Posted on 11/01/2001 7:57:46 AM PST by Skooz
I have been a news junky since I was a small child. I was born in 1960 and clearly remember watching the Vietnam War on TV and in the newspapers. Watergate seems like last week. I actually spent many hours watching the hearings on TV (those of you who are old enough will remember).
I have been a highly informed citizen all my life. I have spent countless hours scouring newspapers and news sites for details of political and world events.
The result? Oh, just another example of the biblical truth, "For in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow (Ecclesiastes 1:18)." Well, that may be overstating it, but I DO look at my grossly under-informed family and friends as they stroll through life blissfully unaware of the treachery of the whacko Left and the slanted view of the media and I am a little--no, a lot--envious.
Why do I give a rat's rear end what the Liberal nuts are doing? Why can't I be like my brother-in-law who, rather than concern himself with such matters, spends countless hours and dollars fishing. He doesn't have a clue what's going on in Washington. He does not care! What bliss! He simply has no interest. His boat and his new lures are infinitely more important to him than the lies being spread by Democrats, or the loony-left's anti-war (anti-American) campaign. I see these idiots on TV and I want to pick up something and throw it at the screen--he just chuckles and turns the channel to Bonanza. How does he do that?
I'm not picking on my bro-in-law. He's actually very intelligent (probably more than I), he is just uninformed and DOESN'T CARE! I tried to give up caring about the news and current events in 1997 and 1998--when the slavish news media were groveling before King Bubba begging to follow Monica's lead. I had reached the limit to what I could endure. I just gave it up and tried to dedicated my time to my family and my guitar. I would read guitar magazines rather than the Wall Street Journal editorial page. I would watch guitar instructional videos rather than the news. But, no matter how hard I tried, I never made it until noon. Where can I find the bliss enjoyed by so many uninformed people? I want to be one of the sheeple!
Done.
LOL. Too late.
As to your original post, I understand your point completely.
And I want to be rich...
I am a fourth generation genie and have granted your wish.
What are your other two wishes?
And I must confess I now have a portable TV in my car since 9-11.
But the absolute WORST thing I ever did was, back in the fall, the weekend before the election, at a HUGE wedding in Chapel Hill, I held forth in the bar at the reception with all the FAT CAT donors to the GOP who had lost all hope that Bush was going to win; I gave a virtual lecture on the Electoral College using YOUR graphs and charts....when I think back on it, it's really embarassing. However, they now introduce me to all their fat cat friends as "the only woman on earth who thought George Bush could win."
You correct them and say "knew he would win", right?
Your friend is wrong. There's just not enough of them in NY. :-)
Exactly! You nailed it.
-- John Stuart Mills
I consider myself lucky that my hubby puts up with my "addiction" to current events. Heck, given my lineage (daughter of a "pol"; permitted to arrive late to grade school day after conventions' last nights; sister 1 worked for McCord at CREEP; sister 2 wrote the letters (on Reagan's behalf) to the Lebanon bombing victims' families, etc.), it could be much worse. I could have actually gone into politics myself!
Makes me smile when hubby (a banker) ponders, "how can liberals be so stupid?," or little one favors Buchannan 'cuz, "he's the only one who's truly pro-life." Lesson: count your blessings where you find them.
Snip snip...from article
"in other situations, feedback is absent, or at least more ambiguous; even a humorless joke, for example, is likely to be met with polite laughter. And social norms prevent most people, when faced with incompetence, from blurting out, ``You stink!'' -- truthful though this assessment may be. "
Above is not the case on FR! The beauty of the forum.
That was a good article. Thanks for the link.
I work with people who could care less and really don't want to be bothered with facts. When we are out on the road together, they are drinking and playing cards by the pool while I am glued to the tv and eating in my room. As it turns out, my instincts were right, but I too often long for the days of ignorance; however I realize also that that would require a return to having nothing to be concerned about. Thanks to Bubba Clinton, it may be a very long time before we are able to relax and forget about it.
On a more positive note, we have George W. Bush in the white House and not Al (the inventor) Gore. And we have all our friends here at Free Republic, so it could be much worse. Just imagine if all we had were Al Gore, CNN, and DU. Could've happened. Didn't. Perhaps had we been less vigilant the defining difference may have cut the other way. Count your blessings fellow FReepers. I rest my case.
Skooz is usually on the better side of an argument, but if he thinks he is going to get a lot of wives to do his work for him that is illegal now ... and he will have to stop drinking, smoking and cussing...do you know whether he likes Hatch?
You keep letting your brother in law hog the remote.
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