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30 June 2011

TV goodbyes

Today, it's the end of an era.  (Can two years be an era?)  TV enters our homes, be it Walter Cronkite or Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and it becomes a welcome visitor and a part of our routine.  Similar to high school, when you'd always see specific friends between classes -- not necessarily because you liked them more, but because their locker was by your math class -- TV shows on the faces on the screen can become entwined with our everyday life.  Change is strange, and it can be hard to say goodbye.

When Twin Peaks ended, my sister and I drove to a doughnut shop in silence.  I've still not fully accepted the end of Buffy, partially evidenced by my refusal to watch the last two episodes of Angel.  Somehow, that keeps Buffy alive for me.  I felt empty when LOST ended, but to be fair, that might have something to do with the big middle finger that was the final episode.

Point being -- today is Glenn Beck's last show, and I'm feeling sad.  I'm suspicious yesterday was his last real episode and today will be a clip show, a tour of the new frontier, an hour long prayer, or something equally bleck.

I've started blogging about Beck.  On this blog, I type while watching Beck -- which has morphed into me pausing to catch every single word, sometimes inserting my own commentary -- and elsewhere I take my transcript and insert pics, links, and video.  It's a lengthy process, and it's led to me spending many hours everyday working with Beck material and his primary sources.  I've not been doing it for a long time, but I've highly enjoyed the time spent doing it.  I plan to continue to do this work with his older shows, but it obviously won't feel the same.

I have a feeling that my live blogging will be commentary, not transcript tonight.

Village Voice Silenced by Staff?

One of the nation's staple alt-weekly newspapers is in a sticky situation.  Village Voice staffers are threatening to strike over contract negotiations.  They have set up an alternate website to continue publishing news in the event of a strike.  (Who wants to bet that the primary news covered will be their strike?)

29 June 2011

The Glenn Beck Program, June 29 LIVEBLOG

Hello, America.  This is the last audience that will join us, because tomorrow it's just you and me.  And tomorrow is our last episode on the FoxNews Channel.  You don't want to miss it.

I have a lot to share with you.  Tonight it's big picture.  When you're down to the last episodes of something you've worked in for five years and you're trying to think "What is it I want to leave you with?  What is the most important..."  I haven't been good at narrowing things down.

Today I want to spend time on two things.  Most important things.
- What's coming our way?  (One last stab at it.)
- And, who do you trust?/ The Media.
Tonight I want to talk to you about those things.  But I have to start over here [walks to chalkboards] with Israel, because you are being lied to.  Absolutely, positively -- you're being lied to.  And you need to know what the truth is.

LiLo FED Up

Lindsay Lohan recently tweeted

Barackita

When Obama went to Brazil, I was horrified by the results, and I began referring to his foreign trips as his Rainbow Tour, a reference to Eva Peron's 1947 trip to Europe -- as well as a reference to a song from the musical Evita.

To be honest, the bulk of my Argentinian historical knowledge comes from and/or stems from that musical.  (I'm okay with that.  You gotta start somewhere.)  While I'm not naive enough to make Andrew Lloyd Webber my sole source for Argentinian history, there was some niggling thing about Obama that reminded me of the Rainbow Tour -- and the Perons.

Then I came across this nugget from Abraham H. Miller over at Pajamas Media.  Stop reading here and go read what he has to say about Obama & Juan Peron.  It's great stuff.

Oh, fine.  Here's a sample:
Predictably, Peron’s reforms led to a bloated government bureaucracy that drained resources from the private sector. Universal health care and high social security benefits further increased the bureaucracy and monetary liquidity. Pumping money artificially into both social programs and wages caused an inflation rate of 52%, by 1951, coupled with a massive trade deficit — as money chased foreign goods.
Okay.  Now stoppit.  Stop reading here, and go check out Miller's piece.

Buffy nostalgia

This makes me ridiculously happy.

Alec Baldwin "Casts the First Stone", Palinizes Bachmann

... and might be upping the ante.  Let's review: Palin's pretty thus dumb.  That meme's already been taken.  So the Bachmann meme is that she's serious thus dangerous.  So far, all of the smears I've noticed have been falling squarely into that category.  But Baldwin offers a new twist.