Shut the Beck Up!

i wrote this 10/22 and posted on my facebook notes. i feel it belongs here

so this week i have decided rather than rot my brain with tv shows and other fun things while working overnight, i should read more. i stumbled upon the huffington post, though i've heard of it i never read anything from the site, and i have to say, some of the things i discovered scare me.

i got my first taste of glenn beck finally. my first bite i should say, since i have heard a few stupid things he's said and seen him cry on tv about how much he loves america (puh-lease). but some of this stuff shocks me. its a different kind of shock than when you get trolled by some idiot who sends you two girls one cup or shit like that. this is seriously dangerous banter that appeals to ignorant, racist and paranoid people. it amazes me that people on fox news call obama hitler when he tries to empower people to take responsibility for themselves and their community when all fox news does is falsely report and instigate fear on their channels. if you scare people enough they will violently react. kinda like... you know... hitler did with his propaganda. hmmm. i'm just saying.

now i'm a huge fan of the first amendment and anti-censorship so i'm not saying he shouldnt have the right to be on tv and speak his mind. or any one of the "beg the question" far right wing pundits (limbaugh oriely and hannity..etc) but where do we draw the line on what is acceptable and responsible broadcasting? people take shots but i haven't seen anything substantial that would force rupert murdock to second guess his tactics. now, i dont give a shit about janet jackson's old stupid tit. i am more concerned about fear mongers who do nothing but lie and rile people up without actually delivering any news on tv and radio.. etc.

it took half a semester of a logic class for me to formally learn the types of argumentative fallacies that are possible. i could tell when people made bullshit claims, but i finally had names for them now. i think the most dangerous one fox news commits on a daily basis has to do with their name. appeal to authority. fox news. NEWS. how much news casting is really on the channel? most of it is talk show banter. "but it has news right in the name! how could they say all that and get away with it?" i know right? thats what i'm wondering too...

CNN = cable news network. i'm no fan of CNN either since they make every single news story into a major motion picture and sensationalize the shit out of it. i think they are kind of guilty of the same thing fox news is but its not nearly as slanted and propagandist. MSNBC, a favorite for fox news to pick on. Microsoft/National Broadcasting Company. They broadcast things. no news in that name. NPR - national public radio. do you see where i'm going with this? i'm not trying to say the other listed networks dont pander. of course they do. how and what news gets out is an insane web of bullshit and money and political power. but i cant even touch on that one. i havent even gotten through the intro to manufacturing consent yet.

i dont feel like writing a huge essay right now even though i have already laid the groundwork rather sloppily, but i'll leave you with this to check out: http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/

i really suggest you at least skim the examples and definitions. you wont look at any claim of any topic the same.

ok so back on to the topic i started on. although i cant stand orielly or hannity either, they seem a little more harmless to me right now. maybe im ignorant. i probably am. but beck's balls scare me.

he has the balls to joke about poisoning speaker of the house nancy pelosi. third in line to the presidency. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UudQuVOwSds&feature=player_embedded how has he not been arrested for this or at least suspended and investigated? thats not something to joke about. regardless if its a political figure or the average joe. he is LOVING the idea of murdering somebody on live television. a guy in new jersey was arrested because he was overheard making threatening small talk about obama at a coffee cart. granted he is an airport security guard at an airport where obama was scheduled to fly into the next day, but he wasnt even on tv. he was over heard. they are talking about all the prison time he will probably face and he hasnt been arraigned yet. why hasnt anybody talked to beck in a quiet little room about this? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/21/john-breck-arrested-newar_n_328927.html

he has the audacity to belittle, mock and call efforts for people to help one-another maoism. wow. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/19/glenn-beck-slams-obama-en_n_326632.html
he mentions green week (first started in 07 when bush was president), special episodes and weeks are announced to the viewers. he insinuates its subliminal. he doesn't say it but the way i heard it, it sounds like thats what he's getting at. he says he would rather see people volunteer without the incentive of a free trip to disneyland. well, i bet a lot of people that currently volunteer will take advantage of the reward, and i have to ask - if the incentive doesnt cost you a dime, what do you care that they are trying to get americans to do good things? seriously! if disney wants to con you into doing something nice, at their own expense, why is it an issue? or he mentions no need for volunteering for a disaster that hasnt happened yet. ok-hunger is the first thought that comes to mind. thats a disaster many americans face every single day. volunteer and or donate to a food bank/soup kitchen/homeless shelter... etc.


i am doing my best not to use argumentative fallacies in my own political rants because i dont want to be that guy. i try to have data to backup my claims and not just preech and rant and rave. im sure i slipped and threw in a few insults. dont take an insult as evidence for an argument. i am obviously annoyed with these people so thats my personal opinion. i dont feel like going back and editing this entire thing. its 4am for pete's sake! (by the way, who is pete? peter the apostle? hmmm wait, peter was an apostle, right? great now all the comments will be about this)

anyway... comment away. i want to know if seeing or hearing people incite fear, spread false information and slander others is scary to you.

EDIT: so i just saw one more video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szlLM5lCNJg&feature=player_embedded

art and/or history majors, please weigh in. i need to go find out what formal education glenn beck has to decide what each image is supposed to represent. and you know... as if what he says in general isnt offensive enough, he has to do it in that sarcastic, mocking tone. i would drop any class i was in if a professor lectured like that.

and fascism? relating progressives to fascist? read up on fascism and go read up on what a dictator is. then check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_aujjUA4lI

fascist and dictators scare you out of your rights and empower you to be with the government or against it. that doesnt sound very progressive to me.

maybe im just an angry, ignorant punk poseur who knows just enough.

whatever.

Daily dose of truth

I was thinking of ideas for this blog today because I want to update it more often. A lot of times stuff just comes to me and sometimes it just doesn't. That's why I never pursued writing for a newspaper. I don't know if I could pull ideas and pieces out of my ass on a regular basis with deadlines and whatnot. But then I had an idea a few minutes ago for a nightly piece I could post: Daily does of truth. It will be anything from one sentence to a whole huge post about things that just need to be said that seem glaringly obvious but nobody else seems to see.

Without further ado, here's the first one:

Sans a few songs from the last two albums, Green Day hasn't put out anything decent since Warning. That's right, I said Warning, not Dookie or Insomniac or something else. Warning was Green Day's Pinkerton in my eyes. Except it probably did way better in sales and reviews than Pinkerton (Weezer) did (but we all know Pinkerton is the shit).

Warning was a different album for Green Day compared to their previous albums and I remember everybody giving me shit when I would say I liked it. Well, all you people from 7 years ago, way to pan that album. Now we are stuck with Green Day in eyeliner, shitty straightened hair and uniforms. Way to go. You pan an album and the band freaks and gives up/sells out. I hate saying bands sell out. People called Green Day a sellout when they did Warning because it wasn't pop-punk. I thought it was great to see them try new things and they pulled it off well. Strapping on a uniform and thinking your a punk rock Bono (Tom, I'll get to you soon) and writing mega-anthems and rock opera shit is selling out to me. Was NOFX's The Decline given as much coverage? An 18 minute song about the real, gritty sides of America and politics. No. It wasn't broken up into 3 minute songs to appease the gnat sized attention spans of the lowest common denominator record buyer.

But...I am a sucker for an upbeat, catchy pop-punk song and Green Day did deliver a few of those on each of their last albums. And its not to say they didn't try on the last two either. I feel like 21st Century Breakdown was an extended side B of American Idiot. I give them a B+ for effort but I just don't like it. I feel like its cool to change your style up a bit and try new things as an artist, but when it comes to bands, the fan base and loyalty can be volatile and you shouldn't upset the way things are. I'm sure they don't want to be 50 and still playing When I Come Around. I don't blame them at all. Sellout or just adventurous primadonnas-either way. I still think when a band decides to go a direction completely different than the original course, they should just create an alter ego. Green Day did this with The Network and Foxborough Hot Tubs but I think they should have done it again with the last 2 records. Why the hell not? Like their label will say no to them if they want to have 5 bands with the same members.

Billie Joe, please take off the eye liner and stop dying and straightening your hair. You should all dress like you did on the cover of Warning, not stylish high school pop punk bands from 2002. The black and red thing is cool looking, I'll give you that. But come on. Also, either call your second guitarist who plays most of your parts a real part of the band and give him as much time in the lime light as you, Mike and Tre get or kick him out and be a trio again. I'm sure your monetary arrangement works fine. Money money money to play guitar and be in the band but not really. If you want to be a rock star and run and skip around the stage at your shows, make him a full fledged member. Otherwise go back to stripped down three piece music. Its more genuine. You all seem so high and mighty in your interviews. Especially since I never see that guy sitting there talking. I'm even calling him "that guy". I'm sure I could find his name within seconds on Google, but I've been a fan since 1998 and I still haven't heard it.

Meh.

Seeing Red

Dear City of Fresno and City of Clovis,

You have some shit to answer for. First, thank you for the greatly unnecessary repaving of Shaw Ave. It's not like other streets were in worse disrepair. On to the bullshit: Why in the hell did it take me 15 min to drive 5 miles down Shaw AT FOUR AM?! You assholes forgot to put the sensors in the intersections. I had to wait for every combination of signals to go before me (and some switched back and skipped me all together). I was the only car on the road-literally. Why aren't all lights on Shaw either green or all reds with WORKING SENSORS to auto turn green as I approach? I ran the last red light to turn left onto Cedar and it almost gave me an erection.

Executive decision: I will intentionally run all unnecessary but safe red lights late at night. And I will fight and win any tickets. Thank you.

Love,

Ben Mooneyham

The above is what i just posted in a note on Facebook. Then I remembered I had a blog specifically for complaining about such an occasion. Does anybody else have this problem where they live? It doesn't have to be because the roads are new. Maybe your streets don't have any at all.

This subject has always enraged me and my dad. He brought up a good point once, one I also had! His point was, waiting at stop lights when you shouldn't be pollutes the air more. Cars pollute the most when idling and when first starting up.

I want to see a study. I'm sure NTSB or some damn agency can find numbers on this. I want to see the average (and low and high) times spent at stop lights in any given instance. As in, a number in seconds or minutes that says about how long I will spend at any given stoplight. Next I want to know how many intersections use outdated or malfunctioning light systems (how many don't have sensors). Now I want the numbers on pounds of carbon/sec (or min.) idling cars produce, on average. Let's use averages to be conservative-I'm sure the numbers will still be startling. Finally, lets get the number of cars that are on the road every day. NOW! Let's throw all those numbers and rates into the button thingy with numbers and see how much we as a country pollute every year due to nothing more than in accurate and aging stoplights.

I bet the number would be ridiculously insane. Ridiculous, even.

If you really want to make it a 1 2 punch to the government(?) lets use some of those numbers and calculate how much unnecessary stress is put onto drivers stuck in traffic that is caused only by these lights and how many years we stress away. I've heard hours spent in traffic per lifetime. I'm sure you can multiply the two or something to find yet another number.

On my drive at 4am, when the light cycle went all the way around and skipped me I screamed in my car at the top of my lungs and made my ears ring for a minute. This happened another time shortly before I ran the last light. I cannot stand being in traffic but I generally accept it and try to save my outbursts for the really bad drivers... but I have zero patience for artificial traffic. The entire trip back to work on my lunch break had me seeing red.