Those few

So I tuned into the ultra-mega super exclusive Diane Sawyer interview with Mel Gibson the other night. If you didn't see it, well let me tell you, it was a strange affair. Maybe it's only strange to me because I don't watch Sawyer and I wasn't used to that face she can make for extended periods of time. The face says, you're a liar and the whole world knows it and I'm so clevah that I'm making this face - boo. Or maybe it's because I've never watched Gibson try to sit still for an hour. That didn't work so well either.

But the thing that really made me go hmmmm, was when Sawyer started to grill Gibson about a series of articles written by NY Times columnist Frank Rich.

So Rich had written these articles (three of them I think) say anti-semite this and publicity stunt that and whatever. But my mind drifted back to a post that I wrote a week or so ago and Sawyer and Gibson started sounding fuzzy and I was thinking about Frank Rich.

Rich had written an article in the Times about the current state of marriage in America. Marriage ala media was making him sick and Diane Sawyer received his ire for how she had conducted a few interviews with leading couples. So we have Frank Rich, a New York Times columnist, writing about marriage.

And then I shook the cobwebs out of my head in time to see Diane Sawyer, now talking about evangelicals. And she had some b-roll going and I was thinking - wait, those don't look like the evangelicas I grew up around in Ohio. I wonder where they got that footage? And I wonder why they thought that evangelicals look like that?

So then I thought, there are a lot of people watching this and there are a lot of people reading Frank Rich. And from where I sat in NYC, I would take their words on marriage in America, goodness knows there's nothing much to contradict that around where I live and work. And I would now know what an evangelical looked like, because I don't know any from where I live or work.

But then I remembered that when I lived in Columbus, and Chicago and Indianapolis I did know a lot of evangelicals and a lot of married people. But I never made the connection because that's not who Rich and Sawyer were talking about. Those were normal people. People who went to work and did grocery shopping and normal things. Rich and co. were talking about Britney Spears and American Bachelor (or whatever) and all these freaky things. And the pictures of their evangelical were freaky and everything was not to be trusted and they knew all of this because . . .

That's were the mental train stopped. How the hell did they know?

Then I thought about all of the stuff that people say on TV and in print and they think they know and really they've never even seen what they are talking about, let alone lived it. Sure they've lived their lives, but they haven't lived the lives of others. And that is pretty offensive. To be telling an entire country that may not have experienced something before that "hey, I know what I'm talking about here." That's really frustrating.

I suppose that's an argument for people to get their news from locals. Word of mouth is just better for some things. The idea of a national professional journalist is pretty silly when you think about it. Especially if there are only a handful. That's downright crazy. Especially if they want to talk about places and people they've only ever flown over.

Not Quite a Traitor

I had another eBay victory the other day. I picked up a new Surly track hub for my back wheel. This will allow me to use my 32 hole Velocity rim which I so dearly love. I had planned on using the Velocity rims as a pair, but when I got the bike the rear hub was 36 hole, so no dice.

This is the first non-American Classic hub that I have ever purchased. I've tried a bunch of others, but never really found anything that felt better that AmClassics - yum yum. But since AmClassic isn't making a rear track hub these days, it's all a brother can do.

two thoughts on climate

Climate thought 1: The weather has been so nice the last two days that I have enjoyed riding to work in a sweater rather than a coat.

Climate thought 2: I remeber in Washington how when people argued about politics, there would be some lefties and some righties and some kookies and some free thinkers and some friends of free thinkers who were there for the free drinks. In New York it is different. It's like listening to a family fued - everyone is stilll arguing, but they all have the same accent. Since when did MoveOn.org publish a little red book?

Back to the Burn

I put on the running shoes for the first time tonight since I've moved to New York. Come to think of it, it may have been the first time since I left Florida last August. 37:05 later I almost wish I hadn't put them on at all. It's never much fun to start over. The curiosity of the first time is gone and the memory of the best time always forgets what it took to get there.

I'm going to call the route I ran tonight the Lighthouse Loop. There's a lighthouse on the north point of Roosevelt Island and tonight, I looped it. One down.

Hear no evil, see evil

Frank Rich wrote a piece for the New York Times the other day about what he sees as the state of marriage in America. I think I have seen a better side of marriage than he has in my life, but generally agree that what we see in front of us on our many one-way devices (tvs, movies, radios) is rather disturbing. What's more distubing is watching these things unfold with an audio track that says "sanctity of marriage." It always does wierd things to people when they are hearing words that they know have nothing to do with what they are seeing. We know we're being lied to, but working out who the liar is presents the real challenge. And beating them down is even harder.

Here's the conclusion to that article:

Yet neither the $1 million cash nor the $4 million ceremony that sealed their marital contract were mentioned when Trista and Ryan were interviewed by Ms. Sawyer on "Good Morning America." While the Deans were treated like freaks, the stars of "The Bachelorette" were treated as a perfectly normal all-American couple. And perhaps these days they are. Trista and Ryan's wedding broadcast was the top-rated show in virtually every major television market, the one exception being Washington, where it was beaten by a rerun of "Law and Order." If only more of our politicians had tuned in, maybe someone would have figured out that it could be harder to restore the sanctity of marriage than to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Out after dark

It's kinda late over here. Just got back in from changing the battery on the car. Made the mistake of letting it sit out on the street for three weeks without so much as a glance in that direction. During those three weeks we got about a foot of snow and barely saw the top side of thirty degrees. So not only was my battery comatose, but the car is about half-way encased in frozen black snow rock. I think they were once contemplating adding this stuff to the table of elements, but it only occurs in New York, so they were waiting on corroboration.

I just popped over to Ben's journal. Interesting observation there about a homeless fella juxstaposed against the thoughts that hold the national mind captive. Sometimes those sorts of realities make me think that people should never leave their neighborhoods or watch what other people do for entertainment - unless it's one on one. Everything is ridiculus at a scope as big as the super bowl and the national budget.

Over-civilization and barbarism are within an inch of each other. And a mark of both is the power of medicine-men.

eBay victory

Hey - I love eBay. Picked up this beautiful Colnago Precisa straight steel fork for my track bike this evening. I'm telling you what - you could save millions on eBay if you had the time to do it, or the need to spend millions on stuff.

One thing's fo-sure. I'll be the envy of all the bike-jackers as I cruise down the street to my undisclosed secure localtion.

The most straight talk ever to come out of washington

I never expect much, and generally dread having to read a speech given by a talking head from Washington. But I must confess that reading George Tenet's intellegence de-brief to a group of Georgetown students was really satisfying. No really. I went away less confused than when I started. Check it out.

If you want a good Cliff Notes version hit the NY Times whose piece hit all the bases and a few typos to boot.

Mork calling Roland

I'm starting to get settled in a little up here in NYC and tonight is the first time I've been able to give my new MovableType installation some love. So I takled an issue that my buddy Roland has been looking into - categories in the side nav.

So Roland here's the answer. Drop this bit of code in your index template after the calendar, search or archive code:


<div class="sidetitle">Categories</div>
<div class="side">
<MTCategories>
<a href="<$MTCategoryArchiveLink$>"><$MTCategoryLabel$></a>
<br>
</MTCategories>
</div>


Whoa there big hoss

I came across and interesting site today while I was tracing down a story I saw on Wonkette. The story was about the reaction of a Washington Post journalist to a blogger/UC Berkley Professor/former Clinton advisor who had criticised a story that appeared in the post.

The site is called the Blogging of the President and it is looking at how America is reflected in the way it chooses its commander in chief. Interesting stuff. But I was there chasing down this story which looks at the Wash Post incident as an indicator of the tension between the old guard media outlets and the new. Check it out won't ya?