Comments on: While the Major Media Obsessed Over John Mark Carr, At Least 35 U.S. Soldiers Die in Iraq

By: Yeah Boy

Yeah Boy — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 16:03:06 +0000

Arlen - thank goodness you post on here … I was feeling so lonely! ;)

I harbor no illusions of either party being worth my time

Amen.

By: Arlen

Arlen — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 03:31:48 +0000

“But very few of these same people can tell you how many representatives come from their state, who their representatives are, what those officials vote on, etc.”

You act as if this is a recent phenomena. I doubt if any time in the last century there were a substantial amount of people that could tell you how their representative voted, probably more who could answer the other questions, but not a majority. Those things haven’t changed much since the 70’s, that I know for sure.

Know-nothing voters and corrupt politicians are as old as the republic. Yes, I have a passing interest in the news of the day, though I’m not as partisan as our host. Having seen up close the operation of the Democratic party, I harbor no illusions of either party being worth my time. It’s like the difference between Chevrolet and Pontiac. Oh, occasionally the handlers get careless and let a real candidate slip out, but they’re getting better and those mistakes are happening with declining frequency.

I turn on my TV and see Green attacking Doyle, and Doyle attacking Green, and I know that whoever wins, I’m getting screwed. It’s hard for me to convince anyone the difference between the red politician and the blue politician is worth noting. Every now and again a good one comes along, for which I’m grateful, but for the most part the polling booth is an exercise in LOP (Least Objectionable Politician).

And because of that, I’m hard pressed to find a reason to condemn those who have tired of being talked at by the artificially created people from the Donkeys and Elephants and who choose instead to tune in to the other world of plastic people, the show business crowd.

By: Bruno Wolff III

Bruno Wolff III — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 19:44:50 +0000

Tom Cruise could actually be useful. More negative press for the Scientology crooks would be a benefit to society. Having someone challange Tom on camera about how they scam normal people out of their money might make a very interesting feature.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 17:48:02 +0000

No offense, Arlen, but your post exemplifies just what’s wrong. I’ve looked quickly at your website, and it seems you care about what’s going on in the real news, but most people following this story don’t.

Everyone I talk to has theories on this guy who claims he killed a girl a decade ago, but didn’t do it, but maybe he did, or maybe he knows who really did it, etc. But very few of these same people can tell you how many representatives come from their state, who their representatives are, what those officials vote on, etc.

They’d much rather discuss the latest “news” concerning Paris Hilton or Tom Cruise. Hell, they’d rather discuss Rob Schneider’s latest flick than anything that actually affects their lives.

By: Arlen

Arlen — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 04:16:41 +0000

My money was on him being not guilty, anyway. I’m astonished no one else noticed it. The man was up on serious kiddie porn charges in Thailand, and to escape a Thai prison, he dropped the Jon Benet bomb. Then, after extradition, a friend suddenly surfaces with proof he couldn’t have done it. So he walks away from a Thai prison sentence, and won’t be prosecuted here. Everyone here was too gullible to see what he was doing.

We should send him back to Thailand.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 20:44:17 +0000

More can be done to educate the people, true. Civics classes in high schools do a poor job of actually giving the students a clue as to how the government works, and more importantly what is wrong with it. Additionally, all colleges ought to require a class on government. Not that this will convince even half of them to care; but it will at least enlighten those who are civic minded.

Beyond that, though, what more can be done? Information on candidates is available to anybody with 50 cents for a newspaper. It’s all over the internet if you take ten seconds to look for it. But the problem is that most people don’t care enough to find it. As a result they’re picking candidates based almost entirely on name recognition and party identification.

The question shouldn’t be, “How can we better educate the voters?” The question should be, “Should we allow people to vote in the first place, without some indication that they’ve taken even a minute to prepare to do so?”

By: Bruno Wolff III

Bruno Wolff III — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 19:10:19 +0000

Even with just a Republic, it still hurts when most voting citizens don’t get good information about what is happening.
One of the biggest problems with U.S. elections is that many people decide how to vote based on 30 second commercials which are very misleading. These commercials are expensive and require politicians to take bribes in order to get elected.
If our population was better educated these commercials would have less impact on elections and perhaps would no longer be worth the cost.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 04:24:22 +0000

Is this the least bit surprising? Mass for-profit news will always reflect the interests of the average news consumer - and those interests tend toward the vulgar and prurient. It seems like you might be giving people too much credit where civic-mindedness is concerned. Anybody who cares about important events can easily find what they’re looking for. The rest of the people will simply believe whatever we tell them and go about their happy lives swilling the latest gossip on Hollywood celebrities. And all this is just a part of the strong argument against true (direct) democracy. Thank god we’ve never ventured down that road.