Sunday, August 24, 2008

News

8/20/08
News for now, comment on Karen’s blog, maybe a post
The whole paper is mobbed up and the rich people seem to have their way with the news. Precisely because of this it will continue to be printed to tell the people what to think. For control. What would Murdoch do? As if I can drop Citizen Kane’s name too. I don’t know. How about running both paper and internets divisions, and one needn’t be exact in allocating common costs. We’ve heard how youth is illiterate for a long, long time. Because of television perhaps. Nowadays high school graduation is less frequent.
If the paper doesn’t hold the youngsters’ interest, whose fault is that? I prefer hard copy to all this scrolling and clicking, and ads taking forever to open up. And whose racket is high speed ISP anyway? The same people who collect the campaign money, and the oil money? Oh… I’ll shut up about responsibility
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8/24/08
So the above little piece, without the top line, began life as a comment on a blogger lady’s blog. Her cartoon showed how newspaper readership has declined because people have no time, information can be had by scanning blogs, and that being informed isn’t necessary. She asks what happens when it’s known that only dorks and oldsters read newspapers, and what happens when newspapers go away.
Maybe I should be thankful for an editor who saved me from embarrassing myself on her forum. Maybe not. I think my response, though containing vinegar, is more optimistic for newspaper future.
Maybe it should have been split into another paragraph or two. Maybe it’s all over the place. I subsequently considered explaining line by line.
I was surprised when she demonstrated how newspapers have editorial control, or self censorship. My comment was deleted by a blog administrator. I’m guessing she didn’t like my first sentence. I’m thinking the paper never met a union it didn’t like. Including its employees. I say this favors the mob, as well does the fact that every headline can be read with multiple meanings that do inform in an underhand way.
A guy blogger commented that the paper was slow to expose the county corruption of late. Perhaps related is that I have complained how big construction is corrupt with the mafia (in a prior post.) I’m saying maybe people are tired or reading that sweet stuff. How about telling the mob to get stuffed. Perhaps even half measures along this line would boost readership.
About the rich, consistently it seems that money talks, and B.S. walks. Example include these: when the stock market goes up, how about saying that the rich are getting richer, or that the capital wealth of the nation is getting farther out of reach of the working or unemployed poor? Likewise when housing stock devalues, how about saying the dream of owning one’s own home is more within reach?
So that’s a lot about the first sentence. And at the end I vent about these large money transfers. This is related to newspapers because news, whether paper, radio, TV, or internet, is big business. I think I’ve brought hope in tweaking perspective with regard to the mob and the rich. Also it may help to try harder to interest the young. As for myself, I tend to be irresponsible as a life choice.
Still I’m working on the medical piece promised. It’s slow reading regarding how rural Chinese eat less animal fat and protein, and have less cancer and heart disease. I expect this message is slow to get out because of big medicine, big pharma, and animal foods industry.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Garden Spells and Wal-Mart Plus

Garden Spells and Wal-Mart Plus
7/31/08
OK this doesn’t mean you should not read the previous post. And the next post may have something to do with the system of medicine in this country. And this post does not examine the morality of locking people up for using illegal drugs, or just how well the status quo functions This post does critique a novel, and ruminate on the food goods one gets at Wal-Mart, plus reports on other stores.
Garden Spells was written by Sarah Addison Allen. I went to a book discussion group. Reading a book is a lot of work for an intelligent conversation and the chance of meeting a romance partner.

8/3/08
This novel is called by me to be an example of magical realism. From my dictionary as I remember, this is a realistic narration with elements of fantasy. Here is a story about four female relatives who have paranormal gifts. The main character is able to use plants from her garden that seems pharmacological but also magical. At the end of a book is an index of plants and their uses. Is this a kind of grimoire?
A more important point is, why does the author make the personification of evil a man? Is evil masculine? I think it is an effort by the author to segregate the genders. The women get along together just fine. I think this is to sell more books to bonbon eating female loners. Who needs a man? To be fair, two couples do pair up eventually.
One slightly negative female character is the mother of someone and is unpleasant. Surprise, surprise she also use her sexuality for advantage. This is pounding away with the theory that sex is bad (and I don’t agree.) At least in the end there is a baby born – kind of a Christmas story.
About this book Garden Spells. The title is literally describing magic, so it is controversial from the beginning. I think the mob doesn’t like magic, unless it’s doing it itself.

8/4/08
An actual character in the book turns out to be an apple tree that can throw apples to people. These apples promote dangerous precognitive visions. At the group someone mentioned a parallel to the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. Do you think apples promote paranormal abilities?

8/5/08
Wal-Mart has sold me poisonous items. Recently it was a can of Chef Boyardee canned pasta. In the past, it was defective Diet Mountain Dew. Time and time again, their Sam’s Club generic Diet Cola has come up pain inducing. My theory is that it’s the mob trying to damage Wal-Mart’s sales because 1) they are non-union and 2) they are pro-China, which happens to be kind of a rotten country if you think about it. I feel humble in not casting stones, but if you consider pollution, human rights, censorship and their lead in wages race to the bottom, there is room for improvement. They’ve also given us cannibalism and the Death of a Thousand Cuts. So they help make Wal-Mart an easy target for the bad guys.
Other stores have sold bad milk and my gosh beer and other alcohol for reasons that I can only guess that they were too cheap and they are trying to stimulate more expensive sales. Other theories include that it’s a two part poison to spare others, and that appropriate paranoia indicate that the bad guys are plain out to get me. These stores include Walgreen’s, CVS, and Giant Eagle.
I believe physical pain is intrinsically related to our souls. Luxury is not necessary, but of things like hunger, pain, and sleep deprivation from the cold: It doesn’t take an Einstein to know that these things suck. And I’m saying again that the bad guys have delivered to me all sorts of pain that has not yet been diagnosed. I will be happy to report that I am mistaken if that is in fact the case. People who are inexpert on the situation say no one is poisoning me. How do they know how common it is or isn’t?
So that’s me whining. I am not recommending the book. In the book and at the discussion I asked if magic is always a bad thing (like as all originating with the Devil, as was told to me by a priest.) So I asked and I got a lot of No, No’s, magic isn’t all bad. The book treats it as a matter of course as it mixes the real with the surreal, and never uses the phrase white magic. And I can use some preternatural assistance in dealing against the bad guys who poison goods.