My Vote Counted and other Election Debris.

Today I called the number.  I got the feeling that they don’t get many calls like mine, following up on an affidavit ballot.  But, after briefly describing my voting experience to the nice lady at the Chancery Clerk’s office, I now know that my vote was added to the tally.

As I’ve written before, occasionally media debris gets piled up in my brain–those random thoughts and observations that need an outlet before the maid service comes in.  Hence, the random Election Debris: 

1.  ABC news sported 50 states in 50 days during the primary season, an impressive endeavor.  I saw one woman and daughter from somewhere in the east (maybe West Virginia, I wasn’t paying attention).  They said their key issues for the election were “choice” and “equal pay for equal work.”  I’m wondering when we got to the place in our society when one word– “choice” –could immediately be understood my men, women and children alike to mean there’s no law that would prevent me from choosing to abort my unborn child.  Is that progress?

2.  ”I’m pro-life and pro-gun.” — from U.S. Senate candidate’s ad.  Life and gun.  Strange bedfellows.  But, there’s the Republican Party for you.

3.  Seeing the electoral map in all it’s red and blue glory a full (count them) six weeks before the election.  There’s something troubling about that.

4.  And, the Contrived-Programming-While-Trying-Our-Hardest-to-Look-Natural Award goes to… CNN! For the program (which I only caught a few minutes of) featuring a discussion of politics and the economy held at Delmonico’s in NYC around a poker table (3-sided, mind you. must leave room for the cameras).  Men and women with poker chips and high ball barware — what, no cigars?  Not politically correct, I guess.

5.  Roger Wicker & Ronnie Musgrove Senatorial ads ad nauseum.  Where’s the Pepto when you need it.

6.  General amazement at what makes it above the cable/digital fold:  Sarah Palin’s pregnant daughter segues to Barak Obama’s terrorist neighbor segues to John McCain’s campaign suspension segues to Joe the Plumber’s tax returns segues to Mickey Mouse registers to vote

7.  Sometime during October, I sensed a strange absence.  Where is Joe Biden?  His name wasn’t even on the Obama ads.

8.  And, the You-May-Think-It’s-About-News-But-It’s-Really-All-About-Me-and-My-Profession Award goes to… A string of top news topics: Tina Fey.  Katie Couric’s interview questions.  ”What [insert candidate name here] needs to do is - ahem - as if [insert candidate name here] watches this program - chuckle chuckle.”  CNN facts across the bottom of the screen — thank you CNN, especially for letting me know the accomplishments of your reporters.

9.  What’s up with the trend showing the tv screens within tv screens?  Flipping your laptop around so the tv cameras can see it?  Tellistrating on the electoral maps?

10.  Bites:  Spread the wealth around.  You betcha.  I am not George Bush.

11.  The View.  There’s Joy sounding cantankerous and all Democratic.  There’s Elisabeth being the token Republican with a “yeah, but” when she could get a word in — although I appreciate that she brought notes on her research a couple of times.  There’s Barbara sounding like the voice of journalistic legitimacy, although didn’t that train leave the station when “daytime talk show host” was added to her resume right after “interviewed Fidel Castro.”  Then, there’s Sherrie–not sure for the longest where she stood, but saw her try to get loud on Elisabeth about McCain divorcing his first wife. I’m sensing some relationship/single motherhood issues from a couple of other comments on non-election segments.  And, then there’s Whoopie trying to appear fair while acknowledging her Democrat allegiance, refereeing the others, making a joke, declaring her friendship with John McCain and the Clintons (there’s a dinner party) and getting to commercial break so everyone gets their paycheck.  Ugh.

12.  Fox News website breaking news — “President-Elect Obama to Step Down From Senate” — duh!

This is EyeJunkie, and I approved this list.

“Black Hole”

Cultural Context:  An apparently racially offensive reference made by a white Dallas, Texas County Commissioner during a Commissioners meeting this week.  In a discussion about traffic tickets, Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield referred to the County Collections office as a “black hole.”  Two black Commissioners demanded an apology, claiming the statement was racist in nature.  In statements after the meeting,  Commissioner John Wiley Price also indicated that terms like “devil’s food cake” (a recipe traditionally made of chocolate) and “black sheep of the family” were also racist in nature.  Read the FoxNews article.

Huh?

Is every use of the word “black” in our language now a racist statement?  Is every reference to something dark now a racist statement?  Is every reference to chocolate?  Every reference to the “devil?”  I’m concerned.  The answers to these questions will determine whether I’ve been offending people willy-nilly my whole life, because those words have been incorporated into my vocabulary since I was a preschooler.  What about the terms “little white lie,” “white noise,” or “white-collar crime?”  Should I be offended by society in general, the technology sector and the judicial sector respectively?

Two observations:

• This ridiculous discourse has now been given national credence in that it appears in today’s news on Politics at FoxNews.com.  No doubt I’ll hear someone discussing it ad nauseam as I surf the channels tonight.  I saw the story when it rotated into one of the top news spots on the home page — you know, the ones with the giant headlines.  It was right above a sublink to the story about Atlanta retiring its “Men Working” construction signs in favor of the more politically correct “Persons At Work.”  Commissioner Price now has his 15 minutes.
   
• In writing my description above, I realized that to portray it accurately I had to list the parties as black or white.  This story is only pseudo-significant if the race of each Commissioner is made clear.  I thought the whole purpose of seeking racial equality and reform was that a person wouldn’t need to be defined primarily by his race.  Talk about a step backwards.

For the record:
Wikipedia tells me:  ”A black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational field is so powerful that nothing, not even light, can escape its pull after having fallen past its event horizon.  The term “Black Hole” comes from the fact that, at a certain point, even electromagnetic radiation (e.g. visible light) is unable to break away from the attraction of these massive objects. This renders the hole’s interior invisible or, rather, black like the appearance of space itself.”

Wikipedia also tells me that the term black sheep: “originated from the occasional black sheep which are born into a herd of white sheep due to a genetic process of recessive traits. Black sheep were considered commercially undesirable because their wool cannot be dyed as white wool can.”

Devil’s Food Cake:  I’m not even going to go there, except to say that if you are resisting your sweet tooth, chocolate would certainly be classified as sinful.

With due respect to Commissioner Price, we both live in the American South where racism has been a huge issue and a very real experience for many since way before I was born.  In fact, my home state of Mississippi has been the poster child for racism since well before the Civil Rights Movement began.  We (both black and white citizens) continue to struggle to overcome its effects and its stigma in seeking a place of relevance in society in 2008.  In all honesty, MANY disparities still exist between the educational, economic, health and social opportunites available for blacks versus whites.  These are real life battles for our future that are still being fought, and we must win them.  We don’t have time or energy for the ignorant, hypersensitive and publicity-hungry battles over semantics to which this situation shifts the focus.  It’s shameful, and it’s holding us back.

“Increased Religious Security”

Cultural Context:  The explanation given in a FoxNews.com article by C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, for some of the findings about Americans and Religion from a Pew Forum study surveying 35,000 adults.  The results of the study were recently released. The quote:

“It shows increased religious security.  People are comfortable with other traditions even if they’re different.  It indicates a level of humility about religion that would be of great benefit to everyone.”

Really?  Hmmm…

What does it mean to be secure?  
My dictionary widget tells me that “secure” means 

• fixed or fastened so as not to give way, become loose or be lost
• not subject to threat, certain to remain or continue safe and unharmed
• protected against attack
• safe, stable and free from fear or anxiety
• certain to achieve

When I read the article highlighting some of the Pew findings, the word “security“  as revealed in these definitions did not spring to mind.  In fact, my first thought was “all over the map.”  Reading the article was a study in contradictions.  Looking at some of the actual statistics, there seems to be no mistaking the rampant confusion that exists with Americans regarding their own professed religious “beliefs”.  We have become a belief-addicted culture ready to accept anything because the act of “believing” is the answer.  Just believe.  The object of belief apparently doesn’t factor in. 

Some of the statistics:

70% of those with a religious affiliation said there was more than one way to gain eternal life (even when that belief was contrary to their own professed religion’s teachings).  This percentage includes 57% of evangelical christians, 83% of protestants, 79% of catholics, 82% of Jews and 56% of Muslims.

Don’t even bother picking a “way” because they all lead to the same place.  Don’t bother learning what your own religion believes.  You don’t have to believe to believe.  Just believe.

92% of those studied professed belief in God.  But 1 in 4 also express doubts about His existence.
21% of professed athiests said they actually believed in God - 8% are “absolutely certain” of it

Not believing just doesn’t measure up to believing.  Make no mistake, it takes just as much faith to believe there isn’t a God as it does to believe there is one.  For sure, almost the same percentages in both camps have achieved the same level of confusion about the issue.  Oh, who needs that kind of scrutiny?  It doesn’t matter if you jump around from one belief to another.  Just believe.

44% of those with religious affiliations felt their religion should preserve its traditional beliefs and practices, but many believe in multiple interpretations of their religion’s teachings.

Keep the old ones, interpret new ones?  It doesn’t matter.  Just believe.

D. Michael Lindsay (of Rice University) offered a very astute evaluation of the report:

“The survey shows religion in America is indeed, 3000 miles wide and only three inches deep.”

Not exactly the picture of stability.  At three inches, we have no roots, no foundation.  Without a full depth of truth, we have no hope to withstand being “tossed about by every wind and wave” (ephesians 4:14) and the rudderless doubt that inevitably ensues.

It seems that Mr. Gaddy’s coveted “humility about religion” really translates as a meandering lack of commitment.  In our culture, commitment has now been deemed intolerance, and a lack of commitment has been transformed into a virtue.  This mentality grossly underestimates the God-given mental capacities of human beings and completely negates the political ideals we so stringently seek to uphold.  To imply that non-commitment is the only viable option in maintaining “tolerance” is preposterous.  To assume that a person can’t whole-heartedly disagree with another’s beliefs without persecuting him is a complete injustice to “freedom” of religion.

When, in our culture, did it become questionable to stake yourself, your words, your money, your free time — your life on something you believe and stick to it?  

Alexander Hamilton said “Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.”
Hook. Line. Sinker.

Accidental Profundity

Quote of the day:  “Lies are the new facts”

It took me a few minutes to digest this statement when I read it.  After all, it reportedly came from a segment on “Live with Regis and Kelly,” not the place I would normally expect to hear poignant social evaluation.  But, the more I thought about it, the more astounded I was at just how profound a commentary on our culture the statement really is.

The Context:  During an appearance on the “Live with Regis and Kelly” television program, actress Gina Gershon described a Vanity Fair article that hinted she’d had an inappropriate relationship with former president Bill Clinton as a “crazy, outright lie.”  She further commented that such media stories should never make it into print, but in the common media culture today, “lies are the new facts.”  (See my post on President Clinton’s reaction to the article.)

We often hear these kinds of statements implying more cosmetic shifts in the general perspective — observations like “forty is the new thirty,” or “brown is the new black” — but, never broadened to the all encompassing analysis of true versus false. Continue reading »

Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word

At least the hardest spoken word.

That’s my impression after reading about several media faux pas this week by public figures and their subsequent “apologies.”   The faux pas at their minimum could be described as public relations nightmares and at most constituted offenses to either individuals, entire states or entire nations.  Oops really doesn’t cover it.

In each case, I was disappointed to see that the offending public figure chose to “release” his/her apology through a spokesperson (sometimes not even his/her own.)  I understand the practicality of that process from a PR standpoint, but on a more basic level I have to wonder:  If they were bold enough to make their statements directly to media in a public forum, why weren’t they bold enough to own up to the offense just as directly with their method of apology?  

Sometimes “sorry” IS the hardest word, especially when “sorry” is only a means to an end — control the damage, salvage an investment, refocus the attention, reiterate a point, make sure you don’t look as ignorant as you sound, etc.

Here are the apologies I read:

The “Everyone Knows I’m Not Sorry for What I Said, and I Would Say It Again in a Heartbeat, but It’s Causing My Wife Some Problems” Apology
This apology was issued by Jay Carson, spokesman for Hillary Clinton’s campaign on behalf of former President Bill Clinton.  In response to a reporter’s question about his reactions to an upcoming unflattering Vanity Fair article, President Clinton called the author sleazy, dishonest, a slimy guy, and a scumbag.  According to the apology, “the language was inappropriate and he wishes he had not used it.”  Yeah, right.  More likely… “I’m trying to minimize another scandal caused by my big mouth while my wife has a white knuckle grip on possible super delegates.  Oh, and by the way, let me use this statement to remind everyone you’re a terrible journalist and you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Read the story from CNN here… 

The “I Just Cost My Boss a Ton of Money and They’re Making Me Apologize, but I’m Totally Oblivious to the Magnitude of My Ill-Conceived Comments” Apology
This apology was issued by the Shanghai office of Christian Dior on behalf of it’s current spokesmodel, Sharon Stone.  They also announced that Stone’s ads would not be run in China.  While speaking with a reporter on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival, Stone attributed the recent earthquake in China to bad “karma” resulting from China’s poor treatment of Tibet.  According to a FoxNews article about the incident, in the fallout, a major Chinese news agency called Stone the “public enemy of all mankind.”  That can’t be good.  A Foreign Ministry spokesperson also alluded to a possible break in the “mutual trust, understanding and friendship” of the U.S. and China.  Stone’s statement said she felt “deeply sorry and sad about hurting Chinese people.”  She went on to say she would “wholly devote herself” to helping with earthquake relief efforts.  OK.  That should make it all better.
Read the story from FoxNews here… 

– I can’t resist an aside:  What is going on in our celebrity culture that they can take a 5 minute red carpet photo op and offend a country with the largest population in the world, and an (at times) strained relationship with our State Department?  What ever happened to talking about movies?  If you want to deal with social issues, write yourself an OpEd piece for the New York Times — oh, but that would require credibility, coherence and the sign-off of an editor.

– But, I digress.

The “Don’t These People Have a Sense of Humor? I Know It Looks Bad, but I’m Not Running for Anything Right Now So Just Do the Usual” Apology
This apology was issued by Lea Anne McBride, spokeswoman for Vice President Cheney after he offended the state of West Virginia while trying to be a stand-up comedian at the National Press Club.  He subtly implied that the state’s residents are known for in-breeding.  (What was he thinking?)  Responding to denouncements from both Democratic and Republican West Virginia congressmen and the governor, Cheney’s statement said his comments were “not meant to hurt anyone,” and “on reflection, [Cheney] concluded that it was an inappropriate attempt at humor that he should not have made.”  Just how much reflection did that take?  A word to the wise, stick to your day job.
Read the story from FoxNews here… 

(See this article on ehow.com under the title “How to Publicly Apologize, But Not Really“)

Pushing the Envelope with “Swingtown”

I’ll bet you’re familiar with this little experience of human nature.  Just pick one – one or more tend to be daily occurrences in my household.

I say, “We don’t need to throw our toys.”
My preschooler says, “But, I’m just dropping it.”

I say, “Let’s don’t bang our toys around so much.  We need to take care of our toys.”
My preschooler says, “But, I’m just ‘working’ on it.”

I say, “Ooooo.  It’s too loud right now to hit the coffee table with that wooden spoon.  Let’s put the spoon down.”
My preschooler says, “But, I’m just playing my drum.”  And then, with a gleaming look over at Mommy he ever so slightly taps the wood with the spoon and then holds it just above the table in anticipation of another word of correction.

I’m told that these types of experiences are not unusual with 3-year-olds, and I’m proud of how much my sweet little guy is learning in this area when he tells me out of the blue, “We don’t need to throw.”  Despite our usual assumptions, not much escapes the 3-year-old mind.  But, that’s another post.

Yes, these little snapshots of human nature are sometimes cute at 3 years old when paired with the process of growing and learning our boundaries – not so pretty, however, at 38 when boundaries (or the lack of) are still blurred.  At our house, no matter how cute the phrasing or creative the excuse, we call it doing wrong, in this case disobeying Mommy.  When we get to be grownups, however, we and our culture tend to call it “testing the waters,” “pushing the envelope,” or even “groundbreaking.”

Enter “Swingtown.”
“I don’t understand why this show is so threatening, but I don’t understand why gay marriage is so threatening either. I understand there’s going to be a portion of the available audience that will just say, ‘I can’t do this, I can’t go there.’ Too bad, because there is so much to embrace in this show. I think people who reject it have a problem with fear in general in their lives.“

~ Mike Kelley, creator of “Swingtown,” a new television drama premiering this week on CBS.
As quoted in a LA Times article about the show 
(I’ll let you read the article to discover the premise of the show, if you haven’t seen the less than subtle ads.)

Continue reading »

“Jihadi Chic”

Cultural Context: The term used by conservative columnist, Michelle Malkin on her blog to describe a scarf worn by Rachael Ray in a recent Dunkin’ Donuts ad.  The scarf supposedly resembled a “keffiyeh” worn by Arabs which is sometimes considered a symbol of radical terrorist activity.  The ad was pulled by Dunkin’ Donuts after receiving criticism from Malkin and others.

Hmmm…

This example of “hate couture,” as Malkin calls it, is new to me. And if you believe some of the coverage of the issue, this form of so-called subversive support of radical muslim terrorism is apparently pretty widespread.  Who knew? Continue reading »