Dish This!

It is not Bill Oh'Really or Insanity Hannity that Fox News is putting forward to try to browbeat Dish into giving Fox what it wants. No sir, Fox is going for the indignation of women. That's right, they want momma to be pissed off because Dish is depriving her of her daily dose of paranoid drivel. So do we have a war on the sanity of women? Hell, no! Fox is merely protecting the right of women to be as paranoid and stupid as grumpy, racist, old white men. And liberal objections to calling Fox's mind rot “news” are like Michelle Obama criticizing labels touting the health benefits of artery clogging foods. In fact, the women on Fox are saying this is about the freedom to eat whatever you can afford to buy, and to believe whatever you want to believe regardless of how absurd or harmful that belief may be! Well all right, I may have misstated what the women on Fox are actually saying: according to Fox you are free to believe anything that fits into the right wing paradigm; any other belief is considered toxic to the oligopoly and therefore unpatriotic.

I would like to think that taking Fox off the air is an effort on the part of Dish to defend journalistic integrity by getting rid of the network that has no integrity (journalistic or otherwise). Unfortunately, that is not the case. Dish is not doing it to increase the IQ of its average viewer by getting rid of the dullards either. In spite of what Fox or Dish might want you to think, this is not about the rights of either of the parties or their viewers. This dispute is about MONEY!  Frankly, I am enjoying the show, but then I'm not jonesing for a fix of paranoid absurdity.  If you are jonesing for such a fix, try watching the lame stream media.  I know it is not the same, but they do quote politicians of both parties without pointing out the errors or lies of those politicians, and you are still free to believe whatever you want to believe.

Farewell Mario

In 1984 I was watching the Democratic Party's convention and was captivated by the Governor of New York. What made Mario Cuomo so captivating was not just his rhetorical eloquence it was also his compassion and the hope he displayed.  As the son of Italian emigrants, he did not forget how his parents struggled to build a new life in this country or the generosity that has made this country so great. In his speech Mario Cuomo made his rise to prominence sound like a metaphor for the rise of the middle class, and he reminded us that the rise of the middle class was made possible by the New Deal, labor unions, and the G.I. Bill. This was as remarkable as it was wonderful. At a time when Ronald Reagan had abandoned the New Deal for a philosophy of me, Mario Cuomo was still talking about we. Mario Cuomo was still talking about caring communities where neighbors looked out for each other and lent a hand in times of need; he was still talking about a generous country that embraced those neighborly values, and he was doing it at a time when Ronald Reagan, with his defense of selfishness, had reached the peak of his popularity.

Thank you, Mario. You were right about what makes this country great. It is at its best when it offers opportunities to all and struggles to right its historical wrongs. It is at its best when it rewards the hard work of the many rather than trying to satiate the greed of the few. It is at its best when we all accept the responsibility of serving our country and our fellow citizens as well as serving ourselves.