January 19, 2007
It's all about Me, Invective, and the NY Times
I'm afraid that I've managed to mightily annoy not only an employee of a Major Mainstream Media outlet, but also, and much more importantly, my wife.
Let me explain....
Y'see, I happened to be next to the phone when it rang at 8:30PM this evening. On the other end of the connection was some guy (who very politely introduced himself, but I cannot remember his name), who tried to sell me something, a subscription, perhaps?
He said he was representing the New York Times.
Anyway, I offered to "crawl right through the phone and rip your ears right off your head, and after that, I'll get really rude!" Imagine an escalating volume, if you would.
I didn't swear.
I didn't offer to jump on an airplane to do him actual physical violence.
I was merely... rude, obnoxious, and noisy.
We're on the National Do-Not-Call Registry for a reason.
But, because of my immoderate (although limited - I didn't even get properly warmed up) invective, my beloved wife is annoyed with me.
She's much nicer than I am, and much less likely to use the telephone to puree and flambe some booger-eatin' moron of a tele-marketer who richly deserves every ounce of telephonic abuse and creative invective I can give him.
Bob, Jim, Fred, or whatever your name is, I won't apologize to you, not at all. I will, however, render a heart-felt apology to my beloved. She is, after all, much more important to me than your sleazoid old rag of an alleged newspaper.
And, Bob-Jim-Fred, if you should be so unwise as to call again, you'd better hope that you get to talk to Moogie, and not to me. She will be nice, and firmly polite, and will decline to buy whatever you're offering, and will, politely, refer to the National Do-Not-Call Registry.
If you get me, on the other hand, well, I learned, from a Chief Boatswain's Mate, USN, just how to go, for about two solid minutes, without swearing once, to elaborate on your personal habits, your ancestry, your current lack of discretion, your future prospects, and whether or not you have any smarts at all. Without repeating myself even once. And then, and only then, will I refer you, again, to the National Do-Not-Call Registry.
Think about that, Bob-Jim-Fred.
And Sweetheart, I'm really very sorry that I offended you.
UPDATE: I turned the comments on for this post.
Posted by ward at 09:25 PM | Comments (1)
September 20, 2006
Why Should I Trust The Main-Stream Media?
Every so often, while reading the editorial page, I'll fuss, and mutter, and look disgusted.
SWMBO will ask, sweetly, "Dearest, whatever could possibly be wrong?"
She knows, of course, that I disagree with whatever syndicated columnist I happen to be reading.
More frequently, these days, I'll snort, mutter, and glare at some of the "news" stories I see in the paper, especially the ones from the AP or from Reuters.
It's a sad fact, that in most news organizations in the US, most of the writing staff is solidly Democrat. But, until Rathergate, I was willing to concede that they (the news writers) were at least trying to be impartial.
With the recent revelations about the photoshopped photos from Reuters, the "http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/11/opinion/11JORD.html?ex=1158897600&en=2bb8ef08a2145ae0&ei=5070" from CNN, and now the collusion of an AP photographer with known terrorists in Iraq, I've come to the point that I don't really trust any of the major news organizations.
Why should I? They've been shown to be liars. It's very sad, and all that, but it's true. The miserable pukes lie, and then scream bloody murder when they're found out.
What really gets their panties in a twist is when a blogger such as Dr. Rusty Shackleford catches them, and calls "bullshit" on their antics. After all, they've been caught by people who aren't "professionals".
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It's spin time. The Associated (With Terrorists) Press is now waging a p.r. campaign against what it calls the "so-called blogosphere" over detained photographer Bilal Hussein. After five months of stonewalling, the "so-called reporters" at AP finally reported what this blog reported on April 12--that Hussein had indeed been captured by the US military in a Ramadi apartment building where bomb-making materials were found...along with an alleged al Qaeda leader. Hussein reportedly tested positive for traces of explosives. |
Posted by ward at 07:25 PM | Comments (0)
September 06, 2006
Music My Way
The Fabulous Joisy Lawya, Jimbo, started something with the Music Meme HERE.
Today, at work, whilst me and Da Boss were snivelin' and snarkin' about the hard disk that puked, I heard in the background from his softly playing boombox, a snippet of some song that reminded me of some stuff that I haven't heard in a long time.
So, off to iTunes I go (only useful if you have an iPod, or software that will convert what you've bought to MP3 format).
I now have, for my listening pleasure:
Neil Diamond: "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show" and "Soolaimon"
Judy Collins: "Amazing Grace" and "Me and My Uncle"
Over the years, my old vinyl albums and cassette tapes have surrendered to the ravages of time and seventeen household moves. I had forgotten some of the really Good Stuff that came out in the late '60s and early-to-mid 70's.
Just for you folks that are completely clueless:
Neil Diamond's rendition of "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show" is a very good example of a tongue-in-cheek look, with respect, of That Good Old Time Religion, Southern-Baptist-Revival variety. By a good Jewish boy from Noo Yawk. He caught a certain amount of crap for this when he did it - but it was enormously popular and great fun to listen to.
Judy Collins had one of the great female voices back in The Day. Back when I first heard it, back around 1973, I ran Ms. Collin's version of Amazing Grace past a southern friend of mine. His comment was "Whoever that Gospel Singin' lady is, she's amazin'!" (And no, B2, it wasn't you. It was a guy I was in the Navy with.)
I think I've got it covered, what with Steppenwolf, Huey Lewis, Neil Diamond, the Stones, the Moody Blues, Blue Oyster Cult, Boston, Janis Joplin, Carlos Santana, the Beatles, The Guess Who, The Who, Mason Williams, The Righteous Brothers, and .... E. Power Biggs.
Now, I just need 1 or 2 from Rob Smith....
Posted by ward at 09:49 PM | Comments (0)