d Blog

Welcome to d blog, also known as Dan's rant. The content herein is essentially comprised of miscellaneous ramblings and random thoughts on the nature of contemporary existence.

"New Years Hubub"

Just a few random thoughts on modern life, Politics and popular culture.

I miss the MTV that played the music videos of the songs that are now the soundtracks of commercial 30 second spots. As annoying as it is to now have those songs conjure up advertisements for products that I'll try to avoid for exactly this reason.

I'll never know where the other sock went.

I'll never understand an organization that provides a negative experience for its constituents. (Customers)

I hate the plastic bubble packaging that so many products come in today. They are a challenge to open and in the process often cut the person trying to extricate the product contained therein. I hate other forms of packaging that obviously cost more than the product they contain.

I intensely dislike shopping at giant stores where when you finally do find help, the advise received sends you on an expedition to the other end of the store football fields away where the desired item, is nowhere to be found.

I hate all telephone systems that don't sound anywhere near as good as cellphones sounded back in the day of the Motorola Brick.

I used to like Fast Food. Particularly Kentucky Fried Chicken before it was KFC and when it used to taste finger licken' good. Now it tastes like cloned food injected with salty water to increase its mass. Arby's Roast Beef suffers from the same malady. Really, I wish I could enjoy fast food again but eating a Big Mac zones me out for hours as my body shuts down all but essential functions in order to process the material consumed.

I have always been irritated by the relentless and inflammatory on air promos used by the network news shows. Did Harry Reid Dis Obama, tune in tonight and see? Will we all be poisoned by toxic waste in the aquifer tune in to Katy tonight? Is the sky falling? They make up headlines that of course aren’t true so we’ll watch the story At 11.

But is it as aggravating as the moment of freeze frame on the last frame in a given scene of a rental DVD movie? So many movies seem to freeze for an extra moment on the last frame of a scene. Is it shoddy workmanship in manufacture, poor editing or a by product of the digital medium?

I am greatly offended by the pervasive and constant mendacity of public officials and politicians. Our system is so adversarial as to be stymied at every juncture where progress is suggested. I wish there were a way to throw all the bums out at once and start over!

A Huge Hubub has erupted over Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) who is quoted in a new book as saying that then candidate Barack Obama could become the first black president because he was “light-skinned” with “no Negro dialect.” It’s true isn’t it? Why then the Brouhaha? I’ll tell you why. It’s the same reason that we are expected to believe that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, aka the Christmas or Underwear Bomber, might have been prevented from flying if his name was a little less complicated to spell. The reason is that we can’t handle the truth! If we could we’d demand it, wouldn’t we?

Actually the causality for all the crap that we live in, is multifaceted. The advertising supported media makes its money by selling audience to sponsors. And much like watching a car accident as we drive past, audiences are attracted by controversy and strife regardless of the veracity or dynamics of the given situation.

Politically our leaders are as adversarial as possible, which is in turn stifling any social progress with a legislative mix of obstinacy and mendacity. The honorable newsdays of Walter Cronkite are long gone by now and we seem to be in an age where the global media perform as royal jesters.

Where is the investigative reporting openly identifying Tim Geithner as Wall Street’s Secret Santa http://bit.ly/6UnxDY Detailed truth is absent during this season when Banks are using taxpayer funds to Prepare for Bigger Bonuses, seemingly oblivious to the Public’s Wrath? http://bit.ly/51Pe4Y Even Founder Hank Greenberg, wonders why AIG was singled out for the peculiar treatment by the FEDS which allowed TARP funds to go out the back door to the banks? http://bit.ly/6UE43I

I could continue venting my spleen with a range of US Government atrocities not the least of which is how US Officials Hid Truth of Immigrant Deaths/Murders in Jail http://bit.ly/7VWBXB wherein agency managers in Washington conferred by telephone and e-mail about how to avoid the cost of incarcerated immigrant care and the likelihood of “increased scrutiny and/or media exposure,” Among the participants in the conferences was Nina Dozoretz, a longtime manager in the agency’s Division of Immigration Health Services who had won an award for cutting detainee health care costs. Later she was vice president of the Nakamoto Group, a company hired by the Bush administration to monitor detention. The Obama administration recently rehired her to lead its overhaul of detainee health care.

I know that he carefully mulls decisions but my distress continues with our president coming down from the mountaintop to opine about that which we already know. http://bit.ly/5vGWVv As an Obama advocate I would advise him to grow a pair and get with the transparent implementing of the new social policies that we were promised by then candidate Obama.

My New Years Resolution has to do with making an effort to consume LESS news and media where possible in the 2010, while actually doing something about the staggering issues that confront us.

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