This Ain’t No CNN.

Politics.

I was recently listening to a political talk show on satellite radio. I normally enjoy such endeavors, but there was something about the moment that was just rubbing me the wrong way. As I thought about it, I realized that there were actually two things that were rubbing me the wrong way.

Firstly, the hosts was using words such as “totes” and “deets”, for example, “I totes have the deets on what Chris Christie was doing yesterday.” I don’t know who came up with the idea that a person using the words “totes” and “deets” in this way was suppose to be taken seriously, but nevertheless, the person speaking is a respected political journalist and apparently quite successful in their endeavor. I think this speaks volumes as to the direction of the National Average IQ.

Secondly, the conversation was about the 2016 election and the viability of Jeb Bush running against Hillary Clinton in the Presidential Election. The only thing that was running through my head regarding this discussion, other than the fact that “totes” and “deets” were smattered amongst the dialog, was, “really? There’s no one else that can run? There isn’t anyone else from some other family, some other part of the country, anywhere, out there, that can run for President without assaulting the citizens with a big ol’ helping of leftovers?

Is there anyone in the general populace that is excited by government these days? Does anyone find them productive? Intelligent? Representative of the populace that they serve?

Talking about this with Earl made me realize that I need to stop paying close attention to politics for a while. Fox News is a joke. The whole lynching of Brian Williams is beyond ridiculous (he got way more press than the whole WMD debacle in Iraq back in ’02 and ’03). And quite frankly, the slate of corporate sponsored politicians is getting tiresome.

I have narrowed my talk show consumption down to one show. The guy is a moderate, has a sensible head on his shoulders, doesn’t have an offense accent and has a great selection in hairstyle. If you want further details, ask me in the comments or send me an email.

I’m not going to tolerate the dumbing down of syntax during a debate nor am I going to get all excited about a ballot that is mediocre at best. I expect better. We deserve better. I don’t have the answers.

Maybe someday I will.

18 February 2015 by This Ain't No CNN. 1

Scared.

Sony announced yesterday that they are canceling the Christmas Day release of “The Interview”, a comedy starring Seth Rogan and James Franco. Their decision came after threats were made against theaters that would be showing the movie. The threats alluded to 9/11 type activity and this made key people nervous enough to cancel the release of the movie.

If you’re not familiar with the movie “The Interview”, it’s basically a comedy (and I’m sure I’m using that word loosely) about two journalists traveling to North Korea. Before going on their jaunt, they are contacted by the CIA with the request to assassinate North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un. No fictional country or leader was named, the movie focused on the North Korea we all know and their current leader, who is often in the news for various reasons.

Setting aside the obvious political, social and economical differences between the United States and North Korea, I find it astonishing that this movie was actually conceived, scripted, filmed, edited and ultimately readied for a wide-release throughout the United States on Christmas Day. A lot of people had to have signed on board this whole concept, and it just seems wicked stupid to me that this movie was even made. Am I worried about offending North Korea? No. However, I find the use of real political figures in this manner to be quite tacky. Sony is really scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas and the inclusion of real political figures in this manner in the plot. What on earth were they thinking?

That being said, canceling the release of the movie after spending millions of dollars on it, hyping the hell out of it and then getting scared because of threats is rather cowardice. It shows that they absolutely do not have the courage of their convictions. When an organization can make threats against our country and then get a movie they don’t agree with canceled, it’s just another example of how scared our country has become. The United States has a scared population. At no other time in recent history has our population felt more terrified. It makes me angry that the execs can’t find the courage to stand up for what they believe in. You made the “art”, stand behind your “art”.

Unfortunately, “The Interview”, whether it’s ever released or not, is going to be in the forefront for a while.

Perhaps this is the real threat that we should be concerned about.

18 December 2014 by This Ain't No CNN. 0

Heroes.

Today is Veteran’s Day in the United States and I’d like to thank each and every veteran for their service to our country. Becoming a member of the Armed Forces takes a lot of courage, time, effort and sacrifice and I am truly grateful to each soldier that has fought for our country.

I’m sure you’ve heard the hype around the Navy SEAL who came forward as the person that pulled the trigger when Osama Bin Laden was killed. When I first heard the ads on Sirius/XM for the exclusive interview and whatnot, I was rather surprised by the whole exploitive opportunity. While I’m sure that this particular soldier is a brave man, I am doubly sure that every member of the team that went on that mission is a brave person. I am certain that the team gave 100% to accomplish the mission that was handed to them and I know that each team member was an integral part of the effort.

I’m not going to name the soldier that pulled the trigger here because I can’t name every member of the team that went on that mission. Yes, I am thankful for the mission and I am thankful that the soldier pulled the trigger on the target in an effort to keep our country safe but I do not believe that the job should be exploited along the lines of celebrity status.

As far as I’m concerned, they’re all heroes. I don’t need to watch an interview, I don’t need to read a book and I don’t need to know any more about one member of the team, no matter their role on the team. Stepping out and saying “I pulled the trigger” goes against everything that our military is built upon.

11 November 2014 by Fun and Games Dept This Ain't No CNN. 0

Hysteria.

Nearly three decades ago I was sitting in the break room of a regional department store, enjoying my 15-minute break from sharing my social security number with hundreds of customers1. There were several of us on break. A television sat in the corner; we were excited because cable had just been added to the mix. Headlines were being discussed on CNN, the topic at hand was the growing AIDS epidemic. One of my co-workers spoke up. Her name was Kelly.

“I think we should gather up all the AIDS patients, put them on a rocket and blast them off to Mars.”

I found this to be rather harsh. After all, at the time we didn’t really know a lot about the disease and though it seemed rather scary, we should probably still keep our wits about ourselves and not overreact. I don’t remember what I said in response, probably something non-committal, because I was still navigating as to who I was and honestly I was worried about becoming a statistic. I needed to know more before speaking on the subject with confidence.

Fastforward to present day and CNN and many other flavors of a similar brew are all vying for advertising money. In that quest to increase revenue, conjecture, opinions and claims are all spun in a certain direction so to yank in the viewer, and subsequently, boost ratings. Pundits are calling to block air travel to and from Africa, where Ebola is most prevalent. People are showing up at the airport in homemade hazmat suits. In short, many are just losing their minds amongst the hype (and I bet the woman in the hazmat suit REALLY wanted her photo to go viral).

Like the day I sat in that break room at the department store, I don’t feel confident enough in my assessment of the facts to make a broad statement as to ban flights to and from an entire continent. I mentioned on Twitter that since folks are calling for a ban for air travel to and from Africa, we might as well do the same with Texas, since that’s where Ebola patients are being treated in the States. This horrified some and I understand why it would do just that. It’s crazy talk.

I believe that a lot of the hysteria around the Ebola situation is media driven. That grab for ad clicks and viewerships and all that stuff prompts for outrageous headlines and bombastic statements from folks that are just trying to get attention. Instead of spending time how to figuring out how to help fellow human beings, folks are spending time screeching about sealing ourselves off from the perceived threat. Calls for locking door our border in this manner is nothing but grandstanding.

Folks forget that it’s one Big Blue Marble that we all share together. Borders are man made and locking down a border is not going to stop anyone from getting anywhere they want to go on this Big Blue Marble. If you’re that concerned that you’re going to contract Ebola on a flight then here is a simple answer: don’t fly. Just keep it all here in the States and don’t step foot on an airplane. And if you choose to fly, don’t lick the vomit or blood of another passenger, because after all, Ebola is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids.

The hysteria around all of this would not be this crazy if we weren’t only three weeks from the midterm elections2. You know it and I know it, that is, if you knew that the midterm elections are three weeks away to begin with.

Calm down and think rationally.

1 I was a cashier at said department store. The first bit of information on the cash register receipts from back then, aside from the logo at the top, was the cashier ID number, which was our social security number. My social security number was shared with thousands of people.

2 Please remember to vote on Tuesday, November 4. Honestly, I don’t care how you vote, but I do care that you remember to vote. You have the right to share your voice through the voting process and if you don’t vote, you’re not being a good citizen of this democracy.

20 October 2014 by Ponderings and Musings This Ain't No CNN. 1

Breaking News.

I am an avid user of Twitter. If you’re not following me on there and you’re all about the Twitter, please feel free to follow me at flyMachias. While I talk about my piloting adventures on there, I talk about a lot of other stuff as well. It’s like a mini-version of this blog but with more frequent updates.

One of the thing I like about Twitter, at least until the company messes up the stream by “curating” what the users see, is that you can get breaking news quickly. A couple of years ago when the earthquake rocked Virginia, and subsequently the northeast, I actually saw it on Twitter a split second before my computer monitors at work started rocking from the same earthquake. When a celebrity passes on, I always see it on Twitter first. It’s like Twitter contains the pulse of what’s going on in the world.

One of the accounts I follow is @breakingnews. Since I rely on Twitter for news information, it makes sense to follow @breakingnews. They often tweet important things, like the number of people that have died from Ebola, details of a shooting in Europe and details of the latest unrest in the Middle East. This brings credibility to the account, in my eyes, and it sets a certain expectation for me. So imagine my disappointment when not one, but two tweets today were devoted to this drivel:

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Now, I know I’m getting old. At 46 years old, I realize that I am seeing the world in a different way than those of the younger generation and I often my comparisons between my reactions to a given topic versus what my father or grandfather would have said. So, be that as it may, after looking up Rhianna and realizing who she was (she came around after my days in radio), I realized that not only is this woman the epitome of everything that is wrong with the entertainment industry today, I doubt that whether her song is played before a football game on CBS really qualifies as “Breaking News”. I mean, if this is what is breaking news in the United States, then I’d say we have all our poverty, health care, human dignity, governmental, etc., problems solved and we should therefore devote our time to trivial things. But the truth of the matter is, there’s a LOT of stuff going on in the world today, and quite frankly, whether or not this Rhianna woman’s song is going to be played is not even in the Top 200.

I call this “distracting the masses.”

Going through the recent tweets of @breakingnews to research a little bit for this blog entry, I realized that they also have a tendency to include Apple news as breaking news. News flash, unless Apple has had a massive security breach, has been nuked by a terrorist, or has outright purchased the United States Government for a bargain basement price (face it, we’d be on a corner rack in Filene’s Basement if that chain was still around), nothing that Apple does is “Breaking News”. It’s more distraction. And because people are celebrating the steady decline of the average IQ by applauding mediocrity and reducing their world view to a very tunneled down definition, the masses are distracted easily.

So now I’m wondering if I should unfollow @breakingnews and go with something a little less ridiculous. If anyone has any suggestions of another Twitter account of follow, I would welcome the input.

16 September 2014 by This Ain't No CNN. 0

How Can We Forget.

I’ve been pondering this blog entry all morning. I’ve been trying to decide if I really wanted to share my thoughts but then I figured that it’s my blog and in the spirit of honesty, it would be dishonest to not share my thoughts.

As we all know, today is September 11 and today is the 13th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks in New York, Washington, D.C. and Shanksville, Pa. Like most other Americans, I vividly remember that day. I know where I was, I know what I saw and I know how I felt.

I remember thinking, as the first tower collapsed, right there on television “the world is never going to be the same again”. Admittedly, I remember thinking, “things are going to get bad.” Actually, my thought was, “well this country is going to go down the shitter.”

9-11 was a horrific day. When I go to memorials, or hear tributes, I still shed a tear or feel a lump in my throat, even though it’s been 13 years since that awful day. I mourn the loss of life that day. I think of those left behind.

Right on cue, Twitter and other social media outlets are streaming the memories from folks from that day. The hash tag “#NeverForget” is quite popular. I have no desire to relive a play-by-play through someone’s Twitter stream; I have unfollowed quite a few people that are bombarding their stream with a minute-by-minute account of where they were and what they were doing. There’s a fine line between sharing a memory and being prideful of the fact that you were on the periphery of the rubble.

The truth of the matter is, how could we forget? As a citizen of the United States I am bombarded by the fact that 9-11 actually happened on a constant basis and that we should be fearful of everyday life because of this. Our government, the media, hell, everyday life constantly reminds us of 9-11 and the existence terrorism. I bet you can’t go a month, or maybe even a week, without hearing a specific mention of 9-11 somewhere. Somewhere someone is going to utter the phrase “9-11” and the importance of modifying (actually degrading) our freedom in the name of preventing another “9-11” from happening again. Terror threat levels. Stock up on plastic wrap. Get duct tape. ISIS. ISIL. Whatever the hell they’re called. Al Qaeda. The theme of the United States is now a constant drumbeat of war and that we should all be fearful, fearful, fearful. We must protect the “homeland”. If the goal of a terrorist is to inflict terror on a target, then I’d say the terrorists met their goal. I’ve seen many that act terrorized at the very smallest thing. Just last week there was a power failure in a small town nearby and the newspaper article mentioning it included the sentence, “terrorism has been ruled out.” Really? 500 people in East Bumfuck, New York lose their electrical service and they have to mention terrorism? Did they really think that terrorism was involved with the loss of power for a community of less than 500 people? The folks in the “homeland” have lost their minds.

God how I hate the word “homeland”, especially when it’s used by government officials. It’s a jingoistic word steeped in propaganda. It’s meant to stir up national pride and I think it’s a cheap shot. It works well though for people with an IQ hovering around the speed limit. The naming of the “Department of Homeland Security” has grated on my last nerve since George W Bush came up with that idea back in the mid 00s, and now President Obama is throwing around the word “homeland” just as much as his predecessor did. Why the sudden use of “homeland”, outside of referring to the DHS, again? What happened to that hope and change we were promised? Yeah. Call it our country, call it the United States, call it home, but “homeland”? It sounds like a line from Nazi Germany or at the very least an early episode of Wonder Woman.

I get that there are evil people out there. And I understand that we need to protect our citizens, but please don’t tell me to “never forget”. How can anyone forget? We’re damn near raped by minimum wage workers before we get onto an airplane, we have a whole assortment of wars to serve as a reminder and our liberties that we tout as the gold, shiny ring of why we’re awesome are being eroded away on an hourly basis, all in the name of safety because 9-11 happened. Again, 9-11 was awful, and my heart aches when I think of that day and all the lives that were lost. But trust me, we will never forget, and sadly, the propaganda machine will make sure that we will never forget.

11 September 2014 by Ponderings and Musings This Ain't No CNN. 0

Foursquare Four Squares Back.

One of the cool things about being active in the various social media platforms is that one is usually able to go back and see what they’ve done over the years. I often use this blog as a memory repository of sorts; just yesterday I asked Earl if he remembered an event that we had enjoyed together back in 2008. When I mentioned this his face lit up with the recollection of the memory, as if he hadn’t thought about that happy occasion since. It was a moment of joy.

One of the social media platforms that I have been very involved with since nearly it’s beginning is Foursquare. If you’re unfamiliar with the app/network, up until recently Foursquare allowed you to check in at a location, for example, “I’m at Dunkin’ Donuts at 123 Main Street in Anytown, USA”. You would see whom from Foursquare was also currently at the location and you could read tips and such from other users that had checked in at the same location. I was big on leaving tips and suggestions for others. If you were a frequent visitor of a location, you became “Mayor”. Some establishments would give you a little goody or discount for being the mayor. It was a loyal customer perk.

Foursquare recently announced that they were going to take the country into a new, exciting direction and focus more on location discovery. Check ins would still be part of the experience, but the whole check in process would be moved to a new app called “Swarm”. Swarm allowed you to check in and it would allow you the opportunity to see whom was at the same location, but only if that person was on your friends list. There’s no longer an opportunity to meet strangers or vie for the title of mayor with a person you don’t know. The whole mayor thing was put on hold, instead you earn stickers.

When you check into a location on Swarm and you decide to leave a tip, you get moved over to the “new and improved” Foursquare, which gives you the details of the location and the opportunity to leave a suggestion. The experience of having to move between two applications, especially when everything used to be a cohesive experience, leaves a lot to be desired. It’s clunky, it’s slow and more importantly, two apps take twice as much room on your iPhone and they seem to drain your battery faster. (Location monitoring is now done by two applications instead of one).

Users have been complaining about it like crazy on Facebook and Twitter, but Foursquare has been nearly silent on the issue. The CEO, Dennis Crowley, simply tweeted that “change is hard”, which pretty much meant that users are SOL. The user experience and input, which has been an integral part of the crowd sourcing and data mining that powers Foursquare in the first place, has been pushed aside because the company “knows better”. The fact that both applications are now averaging a satisfaction rating of 1 out of 5 stars on both the iOS App Store and Google Play apparently means little to Foursquare, they know best.

Now, it’s stuff like this that makes me absolutely insane. As a fairly rational human being, this stuff shouldn’t bother me at all; I simply delete both apps and wipe my hands clean of this social network. That has been my intent and that’s what I did. The issue is, I used to get a kick out of seeing when the last time I had been to, say, Culver’s in Michigan City, Indiana. It would spark a conversation with Earl about the last time we had been there. I liked trying to spot the mayor at Pat’s Steaks in Philly. I didn’t have the nerve to say anything to him, but seeing him there was kind of cool.

I know I’m not alone in this assessment of the “new” Foursquare. There’s been plenty of complaints on Twitter and the like. The one thing that I wonder about is why Foursquare decided to shun the input of their users and go forward with some nebulous vision that few seem to have a handle on.

Granted, there are plenty of bigger issues in the world today, but it’s kind of weird to see a company commit what appears to be commercial suicide. I had higher hopes for the 21st century.

28 July 2014 by Geek This Ain't No CNN. Why. 5

Real.

I feel this everyday.


Today, with the Supreme Court decisions striking down DOMA and California’s Prop 8 as both being unconstitutional, my feelings have only magnified. I shouldn’t need validity of what I know to be true, but it’s good to now be afforded the same federal rights as other married couples. Should the need arise, my husband now has full access to my pension. As I mentioned on Facebook, with it he can buy a monthly nice, cold pop (that’s a whole different blog entry). Taxes will be less of a nightmare and social security will go where it is suppose to go.

Our future just got even brighter.

I didn’t think I would get really emotional about the ruling announcements today, but some tears were shed in my cube as I saw the news go across the ticker.

Congratulations to the United States for taking another big step toward equality across all of your 50 states. Welcome to the 21st century.

26 June 2013 by Gayish. Love. Ponderings and Musings This Ain't No CNN. 1

Thoughts, Y’all.

Last night I discovered that SkyNews was added to the Apple TV in the bedroom. A 24-hour news cable and news organization based in the UK, it’s much like CNN, MSNBC and the like except for the UK part. And the UK part is a big part of why I like the news organization. As one that follows the news with an alternating sense of urgency to an overwhelming sense of passivity, I find that I get better news coverage from organizations based outside of the U.S. The BBC, SkyNews, Al Jazeera; these are all organizations that are looking from the outside in and just reporting what they observe. While there’s always a bias present, there is less political bias from these non-American news organizations. It’s just the way things work, I guess.

The one thing that I immediately noticed is that Paula Deen’s face is not plastered all over SkyNews.


There, I made my American readers feel more comfortable by giving her a little plaster time in my blog.

CNN, MSNBC and the like are bringing up her name every seven minutes or so. The latest, breaking developments as to what her sponsors are doing are blurbed out to electronic devices from sea to shining sea, all because she admitted that she made racial derogatory remarks years ago while testifying under oath on a case that accuses her of doing the same within her company.

Here’s the deal. Paula Deen shouldn’t have done that. Using the “N” word (god I hate that term) is not very nice and shows a certain lack of compassion and understanding. I get that. I know that. As a gay man that has been called a “faggot” (what, no “F” word?) to my face on countless occasions, I understand that words can be hurtful, especially when they’re delivered with a bucket full of hostile emotions.

That all being said, I challenge ANYONE to stand up and say with a straight face that while they might not have said the “N” word, they have thought it. It’s not a good thought, by any means, and I’m not defending any sort of that behavior at all, but there’s some passage about glass houses, throwing stones, purple mountains majesty, amen that addresses this very situation.

She’s apologized. She’s human. But because she’s a fairly famous human, those that are not famous and probably irritable in many respects of their lives are anxious to tear her down, label her a sinner and, if it were still allowed, dunk in her in the nearest pond three times to see if she floated or not.

Give the woman a break. She’s learned her lesson. Hopefully it’ll sink in and she’ll learn a little more compassion and become a better person as a result of all of this. But shredding her across every television screen in a constant stream of exhausting banality is excessive. Aren’t there more important things going on in the world?

Oh yes, the Aeroflot flight from Moscow to Cuba yesterday didn’t have any alcohol. Nor did it have Edward Snowden. From what I’ve heard about Aeroflot, we should be lucky the seat had seatbelts and that both wings were attached (but that’s just based on gossip and rumor so I insert these things with an intent of wit.) I heard it mentioned many times on the news that there was no alcohol on this flight. Oh, and no Snowden.

Where in the world is Carmen Santiago, anyways?

While everyone is getting lured into the whole “find Snowden” thing, why isn’t there more focus on the fact that the government was doing illegal monitoring of its citizens’ communications? I don’t understand why that’s not the lead story in all of this. THAT is what should have journalists outraged, not the lack of crew juice on an Aeroflot flight.

25 June 2013 by This Ain't No CNN. 2

About J.P.

Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.

Weird? Eccentric!

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