Social Media Is Not The "News"!

Have you noticed lately how little news you really get on TV these days? We usually flip between channels when the weather comes on to get a broad spectrum of forecasts. Three stations in Spokane and you'd swear more often than not they reside on different planets. The weather, however, is the most complete example of reporting you get.

The evening broadcasts have been deteriorating for some time now. I often wonder how people get their news if they aren't armed to the teeth with computers and all the variations thereof. I don't have any of those fancy gadgets, just my computer and I do have to rely on it for a lot of what I need to write a post. That's because the papers, all two of them, are lacking.

Everything from headline news, breaking stories to sports tells you to go to the station's web site to read more. That's what's coming. The anchors are pretty much interchangeable except for the attractiveness scale. Most of the women have voices that make me think of nails on a chalk board. Irritating. So why not just have a robot? Certainly we have the technology to program one with headlines and the referral to the website. The voice could be programmed to be soothing or edgy or whatever the headline may require. Think of the money the channels would save on high priced anchors. There's the morning crew, the noon crew, the dinner time crews. Sometimes they differ from five to six. And the late night crew! Even if the people double up on some of the shifts, a robot would still save money! You'd only need one! If you like the male/female mix ~ program the voice to switch with each story!

Besides, the anchors are getting lazy. The current fad is reading a headline then going to Facebook to read the comments from their page. Hello out there! Reading comments from Facebook IS NOT NEWS! I'd wager even a robot could figure that out!

Who's Wearing Sheep's Clothing?

More and more often we who live here find publications discovering this pretty little town by the lake. It makes the people swell with community pride, never mind the local controversies I no longer write about.

We have our local celebrity element. Dennis Franz from NYPD Blue, Patty Duke, Ellen Travolta and husband Jack Bannon. They seem to keep pretty much to themselves other than making the local theater scene vibrant.

We have a hamburger joint that keeps getting accolades and Guy Fieri of Diners, Drive Ins and Dives has discovered the area.

That's the good part.

We had another good guy in town last night for a speaking engagement. The infamous sheriff from Phoenix, Joe Arpaio. Though extremely controversial, I admire his no nonsense approach to law and order ~ and illegal immigration. Why here? Idaho is a long way from the Mexican border but some of our southern cities are part of the drug pipeline coming out of Mexico and there are a lot of migrant workers in the agricultural area who may or may not have their green cards. So what happens in Arizona has an effect on what happens here. This man I welcome.

On the other hand, another group is going to pay us a visit. Pastor Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church. I have trouble writing pastor and church when speaking about this man and his following of hate mongers.

Most noted for disrupting military funerals, he's here on another mission. To go after gays.

The local community college is staging The Laramie Project which depicts how the brutal beating and consequent death of student Matthew Shepard has affected the community of Laramie, Wyoming. They intend to protest at one of the performances.

What's even worse is they intend to pay a visit to some local high schools which happen to have organizations that support gay students. How foul can you get? Kids. Kids of high school age have enough trouble searching for their identities. Those who are gay have another set of issues piled on top. The last thing they need to sort out is why these "men of God" are calling them the most hateful things imaginable! Free speech don't you know!

The community will be ready from the teachers to the peace keepers. Hopefully the students will be too. The media should ignore them, no air time at all. No air time, no impact. But I doubt that will happen. The powers that be will consider it news.

Such hate from supposed God fearing people. You know, if there is a God , they well should fear Him!

There is no community pride in having been discovered by these people. They are as predatory as wolves. No. I should give the wolves a break. These people are worse. They prey on children.

Political Courage Or Lack Thereof?

One of the things that irritates me most about politicians is how they dance around simple questions. Direct answers are not in their mindset. Heaven knows they wouldn't want to have any convictions that voters might disagree with. But what if they do agree? The candidates will never know!

This wouldn't be why they are so ineffectual and we are so frustrated would it?

In this morning's paper there was an article about just that. An organization known as Project Vote Smart has for years prepared a questionnaire called the Political Courage Test . Started in 1992, it is a non-partisan research organization designed to give voters straight forward answers, yes or no, to the major issues of the day. You can't get much more straight forward than yes or no!

Over the years fewer and fewer candidates, even after cajoling and repeated reminders, answer. They are told by all their "advisers" that the opposition could use it against them. Well, if they believe in it so what? Isn't that the problem?

In our state, Idaho, neither candidate for the House took the test. Answers as to why are lame. For instance, a candidate spokesman described the questionnaire as no more than a series of pledges and the candidate does not sign pledges.

Of course that raised my curiosity so I went to the website and found the questions. As I said before, they require yes and no answers. The candidate is one who I had up to this point supported. Now I'm wondering. Follow the link and read the questions. They don't strike me as being pledges. Opinions, yes. Beliefs, yes, but pledges no.

If the politicians look at the questions as such, however, perhaps it's time they actually take the "pledge" and answer the questions!

Whitman's Out, O'Donnell's In

Politicians are either blessed or cursed by their own actions. The problem is during election season, shaky truths are often foisted upon opponents. Then it's up to the voter to figure out what is true and what isn't. Take Meg Whitman running in a dead heat for California governor against the man once known as Governor Moonbeam. The dirty tricks charge is being lead by attorney Gloria Allred. If it means notoriety for her, she's in, even if the truth of her allegations are questionable.

All that aside, however, I figure Ms. Whitman is doomed to defeat. Why? Her problem is allegedly having hired, knowingly, an illegal. Most politicians caught in that web are rarely successful in their pursuits.

On the other hand there is Senatorial candidate Christine O'Donnell. She is an amalgamation of blessings and curses. Her views are a bit far reaching for me, but then I don't know everything there is to know about her. That's probably a blessing for me!

By today's criteria of forgivable sins by politicians, even with her eerie views on just about everything, she should be a shoo in for office. You see, she has tax problems. That's okay. Just ask Tim Geithner, among others.

It seems a non-profit of which she is president is three years behind in filing it's tax forms. She isn't just affiliated with it, she started it back in 1996. It's a pie-in-the-sky organization called Savior's Alliance for Lifting the Truth". What the heck does that mean? Apparently it' a pro-abstinence group aiming it's message at young Christians. Pie-in-the-sky is my term. Such approaches don't tend to work this day and age. Ask Bristol Palin. Unrealistic, I believe she said.

I'll give the group credit for it's message but they would have a lot more credibility if the officers, including the president, would mind the business end of it. Like filing their tax forms.

One of her campaign spokesman says it's being looked into. Why are such things always being looked into? You know the answer will be it was just a simple oversight. No harm, no foul.

Funny. Meg Whitman should win. O'Donnell shouldn't. Who knows what will happen.

One thing though, I'd keep a pretty close eye on her campaign books. If I were the citizens of Delaware I'd not want her living high on my dime. Never mind that she already has!

Acupuncture Rocks!

When I'm away from blogging for lengthy amounts of time it's due to one of several reasons. We're busy with yard work which seems to never end unless we're under three feet of snow. We've managed to get away for a few days which I don't like to advertise. I'm tied up with doctors appointments which seem to come in batches.

I haven't reported about my pain issues for quite awhile but I do have an update worthy of note. I've been counting the doctors I've been to in the last couple of years in search of an answer. My then family practitioner. After five years of nagging to get her to listen she finally sent me to an orthopedic surgeon. You heard about that one. The one who has a sign over his receptionist's desk that read "Be nice or leave." I ended up leaving for he found nothing "he could operate on". Next came a spine specialist. You heard about that one too. After two shots in different areas of my back he sent me packing. Again. Nothing.

I changed family practitioners to one I had known before. He sent me to the pain specialist. You remember that one too I'm sure. The last thing we tried that didn't work was botox in my butt. He then talked me into trying methadone. That lasted two weeks. I told my doctor I didn't want to take a narcotic. Period. End of story.

To get one more opinion I was sent off to a neurologist for a nerve conduction test. I finally got that done yesterday. Nothing.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch... I was going to acupuncture. The acupuncturist had his own idea of what was causing the problem and assured me we were going to try and fix it rather than just mask it. I believed him and in him. He got my knee back to working. For a time I couldn't get up or down from a kneeling position. It was agonizing. Every week we worked on it. Then it worked. I figured the pain was being fixed from the bottom up!

Even now, though the pain isn't gone, it has eased and I've backed off to less potent pain medication at a dose that had quit working quite some time ago. That's progress! Oh yes, I mustn't forget. I had fresh x-rays taken and a new MRI. It showed the shredded muscles and ligaments in my butt had healed but that I have mild arthritis in my hips, especially the left one. I also have a lot in my tailbone and some additional degeneration in that area. Everyone has concluded that's what's causing my pain. Six years of agony and they conclude it's arthritis.

I asked him this morning if it truly is the arthritis if he could fix it. Well, he can't fix the arthritis but he can fix the pain. He gave me an unequivocal "yes", which is unusual for him He usually says "We'll try."

Nothing happens suddenly with acupuncture, but the time has come where my body is responding positively more readily.

So there you have it. I'm waving good bye to a whole slew of medicine men. I'm going to have my life back. I have no doubt what-so-ever.

Oh, yes, I should mention that the neurologist and one of his nurses wanted my acupuncturist's name and phone number. It seems they both have some issues that no one has been able to figure out. Somehow it seems just.