After two days of wrestling with Broadband2go, Virgin Mobile tech support has concluded that they sold me a defective product and they will provide another product in 3-5 business days. If they want to sell defective merchandise, the least they can do is sell products that never work. I do resent the two days I jumped from computer to computer, location to location, and tinkered with this and that. I could get a connection established (some of the time) and then I would get bumped off.
Meanwhile, I still have tw months on my Verizon mifi that has never worked the way it has supposed to but can provide a better than dial up experience most of the time. I am glad I did not wait till the last minute to explore other Internet options even if it means paying for two providers in the short term. I just knew the baton would not pass gracefully.
Now if the local utility company can keep the juice flowing...
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Playing Nostradamus Once More
I believe the latest assault on Herman Cain--vague sexual harassment complaints from long ago--will revitalize his campaign. Remember, Cain was an also ran until about a month ago when Lawrence O'Donnell attacked him for not being authentically black. His numbers shot through the roof, he was the flavor of the month and the tide started to subside. Then, the non-scandal broke. Cain is once more, the man to beat.
Look out, Mitt. I predict that in two weeks, you will be breathing Cain's exhaust. I could be wrong but I m usually right about these things.
Look out, Mitt. I predict that in two weeks, you will be breathing Cain's exhaust. I could be wrong but I m usually right about these things.
Twofer Tuesday: Michael Moore:You Can Tell By His Hat That He Is A Man Of The People
TOP .2 PER CENT IS MORE ACCURATE
A LIMOUSINE LIBERAL AND HIS 1,000 PARROTS
A LIMOUSINE LIBERAL AND HIS 1,000 PARROTS
Monday, October 31, 2011
Media Monday: Robert Reich is a Chronically Dishonest Human Being.
I still hold the opinion that the very best book written about the news media is "The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS." I sometimes wish that Michael Fumento had chosen a different title. The book was not one of the many AIDS conspiracy/alternative theory slush piles that afflicted the early 90's. "The Myth..." was an analysis of the media coverage of the AIDS epidemic.
If there is only one thing to be learned (and there is more than one thing to be learned) from reading this masterpiece, it is that the media, and people in general, can radically distort the truth without telling a single overt lie. Lies can be easily refuted. Not so half-truths and willful omissions of significant details. For instance, the media echo chamber chanted the "Heterosexuals are the fastest growing group of AIDS victims" slogan. What they deleted was the foot note that immigrants who contracted the disease abroad were automatically classified as heterosexual. An important omission of detail.
As much as I would prefer that Fumento called the book something other than "The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS" the controversy surrounding the book would ultimately confirm a point that Fumento was trying to make. Namely, that political correctness is more important than truth for the news media. I am not sure that a day goes by when the press sacrifices truth on the altar of political correctness. Social Security is a legally sanctioned and socially sanctioned pyramid scheme. But the press will not acknowledge that it is a giant Ponzi schme beacuse it is legally and socially sanctioned. Political correctness wins again.
"The Myth..." promotes a tragic flaw of human communication. Sadly, it takes more verbiage, more time, and more energy to refute a falsehood than to promote a falsehood. As compelling as Fumento's magnum opus happened to be, it did not compete with the mighty roar of Oprah, the pitter patter of the Associated Press and the mindless parroting of every talking head in the electronic news media.
Robert Reich is the embodiment of all that is wrong with the media that Fumento exposed eighteen years ago. Reich is the master of half truth and the following videos illustrate this. It bears emphasizing that the entire "the top X per cent have increased their wealth by Y..." is utter, unadulterated bullshit. That whole line of chatter is invalidated because indivuals move from one group to another. Reich omits the mobility factor. He knows he is being dishonest when he spreads this sort of part-truth. Honor means nothing to Reich. He reminds us of Falstaff:
'...honour pricks
me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I
come on? how then? Can honour set to a leg? no: or
an arm? no: or take away the grief of a wound? no.
Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? no. What is
honour? a word. What is in that word honour? what
is that honour? air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it?
he that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no.
Doth he hear it? no. 'Tis insensible, then. Yea,
to the dead. But will it not live with the living?
no. Why? detraction will not suffer it. Therefore
I'll none of it. Honour is a mere scutcheon...'
Of course Falstaff is more endearing than the King of Economic Snake Oil.
Fumento wrote about political correctness and was tormented by the PC police.Reich might be bogus, but his verbiage is always politically correct. Always. Always. Always. Thus, he will always have access to media.
And lastly, Reich confirms what Fumento illustrated long ago about the ease of promoting falsehood versus the difficulty of refuting falsehood. Last I checked Reich's vid had over 1.3 million hits on Youtube alone (and it has been distributed elsewhere.) Murphy has about 28,000 Youtube hits and Doren has about 48,000. Reich piles it high and deep in two minutes and fifteen seconds. It takes Doren over twice as long to refute and it takes Murphy over four times as long to challenge three points. Advantage false witness.
IT IS EASIER TO DISPENSE FALSEHOOD THAN TO REFUTE FALSEHOOD
ROBERT P. MURPHY VS. REICH
BONUS TRACK: THE ANTAGONISTS POINT BY POINT
THE SECRETARY HAS NO CLOTHES! EEE-GADS!
Reich is a malignant tumor on the body of truth.
If there is only one thing to be learned (and there is more than one thing to be learned) from reading this masterpiece, it is that the media, and people in general, can radically distort the truth without telling a single overt lie. Lies can be easily refuted. Not so half-truths and willful omissions of significant details. For instance, the media echo chamber chanted the "Heterosexuals are the fastest growing group of AIDS victims" slogan. What they deleted was the foot note that immigrants who contracted the disease abroad were automatically classified as heterosexual. An important omission of detail.
As much as I would prefer that Fumento called the book something other than "The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS" the controversy surrounding the book would ultimately confirm a point that Fumento was trying to make. Namely, that political correctness is more important than truth for the news media. I am not sure that a day goes by when the press sacrifices truth on the altar of political correctness. Social Security is a legally sanctioned and socially sanctioned pyramid scheme. But the press will not acknowledge that it is a giant Ponzi schme beacuse it is legally and socially sanctioned. Political correctness wins again.
"The Myth..." promotes a tragic flaw of human communication. Sadly, it takes more verbiage, more time, and more energy to refute a falsehood than to promote a falsehood. As compelling as Fumento's magnum opus happened to be, it did not compete with the mighty roar of Oprah, the pitter patter of the Associated Press and the mindless parroting of every talking head in the electronic news media.
Robert Reich is the embodiment of all that is wrong with the media that Fumento exposed eighteen years ago. Reich is the master of half truth and the following videos illustrate this. It bears emphasizing that the entire "the top X per cent have increased their wealth by Y..." is utter, unadulterated bullshit. That whole line of chatter is invalidated because indivuals move from one group to another. Reich omits the mobility factor. He knows he is being dishonest when he spreads this sort of part-truth. Honor means nothing to Reich. He reminds us of Falstaff:
'...honour pricks
me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I
come on? how then? Can honour set to a leg? no: or
an arm? no: or take away the grief of a wound? no.
Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? no. What is
honour? a word. What is in that word honour? what
is that honour? air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it?
he that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no.
Doth he hear it? no. 'Tis insensible, then. Yea,
to the dead. But will it not live with the living?
no. Why? detraction will not suffer it. Therefore
I'll none of it. Honour is a mere scutcheon...'
Of course Falstaff is more endearing than the King of Economic Snake Oil.
Fumento wrote about political correctness and was tormented by the PC police.Reich might be bogus, but his verbiage is always politically correct. Always. Always. Always. Thus, he will always have access to media.
And lastly, Reich confirms what Fumento illustrated long ago about the ease of promoting falsehood versus the difficulty of refuting falsehood. Last I checked Reich's vid had over 1.3 million hits on Youtube alone (and it has been distributed elsewhere.) Murphy has about 28,000 Youtube hits and Doren has about 48,000. Reich piles it high and deep in two minutes and fifteen seconds. It takes Doren over twice as long to refute and it takes Murphy over four times as long to challenge three points. Advantage false witness.
IT IS EASIER TO DISPENSE FALSEHOOD THAN TO REFUTE FALSEHOOD
ROBERT P. MURPHY VS. REICH
BONUS TRACK: THE ANTAGONISTS POINT BY POINT
THE SECRETARY HAS NO CLOTHES! EEE-GADS!
Reich is a malignant tumor on the body of truth.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Blackout
We got hit by an October storm that caused a 24 hour blackout. These things always happen when we are busy with something else and when we have a freezer and refrogerator full of food. I am still amazed at how much damage was done by a storm that did not feature excessively high winds or all that much accumulation. A lot of people are still without power. For me, the storm was an exhausting annoyance.
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