(Me)dia and "The Bottom Line"

(Me)dia
The other day when I was at the gym, I was listening to my iPod, running on the treadmill, rockin' out to the album of the day. I glanced up at the large Plasma TVs that hang in the gym and noticed the oddest thing. On the TV furthest left was a commercial for this weight loss pill: "The LATEST Hoodia Formula for all your weight loss needs!".

On the TVs next to it were food commercials. For Dunkin' Donuts. And Subway. Then McDonald's. And then Wheaties. All while the weight loss pill commercial was going.

And I thought...4/5's of the commercials shown in the last 5 minutes have been for the promotion of (fast) food. And 1/5 of those commercials was telling you how to get rid of it with drugs! No nutrition facts, no "exercise and eat less" commercials, just: Eat THIS! And then take THIS to get rid of it! Or throw up and look like the models that wear our clothes!"

Paula Zahn and "The Bottom Line"

First things second: Paula Zahn is a moron. A complete and utter bobbing-head pundit that should not have her own TV show (in my humble opinion). Being the idiot that I am, I decided to watch CNN while still on the treadmill. It was Paula Zahn: Now!, and she was talking to two "well-spoken Black people" (as she called them) and a white conservative columnist or something (not important). They were discussing the presidential candidates for '08. They were still talking about the "Is Barack Obama black enough?" issue and "Ni&$a what? A woman president? You crazay?" issue regarding Hillary Clinton.

Of COURSE Barack Obama is black enough. He's a black man. He may not be black enough for you, Ms. Zahn, but he sure is black enough for me. Not only is he black enough, but he's also smart enough, well-spoken enough, old enough, and president-ly enough for me. He may have only a year and a half in politics working in Illinois, but that's also the state that Sufjan Stevens wrote a whole album of songs about! That's amazing! But a year in half is more time than it took Bush to screw it up. Also...Barack isn't a burn out, mumbling, bobblehead good-for-nothing who's daddy is personal friends with the Bin Laden family [Fun Fact].

And that's Obama, not Osama, for the record.

Good books, bad people

There was also brief talk about how good a Mormon president would be. Apparently there's a Mormon man named Mitt Romney, running for the Republican party (I'm running as far away from it as possible, but anyway...) who believes that a Godly nation is the kind of nation we need. He believes that the government should be religious based.

This is not a theocratic democracy. This is not a theocratic AUTOcracy (though that's what it feels like). This is a democracy. And if we are trying to spread what we don't have, or don't want, then why are we in Iraq?

The thing that pushed me over the edge with dear old Paula is the fact that they had a segment about a children's book named The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Parton, that was, supposedly, being banned in libraries and bookstores around the country, because it had a curse word on the first page. Do you know what the word was, boys and girls?

Scrotum.

A curse word. That is a curse word. It was in reference to a dog's "under-hangings" which were bitten by a rattlesnake. It wasn't used in a vulgar way. The word scrotum is an anatomically correct term used to describe the sack in which testicles are held. What's so bad about that?

Well, the conservatives got all bent out of shape and are now banning the book in the bookstores over which they have control. The best part about this whole thing? The book recently won a Newbery Honor Award, for being such an amazing children's book aimed at kids between 9 and 12. Hell, by the age of 12, a lot of kids are already watching porn. Ask any 12 year-old. If they didn't know what a scrotum was...I'd be surprised.

Adding Insult to Injury

The segment ended with an interview of Susan Parton and a discussion of the word usage in the book. She (re)iterated the points I made above, and Paula Zahn was asking her such pointed questions, that it was ridiculous! She asked Susan if she thought the country was becoming more "politically-correct", and Ms. Parton started to say something and then just said "Yes." "Bottom line: Yes, the country is becoming more politically-correct". Then, as they were signing off, Paula said, "Well, we'll be interested to hear what choice of words you use next time." and it cut back to Susan and she has this, "Uh...what?" expression on her face. She mumbled something, and then the segment ended.

CNN is all about over-simplifying things to make it black and white. It's not that the country is becoming more politically-correct, it's that uber-conservatives are scared of sex. You heard me correctly. These people are so afraid of their own genitalia, that they are ready to strike it down wherever else it exists. Mind you, they spew hate at an author who uses a body part word correctly, while they are off hiring male prostitutes and buying drugs.

Ugh...people make me so angry.

As for everything else, the Fox News Channel started a satirical news show called The Half Hour News Hour, which is supposed to be the right-wing answer to The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. And frankly, from a strictly comedic point of view, its sucks. A lot. See for yourself the train wreck that is:



And now, the first of many, the music review.
The band that I present to you today, is called Acceptance. They were a Seattle band, but broke up this year. They an alternative indie band. You will like them a lot if you like Mae, Anberlin, or The Early November.

I stumbled across their CD when looking for another band, listened to their stuff, and fell in love. It's wonderful, upbeat, hard-rocking, harmonized fun music. Let me know if you enjoy it as much as I did. I give their album Phantoms [2005]:

4 grasshoppers out of 5 grasshoppers.

Below are a few of the songs from that CD, to get a feel for their sound. Check it out.

Respek.