Memorial Day 2011

This memorial day marked a new turn in my life.  For the first time, I had someone to visit.  My Dad, who passed away just a few months ago - though it seems forever - was a veteran from the Korean War era.  He served on the home front, and was in the 3rd Armored out of Fort Knox, and later Fort Hood, Texas.  He left when his discharge came up, and returned to spend the rest of his life working for the Railroad.  First the Erie Railroad, then later the Erie Lackawanna, and finally, the Consolidated Rail Corporation, or Conrail.  In those two institutions were much of what informed my Dad, and defined him as I knew him.

This Memorial Day then, was a chance for me to go for the first time and visit his grave.  It was a strange moment.  I had moved on in many ways, with only the occasional fleeting memory coming over me, or waking me at night as I realize he is gone.  But there, looking down at that plot of freshly seeded grass growing, I understood what death meant.  Possibly for the first time.  There he was, down there, under the ground.  The man who had taken me sledding, held me on his shoulders, taught me to hunt, to drive, to be responsible.  That same man was now separated from me for the rest of this life by all of that dirt and sod. 

My family was there, of course.  My wife and boys.  The boys took it at varying levels.  While there was a moment they all came to me and comforted me, they also went about their own ways, looking around and trying to find the best way to see this moment.  My 12 year old, noticing that his grave faced the old railroad yard in which he worked so many of his best years, commented that it was fitting.  The setting, near a small picturesque pond, was also mentioned. 

Then one of them noticed a flower vase on a nearby grave had fallen over.  First one, then all four, went over to fix it and set it up again.  They worked hard, but alas, it was broken and would not stay on that blustery day.  Still, I thought it was kind.  Nice that they would see the need of someone they didn't know, or would never know.  And out there, somewhere, was someone who would not know four young boys taking time away from their own family and its needs, to help a perfect stranger.  Somehow that made it all seem OK, like this is what we are made for. Not the fleeting and often superficial things we worry about, but for one another.  And if that's the case, then I am fully confident in my Dad's own well being, for he spent a lifetime helping and being there for those around him.  Even if he didn't know who they were.   And that seems to be the essence of what we remember about Memorial Day, if anything is.

The older two continue working to fix the broken vase, while our youngest prompts an impromptu run by our 10 year old

Obama will win in 2012

We are informed in this piece by the Associated Press.  It's a strange concoction, the type all too common in our age of advocacy journalism.  While conservative media bends over backwards to emphasize as many negatives as possible, the liberal media (AKA, the MSM), bends over backwards to either ignore the negatives or, when impossible to ignore, spin them in such a way to explain that no matter how bad things are, Obama is still great.  Hence a piece that concedes things aren't good, that Americans are worried about the future, that the economy is still 'sluggish', that Obama's handling of the presidency is not seen favorably, yet still finds a Republican pollster, Wes Anderson, who says 'yep, he'll probably be reelected.'  Huh?  Verily does the emperor wear new clothes after all, and anyone who thinks he is naked just isn't getting the vibes.  The media is truly Obama's best friend now, and a friend willing to do anything to see him reelected, even if the fate of the nation must suffer for it to happen.

The passing of the Jim Tressel era

As an Ohio State Buckeye football fan, and a fan of Jim Tressel, it saddened me to hear news of his resignation yesterday.  What does this mean?  I dunno.  Everyone has an opinion.  I don't know what they've found, what they will find, or what is happening.  We'll have to wait and see.  When it comes to digging up dirt, the NCAA is about as efficient as one can get.  So I'm sure we'll know what happened down the road.  If the Sports Illustrated story I've heard about comes close to being true, it was not just a single event but an unfolding "culture of corruption" (blah, I hate that term) that had gripped OSU.  I'm sure there will be things and characteristics we'll never see focused on, but there will be enough to tell if it was really that bad, or just overblown.

In any event, no matter how widespread or not, Mr. Tressel appears to have handled it the way you never should.  He covered up, and then when it hit the fan, he attempted to twist the truth (dare I say, lie?) about his role in the events.  And that appears to be the big sin for which the NCAA is focusing on Tressel.  Did others know?  Did the athletic department?  Did those whose jobs it is to follow the ethics of the players know?  Did Mr. Gee?   Who knows.  We'll just have to wait and see.

But I do know this.  Why would a man who, by all accounts, is a grounded man with high ethical standards and strong moral convictions bale when something like this was going down?  My guess is two reasons.  First, the money.  There's lots of money in college football, especially at a school like Ohio State.  And money is the focus.  I'm sure Tressel didn't mind the hefty paycheck he got.  But he was also aware of the burden placed on him to deliver winning seasons.  Over and over and over again. 

And this was important, because it was clear that this was increasingly the focus of the school.  As an Ohio State alumnus, I was given the chance to get two tickets a year to a home game (and it used to be, multiple tickets to away games).  Basically, the seats were never great, but they often weren't bad.  Some seasons they were better than others.  But as the years went on, the seats tended to get better.  Well that was then.  A few years ago, everything changed.  Gone were your guarantee of tickets after being out of school for so long.  Now it was a lottery.  Gone were chances for away games at all. And gone were seats that weren't looking down on the flagpoles along the top of the stadium.  You would have to go down a hundred feet to get to the nosebleeds where these seats are.  Why?  Need you ask.  To make room for the big money, that's why. Hence, it's not hard to see that the emphasis on money expressed before the fan base must have reflected and equal, if not more passionate, focus on money behind the scenes.

Second, you have the Buckeye fan base.  I once knew a fellow from Indiana who said he would like to be a Buckeye fan, but he's not angry enough.  Buckeye fans want, well, beyond winning.  Tressel already wasn't liked by those who liked Cooper before him, by many who didn't like his puritanical/religious ways, and  by those who just don't like any coach no matter how many games he wins. 

Last year, after one of the games we won (I think it was the game against Penn State, though I could be wrong), a caller called into the after game show on 610 radio to suggest that: Tressel be fired.  Earl Bruce, former Buckeye football coach who followed Woody Hayes, came down on him like white on rice.  What do you want!, Bruce asked.  Tressel has had how many Big 10 titles?  He's won a National Championship, been to a BCS bowl every year, had how many winning seasons in a row, has beat Michigan how many times?  And he just won another game today!!  And you want him to go?  That attitude has to play a part. 

Also, the tendency of the national sports media to criticize and downplay OSU's accomplishments might also be a factor.  From saying the National Championship game we won was stolen because of one call (ignoring other calls that game), to insisting that OSU's problems in the BCS were proof that the BCS is working, while criticizing the BCS whenever OSU won, had to diminish that feeling of security in the team, as well as the coach.

In all, that's too much pressure for any man.  You must win, win, win.  You must more than win. You must bring in tons and tons of money.  And on the other side, no matter how much you win or how well you do, there will be a sizable part of the sports media and even the fan base calling for your head on any given Saturday.  Yeah, I can see why he did it.  That doesn't excuse him.  Wrong is wrong and you have to pay the piper.  Though I hope anyone found to be to blame will be equally dealt with.  I also hope we don't let the players off the hook, as some have suggested in the last 24 hours.  They were old enough to know what they were doing, and it's worth looking long and hard at them and the character of these players we offer the world to in order to bring in the big bucks. 

But I will hate to see him go.  I hope the next coach brings the same pride in OSU and its traditions.  And the same character we saw so often in Tressel, from charities to helping the troops to focusing on the students' well being. I hope the new coach doesn't make the mistake of Michigan's ex-coach Rodriguez who came in proud to dismiss its storied history.  But it won't be the same.  By all accounts, Tressel was a good man.  Maybe too good.  Good enough to let his players get out of control, and then not strong enough to stand up to the rabid fan base and naysayers of the media and say 'we'll take the losing seasons to do what is right, and if that costs me my job, so be it.'  Who knows.  In any event, farewell Jim Tressel, wherever you fair.

Because religion is evil

I suppose CBS missed a little detail about those folks who are coming out of the woodwork to help Joplin in the wake of the tornado disaster.  The folks at GetReligion break it down.  I'm sure not everyone there to help is doing so because of religious faith, or due to affiliation with an organized religion.  But there are plenty there helping because they are religious and affiliated with a religious tradition with organized characteristics.  Personally, I would like to know how many people who associate organized religion with evil and proudly don their personal spirituality are in the rubble in the name of their own personal spirituality.  I'm sure there are some.  I'd be curious to know the numbers.  Plus those there in the name of no religion whatsoever.  Stats like that always help to see if the 'religion leads to evil' meme has a basis in fact.

Obama's propaganda ministry gets to work

And makes a fool of itself in the process.  By now, most folks are starting to notice that Obama is not that inspiring. He's rather bland really.  Dull.  Dare I say, boring?  And he can't speak well.  He stammers, bumbles, fumbles.   When he gives a speech now, it's at best reserved and monotone.  At worst, he puts his foot in his mouth and creates an international stir, as with Israel in the recent days.

When he is off his speech, however, it can be almost painful to hear.  Nearly as bad as George W. Bush.  Not that bad, but nearly.  His pauses, his stops, his 'ums', and 'uhs' and verbal trips make for excruciating listening.  Not that presidents have to be academy award winning actors at speech delivery or anything.  But come on, the guy's just not that good.  But in preparing for 2012, with the press insisting that all of this economy isn't really that bad, that overseas the world loves us even if they don't give us what we ask for, and everything is really OK and nobody cares that Obama was overseas while his own people were dying from one natural disaster after another, the Propaganda Ministry took note of another thing that could be a chink in the armor. 

And so Meghan Daum takes keyboard in hand and informs us that it isn't that Obama is a bad speaker.  No.  It's just that he's so darn smart.  You see, he's an intellectual.  He's intelligent.  He's ivy league.  When he stumbles, it's because his keen and piercing intellect is so far beyond the normal human experience that the mere muscles of his vocal chords can't keep up.  Us not-Obama types just don't realize the power of his intellectual superiority.  That's why it looks like he can't speak worth a darn, but in reality is demonstrating his cognitive superiority. 

Sometimes you don't need the comedy channel.

Why are we still burning witches at the stake?

Over at the Huffington Post, Jayanti Tamm asks the hard question:  Why is raising religion-free still taboo?  Well, that's news to me.  I didn't know it was taboo.  I suppose that some people might find it different.  A few might not approve.  But I'll bet just as many might not approve of raising your child Muslim, or Catholic, or Jewish, or anything else.  There certainly isn't a societal taboo about it.  If anything, the scale is tipped away from open displays of religion in the public forum. 

This is one of those cases where the revolution must feed itself.  I was told some years ago by an historian from S. America all about the revolutionary mindset.  Because the American Revolution was an anomaly, most Americans forget what revolutions are usually all about.  He reminded me that most of the time, the revolution must continue.  Either you find new baddies, or you have to insist the war needs fought, that the regime still needs defeated - even if you are sitting in the presidential palace while saying so.

So this is the typical thing you get.  We are a racist nation, even though Barack Obama is president.  We are a sexist nation because women still have less earning power and aren't as numerous in CEO positions, even though women are trashing men in most other areas.  We are a homophobic nation where gays can't survive, even though gays are among the highest earners in our country, and there is increasing intolerance against those who don't accept homosexual normality.  In short, when pushing a revolution, you can never, ever admit victory.  You want the revolution to go on, continue insisting that blacks use different drinking fountains, women are kept in the kitchen, gays are huddling in the back corners with no hope of survival, and atheists non non-traditional believers are the ones who are having difficulty justifying raising their kids their own way.

Of course, as a side note, it's funny when you read the entire article.  Essentially she is saying that you shouldn't impose your religious values on your kids.  You should impose her values on your kids.  One of the typical 'can't see the forest for the trees' arguments you get from some circles.

Pro-Abortion feminist advocates in a quandary

Turns out that in India, there is a rise in girls being aborted more often than boys.  That has many in the liberal community up in arms.  Of course opponents of abortion are a bit taken, wondering why we would care if abortion is this sacred right.  Not so fast, those concerned respond.  These women are being forced by their husbands to abort the girls.  That is what makes it horrible. 

So once again, we find that liberalism teaches that everyone in the world has the inalienable right to be...liberal.  That is, you have the right to abortions, but that right better be exercised within the absolute parameters set by your moral superiors in the liberal West.  Strange old world, isn't it?

Parents use child as lab rat

In a story all too typical for our post modern world, we have parents refusing to tell anyone what the gender of their child happens to be.  It's all good fun, and The Lookout, as usual, yucks it up with them as we are informed how wrong it is to have gender distinction at all.  Just like seeing a resurgence in leisure suits, this is a throwback to the 70s, when the whole experiment was tried on my age - give dolls to the boys and fully armed combat assault rifles to the girls.  All to disastrous results.  Then none other than John Stossel broke down barriers with a special report in the early 90s that men and women were, in fact, different.

Some radical feminists and men-girl slaves were offended, but the rest of humanity chuckled and said, "Yeah?  And?"  But now, since that was so long ago, we have a new group in the age of 'manufacture and discard the unwanted human thing' trying it again.  Sure that all of this gender difference is the result of some bigoted conspiracy throughout the age, using their 'child' as the guinea pig, these brave new souls endeavor to set humanity right.  Again.  Sigh.

I'm not changing any plans

Turns out Mark Burnett, the man who invented fake reality television, is going to produce a 10 part series about the Bible on ... The History Channel.  Well, that's two strikes in one sentence.  The History Channel is, of course, the National Enquirer of historical studies, opting to go for sensationalism and lusty, superficial simplifications for the hope of a few ratings.  That's when it is airing any shows about history at all.  Not that it was always like that. But in the Internet age, one must appeal to the basest drives, and scholarship is no different.  Especially scholarship that occurs in front of a camera.

The second strike is Burnett.  The man who made an entire self-contradicting genre?  No.  It makes my skin crawl to think of what it will look like.  The HC itself subscribes to a secular, post-moder spin on history anyway.  The Bible, when covered before, is a patch collection of myths and fairy tales, with Jesus chasing Mary Magdalene around and siring an army of killers in the form of the Catholic Church who will lord it over the hapless masses until really smart people stop believing in God and give us the Enlightenment.  And all that rubbish provided without Burnett.  BTW, the presence of Roma Downy, whose TV series Touched By An Angel had more sentimentalist and Hallmark level slop than theology, doesn't increase my confidence any.

Perhaps I'm wrong.  Maybe it will be face value story telling in the best Sunday School literature tradition.  Maybe it will avoid spin and digs.  Maybe it will be methodical, careful, fair, open, honest, and attempt to get to the real question of the Scriptures, how they are used differently by different traditions, and bring out the most representative scholarship (and not just those eager to get their faces on TV) to speak to the lessons from Scriptures that we all agree on, and those which different traditions have informed differently through the years.  But I'm not holding my breath.

Funniest email I've seen in months

A reader sent that along, and I just couldn't resist.  How true! 

So what did Patricia Heaton mean

When she said she doesn't want to be lumped in with the lunatics?  Over at PopEaters (yeah, I know), there is an interview with Patricia Heaton of 'Everybody Loves Raymond' fame.  Now we all know she is conservative, and Christian.  She's made that clear.  But in this article, she appears to go out of her way to explain that she's all for gay rights and gay marriage.  OK.  I guess not being for gay rights in Hollywood would be a little like serving in a Baptist Church and not believing in God.  You just wouldn't last long, period. 

But then the article quotes her the following way:

Telling me that she has many gay friends and doesn't oppose gay marriage, Patricia gets frustrated being automatically lumped together with other conservatives, a characterization she says has cost her possible work. "We know for a fact there are some people who have said they wouldn't want to work with us because of our politics," she said, with her husband David Hunt adding, "We get lumped in with lunatics."

First, note she says because of her politics.  Now, are these positions she holds because of her faith, or her politics?  I would have thought she would have said 'because of her faith'.  Or is 'because of my politics' just a blanket term for anything nowadays.

But noticed the last.  "We get lumped in with the lunatics."  Who does she mean?  Anyone opposed to gay marriage?  Anyone who doesn't fully support the entire gay rights movement?  Anyone who thinks there might be something wrong with the homosexual orientation lived out?  Who did she mean?  They have it in quotes, and in journalism, that is supposed to mean she was taken word for word.  Was it the right context?  Did she really mean that?

My first thought was 'Thanks Patricia for throwing all of those [non-you] believers under the bus!"  But then I considered the source.  I'm willing to think the source, just chock-a-block full with agendas and axes to grind, twisted her around to say what they wanted her to say.  But if not, I would say it is typical for the demand that a life in Hollywood today must place on anyone of faith.  The desire to throw other believers under the bus, if only because you know some gay friends, and aren't going to let a little thing like the same faith you so proudly display in other areas, get in the way of that one.  We'll have to see I guess.

More light blogging

I know, I know.  I've not been around for a while, and my declining readership stats show it.  Sorry about that.  These last few months have been whirlwind at best.  Right now I'm in the midst of preparing for some examinations that might help propel me into a new career path, something we could seriously use.  I passed the first round just yesterday.  Another is coming up this week.  Add to that the stacking end-of-the-school-year obligations, and it's enough to make my head spin.  So suffice to say, I won't be around. 

There has been much worth reflecting on, not the least of which was the much talked about release of the report on the Catholic Church Abuse Scandal.  Also our illustrious president once more putting foot in mouth by saying about Israel publicly what probably should have been discussed in private.  Don't worry, his propaganda ministry will no doubt rush to his aid as we will all learn new truths about the issue that nobody ever knew.

In the meantime, Newt Gingrich's campaign continues to explode just outside of the starting gate, while several other contenders bow out, leaving the very wealthy Mitt Romney to garner support from the No Morals, Just Money wing of the GOP.  Ron Paul is wacky as always, insisting that people would rather die than blaspheme the sacred untouchable holiness of the Federal Government.  And of course, Conehead the Barbarian implodes at 25000 feet as it turns out he did more than talk the talk when it came to jettisoning those pesky old traditional Christan values, as his 10 year old love child attests.  Pray for that family, and all of the children involved.

And naturally, the fact that I'm still here past May 21 suggests some manner of spiritual deformity.  No doubt I have failed to see it the way any other blogger who feels heaven is no place for a [non-me] Christian.  Ironically, Harold Camping is nowhere to be found today.  Who knows?  Maybe he was right. 

Anyway, assuming there is still hope, and he's just in hiding, I'll continue to plow forward as best I can.  Hopefully things will work out, resolve themselves, and slow down in the coming weeks.  Until then, I may go back and pull up and re-post a few of my more popular or highly praised articles.  When I get time, I'll look into the missing comments boxes.  Probably something simple.  Just can't worry about it now.  So see everyone soon, have a fun and enjoyable Memorial Day Weekend.  I would like to go visit my Dad's grave this weekend.  It will be the first I've traveled there since the funeral.  Take care, God Bless, let me know if there are any prayers in the meantime, please keep my family in prayers through all these upcoming weeks and months, and Peace be with you all.

TTFN

Pray

For those hit in Missouri and Minnesota and Iowa whose lives have been changed forever by yet another outbreak of violent storms and tornadoes.  Also be mindful of those whose lives will never be the same from earlier, similar disasters.  And of course, lift up those whose lives stand in the balance as they watch helplessly the rising waters of the Mississippi and its connecting tributaries. 


Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend.

From the prayer composed by Msgr. James H. O'Neill,

then Chaplain to General George S. Patton.

Heh

Stephen Hawking continues to amuse

So an interview with the physicist has surfaced in which he illustrates why I never had the faith to be an atheist.  It demonstrates why people who are experts in one field are not always well versed in others. Of course he knows of no such thing.  Just like we no of no origins of religion.  Oh there are theories.  There are theories based on theories based on theories based on beliefs.  But no actual evidence.  What evidence we have is long after religious thought is in play.  What we make of it is, again, theory based on belief.  We do have his famous 'we don't need God, we have gravity' statement, which had philosophers and theologians blowing beer out of their noses in laughter.  It reminds me of Richard Dawkins.  Somewhere he said something about how if God exists, He would be bigger than any theologian ever knew.  A silly and meaningless statement, especially when just about every major religion and its thinkers admit there is more to God than we will ever know!  The irony is just too much fun.

As for science works, sure it does.  In medicine, in mechanics, in industry, in carbon emissions, in nuclear weapons, in gas chambers.  That's the problem with science.  It only asks what is.  It has no capacity for asking what we should do about it.  As the wise man once said, a society that lives in the shadow of the mushroom cloud, yet continues to put unchecked faith in science, is a culture that deserves to be laughed at by your average Medieval peasant.

Of course all of this is irrelevant.  Hawking is one of them science types, that must mean he's super smart about everything.  At least in the eyes of the media.

Blogger Issues

Looks like Blogger was having some problems for the last day.  From what I can tell, everything is fixed.  But since part of the problems involved watching a day's worth of posts vanish and then reappear, I think I'll hold off until next week to see if things are back to normal.  There were plenty of fun things to blog about.  But for now, I'll just wait until next week when I'm sure there will be even more.  Until then, just in case things are working, enjoy this heartrending yet inspiring story about the father of murdered son, John McCabe, who has finally, over four decades since his son's death, come close to finding justice.  Thanks, largely, in part to his own perseverance.  As Mollie at Get Religion points out, the NYT actually does a good job unpacking the importance of religion in the life of the parents, the family, and the son.  So while you shed a tear for John, who never had the chance to be in his sixties with grandchildren of his own and a family to look back upon, you can smile to know his faith and the faith of his family got them through, helped the father to push forward and eventually aid in the very case that changed his life forever, and applaud the NYT for, at least this time, getting the religion angle right.

God bless Billy Graham

Most know now that the Rev. Dr. Billy Graham is in the hospital.  Apparently he is being kept because of pneumonia.  There have been few leaders as respected by his own generation as Dr. Graham.  Today, in our 'I hate all religious people since I'm so tolerant' age, there are those who simply hate him for hate's sake.  I noticed on the Huffpost, multiple entries were deleted for violating Huffpost policy.  Given the contempt and snide comments and outright bad taste flip offs of those they left on, it makes the blood run cold to think of what the ones that were censored said.  But that's the post-modern Left for you. 

For the rest of decent humanity, this is a time to pray and reflect on the life of a truly magnificent individual.  He was the closest thing to a pope that Protestants had, a rallying point that they could look to.  Not without controversy, and never calling himself perfect, Dr. Graham. was nevertheless able to plot a course in our rather brutal and unforgiving media world that allowed him to receive the much deserved respect of people around the world; not just Protestants, but Catholics, Orthodox, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, agnostics, atheists, and just about everyone possessing a heart and soul.  They may not have liked him, or agreed with him.  But just as I admitted in college, self-proclaimed agnostic liberal that I was, he believed in what he did, and in our post-modern world, that alone was worthy of respect.

God bless Dr. Graham, may those ministering to him do so with wisdom and care, and may God bless him for his years of service, and help all of us prepare for the inevitable moment that all mortals must face.  In Christ's name, Amen.

Meanwhile, the hip bigotry for the enlightened American

Continues to gain steam.  In a retraction, Illinois congressman Shane Cultra assures us he really doesn't want to impose a special tax on parents of grotesquely and disgustingly fat obese kids.  Yet he can't just say he was taken out of context without adding:

I am sensitive to the need to reduce childhood obesity. But I don't believe a new tax one everyone who buys juice, soda and energy drinks will accomplish the goal. Parents have to take some responsibility."

Yep, because no matter what the reason for obesity, no matter how genetic the basis, it must be stopped!  Those who are obese and raise fat kids must be punished.  Of course the fact that some may be genetically predisposed toward being overweight is irrelevant.  It's not like being physiologically predisposed to a sexual preference that is medically shown to be leading to death and misery or anything.  It's fat, sloppy fat, obnoxious fat, grotesque fat people. 

When you stop focusing on one group to feel contempt for, I can't help but believe a society needs to pick up another.  Bigotry is, after all, the life blood of any civilization.

Another inconvenient truth for the Gay Rights Movement

Turns out Homosexual men are twice as likely to get cancer.  I know, I know.  But this is a study.  Exactly. And homosexual rights groups, many of whom being Democrats will embrace the latest Obama polls, will simply dismiss this with a flick of the wrist.  This isn't surprising.  As the sad thing is, the more and more research is done, the more and more evidence turns up that homosexuality isn't really that healthy after all. 

And yet, why can I believe these studies, when I dismiss others?  Well, I don't.  Yet.  I take them all with a grain of salt.  But we live in an age where anyone and everyone in almost any major industry in our country is compelled to support Gay Rights, and elevate homosexuality.  And that includes our scientific communities.  So when I see a study from an arena typically in the bed with something, that produces evidence against that same thing, I sit up and take notice.

Of course despite the fact that anal sex may now lead to higher rates of cancer, along with higher rates of HIV, and higher rates of other infections like Hepatitis, we're still promoting it!  A little thing like dead people just won't stand in the way of better orgasms damn it!  The mantra of the post-modern Left.

The AP and Obama's surging poll numbers

So all the news outlets across the nation are abuzz about the sudden surge of Obama's poll numbers since the killing of Bin Laden.  Looks like now folks think he can do it all, hunt down terrorists, protect our country, fix our economy.  Why, the list is endless.  No doubt 60% surveyed will expect the walking on water any moment!

But wait.  Not so fast.  Turns out the AP (that stands for Associated Propaganda Press), has fudged the numbers a bit.  You see, under my firm belief that one of the biggest wastes of human history is the professional study, survey, or poll, the AP has decided to give Democrats a disproportionate amount of say, 17 points higher that is.  That means they asked a larger number of democrats than they should, a number that far exceeds the national percentage of Democrats.

Why?  Because, as I've said before, Journalism is dead, long live Propaganda.  We've always prided ourselves on looking down our noses at those journalists of old who cooked up wars, elevated preachers, and told Rosie the Riveter to go home when the war was over.  But turns out, things haven't changed.  If they never were that bad then, they are that bad now. The AP is all about promoting a socialist, secular, culturally and politically liberal agenda.  Obama is their best hope. So realizing that a floundering economy, several missteps over the last year or so, an apathetic base, an outraged opposition, and diving poll numbers all meant the possibility of a one term president, the AP got to work.

They lied.  They fixed the race, hedged the bet, stacked the numbers to make the poll say what they wanted.  Then they went to work, along with the rest of the media, to 'interpret' this for the masses.  Clearly, we are being told, this shows that the American public is falling in love again, Obama's great, gives us chocolate cake, 2012 is in the bag, it's time we all promise to serve the One.  Sickening.  Again, we are reminded that after 5000 years, humans have learned very little.  It's not that we fall for propaganda, for certainly the Internet Age makes such information readily available.  But we love it.  Just like humans always have.