CBS Channel 2 puts NFL in the toilet

It wasn't the "Heidi Game" but one of the teams was the Raiders. Today on Channel 2 in Los Angeles, in a very exciting seesaw contest, CBS cut away from the Raiders-Jacksonville game with the Raiders threatening to score. With 11 seconds left in the game, CBS changed the broadcast for "contractual reasons". But what came on next was not another game, but a series of commercials. What a group of greedy shills, they could care less about their viewers or dedicated fans that followed the entire contest on Channel 2 for the past 3 hours. The actions of CBS hold a mirror that reflects the quality of their management and programming lineup, a bunch of know-nothings selling over-hyped pablum.

The NFL should dump them.

On assignment with the Sorkh Razil

Lately, I feel helpless and exposed on all sides, like I'm in a free-fire zone or on a black ops assignment with the Sorkh Razil. To hear politicians talk is to cower on a rocky ridge with Pat Tillman taking the worst that America can give me. We have engaged both the enemy and evil, and much of what is amiss lies within ourselves.

Oh, how I long to listen to one gracious soul.

mid-term elections from the Rude Pundit

Follow the link below for the Rude Pundit's take on the mid-term elections

The Rude Pundit on mid-term elections

Carly Fiorina

An election ad for Carly Fiorina says the following.

"When bickering ends, solutions begin. I'm prepared to oppose my party when its wrong."

Isn't that bickering?

She is a frightening apparition to me: power, wealth, and ambition, with little to offer such a diverse and complex landscape as California is today.

New Rules

No more political ads on TV or radio, they can only go to print. How refreshing would that be?

eager

Eagerly awaiting the end of election madness.

What Government Needs

What Government Needs

Not rancorous partisan politics but a new ethic of Gung Ho, to work together in cooperation.

Independent Voter Movement

I, too, yearn for an Independent Voter Movement, one that comes without flags and loyalty oaths, without Elmer Gantry and his female accomplice, without litmus tests. A movement built on the democratic pillars of consensus and respect, not dogma and vitriol.

A thought for growing old

For age is opportunity no less than youth itself, though in another dress, and as the evening twilight fades away, the sky is filled with stars, invisible by day. –Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. educator, poet (1807-1882)

Moonshots - prosperity and security

Moonshots: prosperity vs security

Moonshots

GOP Candidate wears a Nazi uniform

"A Republican congressional candidate from Ohio says he did nothing wrong by wearing a Nazi uniform to participate in World War II re-enactments.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Rich Iott said Monday that he took part in the historical re-enactments to educate the public. He says he does not agree with what the Nazis did to Jews." (copyright AP 2010)

Iott is a poster child for the GOP right-wing today: not only is he open about it, he is incredulous that anyone would dare take him to task about wearing a Nazi uniform.

As a member of the public I would like to thank him for educating me about the subterranean message illuminating his run for office. He must surely enjoy his reenactments of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Malmedy Massacre.

Authority

Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority. -Thomas Huxley

Praise

I cannot conceive otherwise than that He, the Infinite Father, expects or requires no worship or praise from us, but that He is even infinitely above it. -Benjamin Franklin, statesman, author, and inventor (1706-1790)

Good of mankind

I take it that the good of mankind means the attainment, by every man, of all the happiness which he can enjoy without diminishing the happiness of his fellow men. -Thomas Huxley

Ecclesiasticism in Science

Ecclesiasticism in science is only unfaithfulness to truth. -Thomas Huxley

infinity

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. -Albert Einstein, scientist (1879-1955)

Practical Politics

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and hence clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. -HL Mencken, writer, critic, journalist (1880-1956)

ignorance and want

“They are Man's,” said the Spirit, looking down upon them. “And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.” Charles Dickens, writer (1812-1870)

This quote from 'A Christmas Carol' seems quite prophetic to me. Half the electorate seems to despise science and learning and through fear and loathing, would-be leaders champion a new level of ignorance and meanness within the body politic.

Oh, and we're doing pretty good on raising the level of 'want' as well.

love of country

Whenever you hear a man speak of his love for his country, it is a sign that he expects to be paid for it. -HL Mencken

Fox News expects to be paid for it as well.

Honor Victor Perez

I, too, want to honor Victor Perez, the brave man in Fresno who saved the abducted girl after chasing the kidnapper with his pickup truck. He deserves his moment in the sun. I hope good things come to him because of his actions.

Baptists and Yoga

I'm not going to avoid Yoga, I'm going to avoid Baptists

Barbara Boxer

I get a laugh out of the video from the Carly Fiorina campaign showing Barbara Boxer asking a senior military officer to please address her as 'Senator'. Fiorina uses the video to say we need to remove such 'arrogance' from Washington.

What hubris. If a man did this we would pat him on the back and commend him for standing his ground. Fiorina has a great deal of nerve to infer that Boxer is arrogant and she is not.

Barbara Boxer has served California honestly, honorably, and fairly moderately. I support Boxer in her re-election bid and will vote for her, notwithstanding the 'sky is falling' rhetoric from Carly the ice-queen.

To get California out of the mess it is in, we need people who can work together and reach consensus, not another shrill voice of right wing despair and angst.

Carly Fiorina

I worked in Information Technology for many years and saw first hand the devastation wrought on America by corporate execs outsourcing good paying jobs overseas and then taking outlandish bonus payouts as their reward. The damage done to individuals, families, and the middle class is considerable.

It will be a cold day in hell before I would vote for Carly Fiorina, or any other CEO, involved in this activity.

And being competitive is no excuse, CEOs have treated companies like their personal piggy banks and received compensation way beyond any value they may have added to the enterprise.

Why does she want to be a Senator and who would benefit? It can't be the middle class, we've seen what she has done to them.

Does she want to help the poor and indigent? Even the thought of that is ludicrous.

No, her skids are greased by the Republican elite.

She made a living and a fortune by eliminating jobs and now she wants me to believe she cares about creating jobs for California? I don't think so.

On Global Warming

That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees. -Marcus Aurelius, Roman leader, philosopher (121-180)

Meg Whitman

Meg Whitman is a living example of the danger and horror of money and the political process gone awry. How about her earlier anti-Poizner ads, they belonged on Monty Python or SNL, not in a real campaign. Now we are getting her version of the Jerry Brown story. I would rather she attempted to appear knowledgeable and important somewhere else, like a State, or a galaxy, far far away.

Arizona Ethnic Studies

Arizona has a new law that eliminates ethnic studies at schools around the state. HB 2281 bans schools from teaching classes designed for students of a particular ethnic group, that promote resentment, or advocate ethnic solidarity over treating pupils as individuals. The bill also bans classes that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government.

Because of the bills last provision, that also bans classes that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, the Republican Party can no longer meet as a group in any building used by public education in the State of Arizona.

September 11, 2001

The events of September 11, 2001 were formulated by religious extremists hiding in the caves of distant and rugged lands. When, and if, the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts ever really end, religious extremists with a deep hatred of the West will still meet in the caves of distant and rugged lands to plan acts of barbarism against humanity.

Something in our approach vexes me.

Proposition 8 - Marriage in California

A lot of Mormon dollars from another state went into the passage of this Proposition in California, and I don't particularly like it.

Yellow Cake

Ten years later, I still wonder about that "yellow cake uranium" lie foisted on the American people. We are decades away from knowing the true cost of that one abuse of political power.

7 Habits

The width and breadth of politics in America today is in desperate need of education in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, especially the three that deal with human interactions in the public arena, what Stephen Covey calls Interdependence.

Think win-win
Seek first to understand then to be understood
Synergize

I yearn for the politics of consensus for the benefit of all

Large Lake

You must be a large lake to receive a polluted stream. Now that election time draws near, I realize that I know few people who are large lakes.

Term Limits

Has any voting concept had its origins in such anti-Democratic and angry rhetoric as this?

Weary

I grow weary of all elected politicos that do not work closely with elected members of other parties to achieve some benefit for the electorate as a whole.