Swanky did another article about Terrorism paranoia yesterday, but this time it’s one that I agree with.

Terrorists want to cause terror. We go nuts over every little thing and thus, they succeed, even when they fail i.e. the London liquid plane bombers. They were stopped and we still have to bring air traffic to a grinding halt and raise the panic level. The list of panicy non-threats is seemingly endless…
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I don’t mean to get all conspiritorial on ya, but, who benefits from this hightened sense of panic?

     And the unfortunate part is, I have an answer for that. 

     Media benefits.

     I didn’t intend for this Blog to be about Politics.  Quite honestly, I can’t stand Washington Politicians — they’ll sell us all out before it’s over with.  But one side is a little more responsible that the other when it comes to Media.

     The reason it’s called “Liberal Media” is because, well, they like to cozy up to the Party that’ll tell them what to print, which gives them less workload, and a cash kickback.  The opposing party doesn’t tell them what to print, and doesn’t give them a kickback, so Media will bitch and moan about the increased workload without increased cash.
     So, of course, they’re gonna cozy up to Washington Democrats, and claim, “Oh, Freedom of the Press is great!  And that other party?  They’ll don’t tell us anything, so they must be conspiring against us!”
     Nevermind that the actual problem is that they’re lazy and don’t know how to do good-ol’-fashioned journalism and dig for stories anymore.
     Bear with me, because this is coming from first-hand experience, having been a Media staff writer.  Oh, the number of times I’ve had articles hacked to death and all-but-rewritten by an editor with a Political agenda…
     It really is that sordid.

     Media benefits.

     Some people might say, “Oh, that’s all fine and good, but what about Foreign Media?  They have nothing to gain from sordid American politics!”
     Having worked for a foreign Media entity, I can explain that from first hand experience, as well.  In fact, they have even more to gain.

     Most other countries don’t have “free press.”  Instead, they have a Ministry-operated (i.e. Government) entities which distribute news that Government wants its people to hear.
     That said, Foreign Press tends to be extremely jealous of US Media, who rarely print anything without fear of retribution (cutting jobs, cutting budgets, etc.).  It’s because of that the US was called “Paper Tiger” in so many articles prior to its infamous use by Osama bin Laden.
     Associated Press and Reuters will pick up news from any associate in the world.  With most associates, nine times out of ten, if there’s a juicy story in a given country and a non-story which bashes America, they’ll pick door number two.  
     Even some of the of the British Commonwealths, who regularly sell their best products as export-only, do this sort of thing.  It’s the “underdog mentality,” where a Government can say, “Know why things are so piss poor here?  It’s because of those damn Americans!  Know why you’re paying three pounds a litre for gallon?  Those damn Americans!  And they’re no better than you — check out this headline!”
     It gives their citizens something to feel in common, gives them a common enemy — “Those damn Americans!”
     Four pounds a litre, yes.  3.79 litres per gallon.  Round-about $1.90 per British Pound.  Twenty-one dollars a gallon.  Sucks for them, eh?  But instead of greedy oil companies, they get to blame America for invading Iraq.

     So … Foreign Media (and foreign governments) sow the seeds of Paranoia, reporting everything that happens, with a spin of “America isn’t doing anything about it!” or “Look how America’s screwing up now!”
     AP and Reuters pick up on, and Washington Policians get on TV about it, and our lazy media doesn’t have to write its own stories — they get to embellish every bit of crap and garbage that the Foreign Media gave them.  And if they do a good job, they get a kickback.
     Sordid.  Pathetic.

     Free Press is Free Press.  In this country, have a choice, but they lack the ethics to handle themselves on their own.
     So next time you hear how “The Republicans are limiting our Civil Liberties!” take it with a grain of salt.  Media complains about that specific thing for one reason, and one reason only: there have been numerous bits of Legislation to try and curb their sordid behavior, and make them more responsible in their journalism.
     Go take a look at http://thomas.loc.gov/ and look at the Bills and Voting Records.  You might even find that those things are getting voted for on both sides of the fence.

     The paranoia is pandemic.  It’s politically motivated.

     On that note … I read that terrorist’s favorite Moonbat, Cindy Sheehan, organized another Anti-War Protest today.  What a sad, sad, non-story she is.
     Casey Austin Sheehan (29-May-1979 – 4-Apr-2004) died in Iraq.  He put on a uniform to serve and protect his country.  And when the War in Iraq broke out, he re-enlisted in order to promote Freedom around the globe.  He died doing what he wanted to do.  He is to be commended, and remembered, as both an honorable man and a patriot.

     When’s the last time she even mentioned his name during one of her protests?  When’s the last time that she told anyone that he re-enlisted to go to that war?  When’s the last time she said, “My son was a hero!  He died doing what he believed in!”
     She doesn’t give a damn about her son.  She’s a selfish, self-promoting moonbat who slanders his memory every time she starts one of her tirades.  She writes letters to Barbara Bush claiming, “Your son killed my son!”

     Your son is rolling in his grave, Ms. Sheehan.  Please stop disgracing his good name and crawl back under your rock.  Or your soccer-mom minivan.

     Philips Consumer Electronics has a bit of a “stodgy” reputation in the United States.  The miniscule number of ads that Philips has done over the years hasn’t made any iota of difference to anyone.  They’ve had a tendency to leave advertising of their consumer products up to retail merchants, who usually announce the products at a substantial discount or clearance.

     This time, it looks like they got it right.  This is a brilliant ad.

     Unfortunately, it comes without Media fanfare.  Without advertising to actually draw people to the site.

     Maybe one day they’ll get it.

     Nonsense title?  Check this out…

     This week, we had Firefox cozying up to Microsoft in order to make a Windows Vista version of their product.

When Microsoft’s open source lab offered to help the Mozilla foundation with getting Firefox to run well on Vista, reactions ranged from skeptical and suspicious to surprised and excited. But in fact, the two teams have already been quietly working together. In this thread, Mike Schroepfer wrote “we are already in contact with your team via email”. The lab time would be helpful, though, according to Mozilla developer Mike Beltzner, who added “yes, we’d definitely be interested in getting some 1:1 support”.

It just goes to show that developers from organizations that are outwardly fiercely competitive are often quite civil with each other when nobody is looking. Perhaps that’s why projects like Apache and Eclipse are so successful.

     Which led me to do the following cartoon…

     Wonder if it’ll chew off its leg when it wakes up in the morning?

     Man, it’s 4AM and I’m still wide awake.  And I mean, mow the yard with a push-mower awake.

     It’s just not right.

     I’ve had this insomnia for … well … yeah, just more than a year.  Can’t sleep, no matter how hard I try.  Maybe it started as the restlessness of impending doom.
     Lovely people like to tell me, “It’s guilt that keeps you up at night!”  But it certainly isn’t guilt, and I just tell them, “Thanks!”

     Now, it’s the same thing.  No guilt.  More frustration. 
     A couple of weeks ago, I was prescribed Lunesta.  Nice one.  Calms my mind.  Makes me speak in coherent sentences.  Makes me dream, and remember.  I like that.
     But it sure as Hell doesn’t put me to sleep.

     I need sleep.

     Real sleep.

     Man, Swanky, maybe it was the greasers over the weekend that got you all worked up.  Maybe it was discussing politics with me where I clearly implicated both sides in screwing over the American Public. Maybe it was being tired and cranky and cantankerous (old man! heh).
     But … I’ve read Lilek’s article over and over, and I can’t figure out WHAT you’re talking about.

I’ve been reading the Bleat for years now and he has gone further and further into the business of being a grumpy guy and less and less being an amusing commentator on culture. He had the sense to move a lot of it to a separate blog. But today he just lost it. It sounds to me like the rantings of an “old guy” who can’t take the notion that he is a complete square. He spends a lot of words trying to discount any sort of counter culture sensibility as being stupid and has a bad habit of justifying things by pointing out that much much worse things are happening elsewhere in the world. Sort of like “Why are the namby pamby Democrats so up in arms about the goverment spying on them without warrants when North Korea has 100,000 people being tortured to death in secret prisons?” “Why get so up in arms about blacks being kept out of good schools in the 50s when Russia was killing thousands of people every month in Gulags?” Sad. That’s not an argument. Mis-direction.

I read most of the Bleat today and over and over it was just saying, this guy is really a stiff neck jerk. “How dare you rebel against a country that feeds you, Marlon Brando and James Dean!” Lileks, you are a sad old guy. Mr. Unhip. And that seems to make you crazy. You need to start allowing people to reply to your rants on your site. Dialog.

     James Dean was a product of his environment, as we all all are.  We all rage against the machine, some harder than others. But when we express our displeasure at whatever’s going on, isn’t it better to focus on facts rather than lefty-nutso ridiculouslness?

     And on that note, I’m gonna throw in Sinatra while I try and sleep.  I hope that’s not too Republican of me, wanting to sleep at 2:41AM.  😉

     As for James Dean, check out this this great Craigslist ad (tip: Link Right 2).