosperous lives.
It’s how we arrived at this crazy political landscape we’re in.