Tag Archives: political

THINK

tell it like it is…. grandpa


bill moyers

Earlier this month, St. Louis was the site of the National Conference on Media Reform.

mykinmissouri clued me in about the conference and sent me a link to download and listen to the keynote address from venerable veteran journalist Bill Moyers.

Moyers speech sheds light on and provides commentary to what has happened, (is happening) to The Center for Public Broadcasting as well as our country / culture and media since 9/11. (This is all framed by the tone of one media professional addressing his peers.)

Providing our history isn’t co-op’d and edited in the future – this was every bit of what folks are calling a “Historic Speech”.

Think Gettysburg Address for the Media.

If you have an hour to burn – FIND an hour to burn and listen to this speech. You can download it HERE… or read it HERE

…and afterward, if you’re so inclined, sign a petition.

This isn’t a crazed, bitch-a-lot-and-do-nothing lefty MichaelMoreish rant…. it’s stone-cold middle of the road… with a sensibility and clarity that rocked me down to the atomic level.

So… aside from feeling like I’m doing my little part about sharing this… I want to remember that this speech happened here in good ole 314 – it’d be completely blog worthy if I had one….

I only wish I had been there to hear it live…. but MP3 is just as good…. Thanks Mike.

LIVE, OBSESS

read my…


I always wind up with little surprises in my iPhoto import cue whenever I leave the camera in the backseat.

Without my noticing, Chad will sit back there and squeeze off shots randomly.

Found some this morning… Making it the PERFECT excuse for me to not construct any silly entry in this thing you all think is a blog.

Just upload and go…

voila.

LIVE, THINK

threat


My Wednesday on – and it “was” going to be a sorta laid back one at that… Wanted to go over to my dad’s for lunch… hit the library… etc…. until…

I noticed the tags on my plates had expired this month… Odd.. I never got the little thing in the mail telling me it was time to renew…

So.. the REST of the day was spent running to the DMV, then City-Hall to pay my personal property tax, then find a garage to inspect the car, then back to the DMV… with a leisurely lunch – it represented about a 5 hour commitment… (pretty much shot the day).

These days when I get out into the public… I mean like REALLY OUT there.. like into public spaces and have to deal with “people”… (other than my clients)… I get a little jumpy.

My dad says I’ve inherited his sensitivity to mental “noise”… which is the card he plays to stay in his house 98% of the time.

I’m of course not that bad… nor do I want to be…. I have to think more about this…

Nonetheless – the good / bad / odd / interesting thing about isolating oneself is how you perceive things when you do indeed get out there.

Like the terror-threat level of St. Louis County…. I spent the entire hour I waited to speak with someone to get a bill to pay my personal property tax considering this… and watching security watch me…. (closely no less)…. It must have been my straw hat… or decidedly unfashionable clothes… or maybe it was my camera and laptop… I look sooo Muslim you know.

“Does anyone truly believe that white-bread St. Louis County-Land is under even the mildest of threats?”

Is there a milder color than yellow?… Wouldn’t taupe would be more appropriate?

I mean come on now.. What would a band of radical religious fanatics do? Bomb a Starbucks? Hijack a T.J. Max?

Besides… we already have radical religious fanatics in the county and outlying countryside of this fine state.. they’re the ones that voted in the amendment to the Missouri constitution to permanently deny marriage rights to gay-folk… and are NOW pushing legislation to yank state-money from any institution that includes sexual orientation in their non-discrimination policies.

But never-mind that old, tired, smelly, dead horse of distraction.

So… Why is there a need to post the county treat level in the public lobby of the county government building?

Why should I even blog about this.

LIVE

four more tears?

eye of the storm

Despite camping out at a lavishly appointed suburban castle complete with multiple televisions and satellite feed – we resisted watching the running, mostly mindless, election coverage yesterday.

I suppose there’s some ironic coincidence that our only vacation this year would land us smack-dab in the middle of the state that will make or break the most important American election of our time.

The margins are close even in the red-pill states, especially our beloved little MO. History books of the future will probably cite this time as the most divided the country’s been since the civil war.

That is if there is a future. I can’t help but morbidly extrapolate one where liberal-leaning citizens are arrested or deported, and moderates are forced into a fundamentalist-christian, corporate-sponsored compliance.

So now what?

We’ll continue our own flavor of civil disobedience and see just how much further we can drop off the grid.

Meanwhile, while the country goes to hell in a hand-basket – there are three little bears in Ohio trying to enjoy some hard earned R&R and the company of family – and a primate-identifying ursine pecking in a journal he refuses to call a blog.