Russell Shaw's Brainstorm Central

Built By Association

Now this... is cool.

I just stumbled on a group called the Russell-Shaw Society. Not spam, or a pun. Apparently this British-based organization -- also known as the "Institute for 21st Century Relationships" -- was formed to promote selected tenets ascribed to by philosopher Bertrand Russell, and author-playwright George Bernard Shaw. Hence, the Russell-Shaw Society.

Cool, no?

Taking The Measure Of A Person

Sometimes, the wisest sayings are not uttered by widely published pundits or philosophers, but good people laboring in the shadows.

I was looking at some high school sports sites, when I came across this quote from one Virgil Moore, principal of Centralia High School in Centralia, Illinois:

"The best index to a person's character is:
(a) how he treats people who can't do him any good, and
(b) how he treats people when they can't fight back."

The Media Are Biased (Both Ways)

Pinpointing and defining bias depends on what you mean by "the media."

At the three major broadcast networks, as well as at The New York Times and Washington Post, the mostly New York and DC-based news staffs come from elite northeastern and midwestern colleges. They have grown up in chic environments that produce unchallenged assumptions on their part: that racial quotas are OK because they redress a wrong, that everyone hated the Vietnam War, that everyone in the late 1960s and early 1970s smoked dope and listened to Hendrix, that being pro-choice is the only way to be. Now, some of the older decision-makers in this group have found their way to a reasonably affluent lifestyle punctuated by fine wine and nice second homes.

It is not a conspiracy. It is, however, natural that their news coverage will be dictated by their life's experience. Plus, to become a journalist requires a questioning mind. The type of mind that does not automatically defer to traditional beliefs or hierarchical authority.

But in flyover America, there is a counterveiling force at work. Much of America are believers, not thinkers -- worshippers, not contemplators. People who "cry freedom," but are really saying they want to be free to do whatever the hell "I" want. Not what "you" want. You see these people owning or leading companies, sitting in the pews, driving around and listening to right wing talk radio shows. Because families in this demographic are predisposed to following hierarchical authority (a male notion of "God," a male President, a male military command structure), most of our soldiers come from this type of background.

This is a type of pre-wiring that is far more comfortable with doctrine expressed in black-and-white than shades of grey. Radio talk speaks to these people. And by doing things like firing Phil Donahue and hiring Mike Savage, cable news is doing the same thing.

It's not that radio and tv talk are "biased." For the most part, these enterprises are owned by venal, greedy people who would use anything short of "sieg heil" if it boosted their ratings. They are simply meeting "market demand." They are sycophants to two main forces: their stock price, which goes up with ratings; and their hired consultants, who are whores, too.

Now comes a report in the Washington Post that confirms this.

True Then, True Now

I wrote and posted this on August, 25, 2000. More than 2 1/2 years have passed. Sad to say this post has lost none of its relevance.

THIS GORE-TEX ELECTION: WHY GORE WON'T WIN

(Although he should)



by Russell Shaw

Tonight, I found myself engaged in conversation with a 30-ish young woman who, like me, was a passenger on Portland's West Side light rail line. She bore all the physical manifestations of Naderite progressivism -- Birkenstocks, granny glasses, earth tones handbag, an attractive, rugged physicality borne of camping trips in the protected national forests with, I suspect, a man much luckier than I.

We were sharing the train with a bunch of people on their way back from a Christian rock and revival event, featuring the fundamentalist Luis Palau.

I noted to this woman that here were people coming back from an event honoring creation -- but if you took a straw poll of their Presidential preferences and it turned out the way that political scientists parse passions of believers -- 90 percent of them would be on the side of Gov. Bush, someone who would introduce policies not favorable to creation. Sensing a kindred spirit in me, she nodded, and smiled. Yet my intent wasn't to invoke a false sense of simpatico, in order to get her phone number. In an admittedly self-righteous tone, fueled by four glasses of Chardonnay imbibed earlier at an art museum reception, I then told her that the presence of such multitudes is the very reason why anyone who cares about the environment must vote for the only candidate who can defeat George Bush, and that's Al Gore.

"It's not voting against somebody, it's voting for somebody," she replied, quickly adding that she was for Nader.

My green and lovely state, Oregon, has gone for the Democrats in the last three elections. This year, it probably won't. The reason: women like that on the light-rail train, who are so entranced by Nader that they view any electoral pragmatism as cowardice.

And what if this obviously intelligent young lady is in a relationship? It is time for frank talk. Not only is Roe v. Wade hanging by a thread, but three of the five Supreme Court justices that cast the most reliable pro-choice votes have had cancer. Sometimes, cancer comes back. Far too often, the return visit comes with a countdown. Even if they remain cancer-free, two of these three justices -- O'Connor and Stevens, are over 70. They may decide to retire. Then what?

I am going to surmise that the woman on the light-rail train is in a relationship. (More than a few times around the block, and a Napster library full of blues tunes listened as the cabernet bottles have emptied, has given me a good set of antenna about these things). Yet women like her have a certain false sense of security. Among far too many well-educated pro-choice women, there's the feeling that, well, dependable contraception makes the chance of unintended pregnancy quite remote. So abortion rights, not being a front-of-mind notion, doesn't play as a major concern with many women who should care. Contraception fail? To even posit this point is insulting to the modern woman, cocksure (no pun intended) of the pill's unerring efficacy. Extremely unlikely, they will say. So notions of a pro-choice Supreme Court justice's resignation, followed by cryptic answers by would-be successors in front of the Senate Justice Committee, don't enter their minds. But juggling their portfolios, taking into account IRA deductibility contingencies and planning for the future, is a day-to-day concern.

Bush and his people understand this better than Gore and the Estrich-revisited types that seem to surround him these days.

Despite some high points in his acceptance speech, Al Gore is more into focus-tested sloganeering than giving people such as the woman on the light rail train a much-needed reality check -- that is, that the forces that will allow you to preserve your reproductive freedom are under attack by those, who, to paraphrase Christopher Hitchens in "The Nation," base their beliefs in their interpretations of "Bronze Age texts." And, to quote a certain folically challenged former wrestler, people who are "weak-minded" and "need strength in numbers." And "numbers" vote. Oregon is only one of ten states that have voted Democratic the last three times around. If Oregon, and the nation, goes to Bush, the reproductive freedom of American women may well rest with the medical skills of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's oncologist.

Gore should have laid this out. He mentioned it, but moved quickly away from this topic. That was bad enough, but analyzed on the macro level, not his worst strategic fault. The fatal flaw in the Democrats' strategy is that they seem incapable of looking at the nation's electoral habits in a contemporary way. They draw back on old notions of voting blocs, political assumptions that are rapidly becoming irrelevant.

It remains to be seen how populist appeals will play in an era when 60% of Americans hold stock. Think about it. I say it is harder to think of major elements of corporate America as a malevolent force when you are depending on the fiscal performance of corporate America for your retirement. The "them" (Wall Street, as Satanically posited by populists from WJ Bryan, to Huey Long, to Ralph Nader) is now "us."

The other looming failure in Al Gore's populist strategy, is his party's tone deafness toward the popularity of doing away with estate taxes, and raising limits on Individual Retirement Accounts. While only a minority of people die with a fairly large estate, lots of young, in-play independents seek to get there. By calling some of these IRA limits and estate tax phase-out programs for he rich, the Dems overlook the financially aspirational tone that runs through so much of the electorate -- not just the rich. The American economy has done well over the last eight years, but the Democrats have not elucidated the risk that can happen if the wrong policies are enacted and signed into law -- by a Republican President. They haven't taught the American public well why and how Presidential policies can influence their rate of return even more than Alan Greenspan or their well-loved mutual fund portfolio manager can.

Speaking on National Public Radio less than an hour before Gore's keynote, Mario Cuomo's points touched on this issue. Noting the failure so far of Gore to earn any credit for the booming economy, he said real problem was that so many Americans think that "anything politicians do" will not affect the markets one way or another. They credit market performance to, as he put it, "American ingenuity," a heady sense of increased self-reliance based on making one's own investment decisions, and widespread credit to Fed for managing the economy. In other words, nothing the executive branch has done or can do will affect it one way or another. Cuomo disagreed with the logic of this perception: said that yes, there should be a perceived relationship, and Gore needs to spell it out.

Gore didn't address this topic head on. But to that, I say, are we in times where no one is willing to listen? Look at the markets, and what they consider is important. A President nearly gets removed from office, and despite the constitutional travail, the market hardly burped. Greenspan says something vaguely cryptic, or twitches an eyebrow, and the DJIA and NASDAQ goes down 150 points.

Looking at this thru popular eyes, voter participation is down as stock ownership goes up. This will be the first Presidential election year in which a greater percentage of Americans own stock than will vote. What does that say about where people annotate importance?

While the 401 (k)-ing of America has been a tremendous and empowering blessing, the yang to the yin has been that the once mass-appeal of populism has been shunted into narrow demographic niches, not numerous enough to win an election at the Presidential level.

Between the investments-loving independents who are leaning toward Bush, and the contraceptive-confident Naderites who equate tactical political thought with a betrayal of Gaia, a chill wind blows -- and come November 7, will blow like a hurricane.

OK, me again, this time on March 17, 2003. The intervening 31 months has done little to disobviate my assumptions.

The Social Darwinists

There's a mentality that we all make our breaks in life, and if you have rotten luck, it is a result of your own lack of preparation to face society, or your bad habits. In other words, Social Darwinism.

I don't usually quote Karl Marx, but remember what he said about religion being the "opiate of the people?" Given that self-declared "religious" voters leaned heavily toward Bush, and many of those religious voters could very well know people who are economically vulnerable, well, there you have it. Plus, since voting participation increases with income, many of the more vulnerable don't even vote at all and are not feared by politicians, especially Democrats. Alcohol, meth, abusive relationships, unquestioning, focus on hereafter as opposed to now religious faith, are some of the habits that blind people to what is going on in the here and now. One more civic drop out cynic leaves that much more room for the opportunists of the world to become powerful. One more down on luck family who doesn't vote leaves more room for the haughty Social Darwinists of the suburbs to get their way.

"Poor" Side Of Town? Yea, Right

I have been reading Barbara Ehrenreich’s excellent book, “Nickel and Dimed.” When you are broke -- and I have been so broke I used to look in gum machines for spare change so I could eat -- fear is your most omnipresent companion. Ehrenreich is a marvelous writer, but her destitution was self-imposed. If it ever got too funky, she could well have bailed and run back to her economically secure real life. When she lay awake late at night, and did a self-imposed reality check, she had to realize she had an escape hatch. The real poor do not. To her credit, she stuck with it, but we must remember that she wrote *about* this life. That's a far cry from actually *living* it.

Guru U.

In the writing world, all Guru sites are bullshit. I'm not talking about About.com and imitators, but stuff like Exp and Guru, and even the similar area of Monster.com, where you set your services out to bid. Not an effective place to get hired. The people who go there in search of experts are usually very new, clueless, and have little money to spend.

One potentially explosive factor in dealing with inexperienced types is that they tend to be overly invested in their idea to the point of overt anxiousness, as opposed to the deliberateness that comes from experience. When you deal with inexperienced, anxious people, you get someone who is likely to suffer from one of the following shortcomings:

*Is unable to articulate their business approach to you in a manner that you can put a finger on it for writing-positioning purposes;

*Has an exaggerated sense of their own relevance, and as an outgrowth of their own self-importance, is egotistically controlling to the point that camaraderie and mutual respect with you, the writer, is impossible;* or

*Is mercurial, and changes their mind all the time about what they want, evoking the experience of trying to hit a moving target. Not only that, but most have little money to spend. If they did, they wouldn't troll the boards.

"Writers Of The World: You Have Nothing To Lose But Your By-Lines"

As a paid member of the National Writer's Union, I have an ideological predisposition to side with the writer argument that we should refuse to write for publications that do not pay us extra for Web postings. Yet, as a content provider who has a good pulse on the volatility of the marketplace, I have decidedly mixed feelings.

In a buyer's market, you don't want to be seen as a "troublemaker." We all know how fickle even the most loyal editors can be. If you are seen as too proactive, they may all of a sudden stop calling or make assignments. They may do so on their own, or on orders from upper echelons.

Speaking of orders from upper echelons, if writers push too hard, what is to prevent those echelons from deciding to limit or suspend purchase of outside freelance (on rationale that "it ain't worth the trouble"), or simply buy content from syndicators?

I know this is a wuss attitude- we NWU members are affiliated with UAW; Walter Reuther would never have countenanced such meekness. But as a contractor as well, I must tell you, as a reality check, that being perceived as a pain in the ass -- even with legally sanctioned justification -- is not the ticket to getting steady work from editors who are already over addled. Been there, done that....have suffered the consequences.

So try this. Show the NWU manifesto at the bank, and see if they care. But if you show them a check from a publication that you compromised with, it will be posted that night.

On Sports, Women and War

I think the war support from many women is partially sports-trained. Although sports is obviously non-lethal (at least in most cases), both sports and war rely on a hierarchical command structure in which one must outthink, outsmart, and outfight an opponent. Depending on the sport, it can also be about penetration of territory and humiliating your opponent. Less so when it is you against outside forces, you trying to gain the maximum out of your own body (mountain climbing, cycling, etc.), but the very m.o. for most team sports.

The thing to remember here is that in a real sense, sports is a surrogate for war. I would liken sports-war to certain types of slow dancing and their implications of sex. One is a not-so-subtle substitute for the other. Take a listen to the analogies used in the sporting world -- "blitz" for rushing the quarterback, for instance. Or sports scores: decisive 11-2 baseball scores are adjectivized by "smash," "crush," etc. I would think that among societal elements with a predisposition toward looking on successful athletes as heroes, the support for war would come as a more intuitive psychosocial profile fit than, say, among naturopaths and their pony-tailed, Taoist boyfriends (or girlfriends).

I think back to my days at, and on, college campuses. The jocks were pro-Nam. The fraternity and sorority people -- also members of groups comprised of those favorably inclined toward hierarchical command than free thought -- were also largely pro-Nam.

I follow sports (though not as a pro-violence person). It seems that whenever I see an athlete or ex-athlete run for a political office, or back a candidate, there is a Republican involved. The last athlete I remember being elected as a Democrat was Bill Bradley, who is now, 58 or so.

So it would stand to reason that the women who call for revenge are pre-disposed to fall for guys who were born with that gene. They find that thinking "attractive." Extension of the view of their man as their "protector." Women who would not be attracted to that mindset would not have married guys like that, or would have divorced them if he turned out to be that way.

I would bet that among married women with hyphenated names, there is less enthusiasm for war. You know why? Except when hyphenated names are used as part of ethnic traditions, hyphenated names often carry an implication that "we are equal in this marriage," and "neither of us are the other's 'property.'" Such evolved thought obviates against a predisposition to revere hierarchy, violence, and against the domination of one by another.

About War and Love

As I write this many who I hold dear are afraid, and beyond the political analysis of it all, are reaching out in confusion, anger, bewilderment, and for a sense of comfort.

For that, we do not look to our leaders. We may well expect efficient militarily and politically efficient execution on their part. But we must understand that to be elevated to a position of high political, military, and financial status in our society most often demands a type of aggression gene that is not necessarily compatible with the characteristics of a peaceful, introspective, gentle personality. That is why the gentle ones are poets, artisans, and philosophers, and the turbocharged strivers run the world.

And as so far as the religious leaders are concerned, some but too few fit into the philosopher class, but others merely provide superficial and ultimately transparent moral cover for the aggression that has plagued us as a species even before we were a species. Listen to an angry animal, or an animal in pain. The tone in their roar, or grunt, or cry is of the same sound as we emit when we are angry or wounded. When we turn on the Discovery Channel and see two animals lock horns over territory, we see our own past. And present. And future.

Do I want Saddam gone? I cannot say not. Let me tell you a short story. Right after September 11, I experienced an evening when I wasn't actively thinking about the tragedy. Then, at the upper end of my stairwell, in a hard to reach encasing, I saw a rather large mosquito. I reached for the spray to smoke him out. He kept darting about, shifting, flying, hiding. I finally stopped, figuring that the toxin would cripple him and he would die. Then, I thought how similar my actions could well be against what probably lies ahead. The desire to deal death to that which has invaded our home. The aggression urge is potentially renderable in all of us.

In a world run by the gentle (the immediately recognizable oxymoron informs my earlier point), Osama bin-Laden and Saddam would be captured and their fortunes confiscated, and put to the establishment of a peace institute, or in Osama's case, to scholarship funds for the surviving children of the murdered WTC and Pentagon workers. Another, perhaps even more fitting idea, would be the endowment of a worldwide life flight fund to fly victims of illness and disaster for treatment. Listen, Bin Laden's planning was a perversion of the gift and wonder of flight, raining death from the sky. I can think of no more karmically appropriate redress than his ill riches being used to once again, turn the skies into a place of healing for all of humanity.

But given who we are as a species that is not to be. Truthfully, I do hope for victory in Iraq-- it is infinitely preferable to the forces of the dark side. But, in conflicted and perhaps guilt-ridden rooting for the bombers and missiles and Special Forces and underground ops, we must watch out that we do not emulate the impulses of the dark side. And, as individuals, the only way we can do this is to marshal the gentleness and love within us, and turn it outward. With ears and minds wide open to the protestations of those who we cannot understand, with arms wide open to that which is around us.

When you pick up an injured bird, a bird that was created by the Great Force to fly through the same sky which dealt death to thousands, and then restore that bird to flight, we are doing our tiny part to restore order and love to the universe.

We can all do our part.

You Can Call Him "Al"

"The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiousity does not live through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but striving after rational knowledge." - Albert Einstein

Six Feet Under-- Still An Alternate Reality?

You know, I am not entirely sure that the season so far isn't a Nate "alternate reality." If my hunch is right, it will be revealed in fifth episode, when Brenda comes back. I mean, R Griffiths is still listed as a member of the permanent cast, and Lili Taylor is not. Briefly noting clip of next (fourth) episode at the end of last night's show, I saw another dialog between Nate and late Dad. Maybe that is a tease for a bombshell in fifth episode. But we have to wait: I am sure they won't show a new episode next Sunday, which is Oscar nite.

Freedom Is Another Word For "Everything To Lose"

All those fans who are lighting up the radio station call boards with anti Dixie Chick flames, even burning their CDs: isn't it remarkable how many people yell the loudest about "freedom" are the ones most threatened by it? That's because, deep down, their definition of freedom does not stretch to let others do and say what they want. It's being let to be able to do whatever the hell I want.

When It Will Begin

Just a guess. I say the "formal" war starts in earnest maybe 1 a.m. Baghdad time this Saturday. That would put it at 5 p.m. EST/2 p.m. PST Friday. Why early Saturday a.m.? The advantages of night vision, infrastructure damage on weekend might reduce casualities. Give the inspectors and diplomats enuf time to get out, throw the Iraquis off-step since they expect an attack sooner (kind of like calling time out to freeze the FG kicker); miss the invective of Friday morning prayers --if the news is good, the following Friday prayers will be muted.

There were 25k-30K peaceniks demonstrating here in Portland on Saturday. A cynic might say that the reason Bush isn't paying attention is that he knows that few if any of these people voted for him anyway. The rigid "red state" religious -- some of whom seem to harbor a prophecy-driven global death-and-rebirth wish-- did. Even here, which Bush didn't carry, I see flags and fish on many of the same SUVs. It's all about receptivity to a male-dominated hierarchy -- male God, male military, male government.

Derricks On The Tundra

I understand that the Bush Administration is within one vote of getting a bill through that will open up areas of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. They are fighting hard to turn one of three Republicans who have not backed the proposal.

One of these Republicans is Norm Coleman from Minnesota. I'll tell you what is ironic about all this. His path to election was eased by the fact that Minnesota's incumbent Senator, Paul Wellstone was killed in a plane crash during icy and windy conditions. He was killed by the savagery of nature -- the same majestic savagery of nature that drilling in ANWAR -- if approved by his accidental successor -- would harm.

And I will tell you something else that irks me. Just about every born-again in the Senate is for drilling. And these same God-fearers mocked Clinton for staining a dress. The tundra that would run risk of being violated by drilling in ANWAR was made by God. That dress was not made by God -- but by sweat shop workers in Third World nations -- those same sweat shop workers whose ethnic characteristics would probably single them out for extra screening at the airport, and dirty looks from too many of our fair-haired citizenry.

Dixie Chicks, But Not "Dixie Chicken!"

When the lead singer of the Dixie Chicks --who, incidentally are all from Texas -- criticizes our Iraq policy, then you know something's up. I mean, with the exception of (white) gospel music, you can't get more "patriotic" than country.

Whether you agree with her or not, and I am not sure I do entirely -- gotta say took guts. Here's the link. How much you wanna bet their tour manager got a tongue-lashing from their corporate record company!! Something along the lines of, "don't the girls realize who their fans are?"

Good Things From Bush and the Supreme Court

What was the last 24-hour period in which the Supreme Court, and President Bush both did good things?

Well, the Supreme Court stayed an execution in Texas today. They usually are not prone to do so. Why am I happy? If you punish people because killing is wrong, and then you sanction state-sponsored killing, there is a kind of hypocritical disconnect there. At least for me.

And Bush, normally reflexively simpatico to corporate America, signed the telemarketing do-not-call list bill today. I can't stand these people and their damn auto-dialers. Not only how they interrupt dinner, but those damn five seconds of silence after you pick up and before they start speaking. One time, I got so exasperated at the silence, I said, "if you're a telemarketer, fuck you."

Click. Ha!

Overlooked Candidates For the Rock Hall

As someone who has been rockin' since the early days, and used to be a music critic way back when, I note each years Rock and Roll Hall of Fame awards with intense interest. I agree with most if not all of this year's honorees. I would like to see others get in who have not so far. Here are my choices, not to the exclusion of others:

Sex Pistols-They invented pissed-off punk. Critics always loved them, so expect them in next year.

Pick one: Kiss, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath- theatrical rock has never been a favorite of mine, but when it came to glam and outrageousness combined with power chords, these guys set the tone.

Lynyrd Skynyrd- Another tone-setter, defining the state of a region's thrusting and rebellious rock from the 1970s through today. I guarantee you, as I type this, hundreds of bands throughout the southern U.S. (as well as plenty of others in other parts of the nation) are playing cover versions of "Free Bird." Most of the original band members are either dead or have been quite ill, so I would like to see them get in sooner rather than later.

The Monkees-You read me right. They were the first pre-fab band to achieve significant success as teen idols. Everyone that followed, from New Kids On The Block to the Backstreet Boys, owes the Monkees a big debt. They made great records, and conducted themselves with grace. I am typing this sentence so Google will find it, and like-minded people will find me: The Monkees deserve to be in the Rock Hall of Fame.

A Tax On All Your Houses

I'll admit my vulnerability here. Although I am a high-end renter, I am still a renter. So those who would shout me down about what I am about to say here have a ready-made argumentum ad hominem.

I read an article today about the Federal government, and the state governments, having to slash social services. Many thousands no longer qualify for medicare, or for a whole host of social services. Sure, the economy is aggrieved, people's incomes are down, the unemployment rolls are rising, and 401(k)s are tanking.

What isn't tanking? Home values, which went up 7.9 percent last year. Yet the tax writeoff on home mortgage interest is sacrosant. Why? Well, property owners vote, and renters, some of whom are transient, do not vote in the turnout percentages that homeowners do. In my opinion, this policy is nothing more than reverse Robin Hood-ism. It needs to be revisited.

I am not proposing a wholesale overturning of home mortgage deductibility. Not that it would ever happen, but such a sweeping move would be too much of a financial shock for many homeowners. But I would favor a phaseout, with lower ceilings of deductibility over time.

At the same time, property tax ceilings now in effect in many states and localities ought to be raised. Even by a point or two, perhaps tied in to budget deficits for the previous year or the previous biannum.

When this nation was founded, the landed gentry was a special class. It still is, and that's not right.

Would You Like "Liberty Fries" With That?

Pulled this link off a French Web site. You know, the people who made the fries before they were renamed Liberty Fries by avenging, apocolyptic Christian patriots.

Click here.

What Would Al Do?

I wonder how many of the peace demonstrators with anti-Bush invective in their voices and placards made it possible for Bush to win the election (or, at least made it contestable).

Let me put it another way. OK, Nader voters, you happy now?

What "Block" You Talkin' About?

A couple of weeks ago, I heard that diva Jennifer Lopez and her entourage got into limousines to "travel" approximately 100 years between appointments in London.

Hearkening back to her upbringing in a lower-middle class Bronx neighborhood, Ms. Lopez often refers to herself as "Jenny from the block." But it sure sounds to me that while that account of her origins is accurate, her current mindset sounds like her current "block" is Rodeo Drive.

Got To Believe It's Getting Better

Enjoyed Sunday night's episode of "Six Feet Under" more than the first one of this new season. More clarity.

At start of episode, I thought the guy in the kitchen was going to fry eggs, eat them and then keel over. The fact that he was contacted by a telemarketer, only to hear the carnage of death over the phone, was example of the twists that I still find fascinating.

Six Feet Asunder

Love the show but I had trouble figuring out last night's episode. It started out in an "alternate realities" flight of fancy, but I am unclear if -- and if so, when -- the flight of fancy stopped and the "real" story line kicked in. Gee, I hope this show doesn't get toooo weird !!

The Fire That Time

During my hiatus from this Blog, the West Warwick, R.I. nightclub fire killed nearly 100 people. I have some perspective. During the 1970s and 1980s, I was a rock critic for several magazines and newspapers. I got to understand the mentality of the clubowner, the tour manager, and the hair bands that ruled much of the charts and road at the time. While I have no direct, or even indirect knowledge of what happened here, I will tell you that on a generic basis, much of the desire to set off pyrotechnics in enclosed spaces comes from ego and greed on the part of the directly involved parties. Rock musicians and tour managers may consider "pyro" as a perfect visual template to reinforce musical bombasticism. Clubowners may consider displays creative exercise of production values. These same clubowners may have scrimped in their acquisition and installation of fire-retardant materials. As to fire marshals and other fire inspection types, some are vigilant and by-the-book. Others do not wish to thwart a town landmark by cutting corners and being too anal about enforcement. Sometimes this happens because the fire inspector knows the clubowner's Dad. Other fire inspectors may have financially informed reasons for looking the other way.

As of this post, we are seeing lots of mega ass-covering. Speaking of "covering," the graves of the perished are covered by earth. I just hope this fire was a sin of omission, not of commission. If anyone bribed anybody to allow this pyro to go on, may the bribe-maker and bribe-takers rot in hell.

Damn You, MSNBC

Liberal talk-show host (what an unfortunate oxymoron) Phil Donahue has been axed by MSNBC. I have covered television over three decades, and I understand how poor ratings made that decision necessary. Yet they are replacing Phil by hiring some truly objectionable types. It sure sounds like a rightward turn. Pardon me while I barf. Why do I so forcefully expectorate in this salon of ideas? Michael Savage is a bigot, a racist, and a loudmouth. More than one X chromosome ex has been furloughed by this writer after she reflected positive about this top-of-the-line asshole. Two of their other hires draw only slightly less derisiveness from me. Former House Republican leader Dick Armey is supposed to have a libertarian streak, but judging by his voting record, Armey's libertarianism stops at the bedroom door. Joe Scarborough, a former Congressman from the Redneck Riviera part of Florida, is, by the nature of his beer-blast personality, a little more tolerable. The only new hire I like is Jesse Ventura.

Resume "Spreading The News"

I have been on a business trip. Although I was laptop-enabled, I haven't been in the mind-place to post here. Now, I'm back.