May 12, 1996
The major networks (ABC, CBS, & NBC) have lost 32 million viewers from their nightly newscasts since 1986, from 81 million down to the present 49 million. Hmm, another ten years and Peter, Dan, and Tom's audiences will consist strictly of idiots and half-wits, a nice parity considering what they will be listening to.
M is for the preliminary million-dollar advertising
appropriation,
O means that she is always white-haired, bespectacled, and at
least eighty-five years old,
T is for the telegraph message number 31B, which contains a
tastefully blended expression of sentiment and
congratulation,
H is for the coast-to-coast questionnaire which proves
conclusively that seven-and-one-half citizens out of every
ten with incomes of $5000 a year or better would rather have
their mother than gold,
E is for the elephants which everybody is very happy didn't sit
down on their mothers,
R is for rosemary, which is for remembrance of the fact that a
mother is one thing you will never have more than one of,
Put them all together and, before you can say H. St. C.,
Wellington Carruthers,
They spell the second of two things that everybody who loves
their mother only once a year, and then only at the
instigation of the Chamber of Commerce, is a son of.
... Ogden Nash
The day will come when in the State of New York a multitude of people, none of whom has more than half a breakfast, or expects to have more than half a dinner, will choose a Legislature. Is it possible to doubt what sort of a Legislature will be chosen? ... There is nothing to stop you. Your Constitution is all sail and no anchor. As I said before, when a society has entered upon this downward progress, either civilisation or liberty must perish... Your Huns and Vandals will have been engendered within your own country by your own institutions.
... Lord Macaulay
[Wrong in a way, right in a way. Ed.]
I think I understand now why the federal government is so expensive. Check this out (from the Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1996):
Oct., 1992 Employees % Monthly Payroll %
(1000) ($1,000,000)
Federal (civilian) 3,047 16 9,937 23
State & Local 15,698 84 33,183 77
The size of the feds is like having ten more state governments (with no citizens), but at the cost of twenty-five more.
Even more disturbing is the notion that when one adds the retirees, military, civil service, and social security, and the welfare recipients, and the social security disability recipients, and the beltway bandits, and all the other recipients of government largesse to the totals above, one gets numbers that suggest we may already be above Lord Macaulay's critical level for totally corrupt democracy.
Serial killer "Dr." Jack Kevorkian is going to be acquitted again because he is being tried for the wrong crime. Instead of charging him with assisting a suicide, the state needs to try him for murder. He fulfills all the requirements for the definition of serial killer: he repeats his crime ritual over and over in almost exactly the same manner; he maintains documentation of each criminal event; he consciously evades capture through a sliver in the legal definitions of murder; he makes up long explanations and rationalizations that end up blaming society for his crimes.
Kevorkian seeks out victims who are sick, depressed, and in a suicidal state of mind, poor incurably or terminally ill patients who are in pain or constant distress; he "evaluates" them, so that he can defend himself at a trial; he then hands them the weapon of their destruction, shows them how to use it, and watches while they operate it. When his victims have fulfilled his wishes, his twisted and perverted fantasies, he uses their agony to preach to us about his cult of death.
If his supporters are so enthusiastic about Kevorkian's ideas, why don't they go ahead and take one of his prescriptions in advance of need: the need is bound to come eventually, after all, and if it so wonderful, why wait? Answer: it is a lie. Jack Kevorkian is a heartless, cold-blooded murderer, without mercy or conscience, and he should be in prison.
What on earth would you have to do or say in order for the media to characterize you as a "left-wing extremist"? I have to admit I am baffled.
I investigated five of the top news organizations on the Internet to determine their use of the term "____-wing extremist". Of course, if one simply searches for "extremist", the references pour out in a flood, almost always referring to the right-wing variety. So, I searched for the full usage, "right-wing extremist" and "left-wing extremist". I counted the number of stories in which the term was used one or more times, using their own search facilities. Here are the results:
right-wing left-wing
extremist extremist
CNN 5 0
USAToday 1 0
Time 5 1
LA Times 3 0
PoliticsUSA 5 0
Wall Street Journal 0 0
The one occurrence of "left-wing extremist" in Time magazine was in a letter to the editor that in fact used both terms. So it must be said that Time did not author any use of the term "left-wing extremist", though it printed one use. The case of the Wall Street Journal, which reports a great deal of political news, makes it clear that the use of this term by the other news services is gratuitous. This bias is appalling.
A couple of particular instances are interesting. In a cover story on the Unabomber from last year (pre-arrest), Time did not use the term "left-wing extremist" (though it would certainly have been justified), but with supremely twisted logic managed to work the term "right-wing extremist" into their report:
"... the Unabomber, like the right-wing extremists believed to be responsible for the Oklahoma City blast, views terror as a way to fight what he sees as a pernicious trend in modern society."
Then, PoliticsUSA's ElectionLine service search produced the prize catch of the day, in an AP story from Feb. 12, 1996:
"... Gore accused the Republicans of 'toeing the line for right-wing extremists.'"
The bias; it's official. The trouble is, there are so many of them. The media and the administration have characterized the following as right-wing extremists at some time or another:
- opponents of abortion;
- opponents of gun-control;
- supporters of Pat Buchanan, Bob Dornan, and Alan Keyes;
- opponents of affirmative action;
- supporters of the Contract with America;
- opponents of environmental legislation;
- radio fans of Rush Limbaugh & G. Gordon Liddy;
- critics of the ATF;
- supporters of school prayer;
- critics of the ACLU;
- supporters the militias;
- opponents of the welfare state; and
- supporters of the Christian Coalition.
Who's left? Of Clinton, that is.
Circumstances have a funny way combining to satisfy everyone's needs. While listening to an excruciatingly boring commencement speech (at a university that shall remain nameless, in a city that shall remain nameless, for a beloved relative who shall remain nameless) and wondering what I would be writing for this section of FRATRICIDE, I happened to glance through the dissertation titles published for this spring's Ph.D. candidates. Some of their "contributions to knowledge" were (and I promise that not a word has been changed),
- "Nobody knows, so still it flows": The Discourse of Water in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson
- Young Children's Communicative Strategies During Pretend Play in the Context of the Block Center
- The Beginnings of Pedophilia: Lifestyles of Juvenile Perpetrators
- A Partial Analysis of Adult Students in the Public Four Year Institutions in Oklahoma
- Job Satisfaction Among Women Accounting Educators
- The Role of Electronic Messaging in the Intermediate Business Context
- Getting It On Home: Ways of Telling the Story
- Life-Styles of Women Who Emerge as Leaders in Small Group Settings
When I was tuning through a bunch of pop stations on the radio a few weeks ago, I stopped momentarily on a station that was broadcasting medieval organum: I almost had a wreck. After some research, I discovered it to be a recording of Anúna, an Irish vocal group whose musical work covers an almost unimaginably broad spectrum of music of Irish origin, from chant and ancient folk music to modern works. I generally have little taste for explicitly ethnic music, but this was amazing: I bought the tape. The selection in question was "Media Vita", a 10th century chant that has been rendered in a slightly more up-to-date fashion than the original; but the authenticity is unmistakable.
While there are several more very interesting works on the recording, mostly mixtures of modern styles with ancient themes, one other stood out for me: "The Blue Bird", a setting of Mary Coleridge's poem by the 19th century Irish composer Charles Villier Stanford. This is exquisitely performed by Anúna in a perfectly straight manner, and it is a stunner.
Anúna appears on the Celtic Heartbeat label from Atlantic Records 82733-4.
Special note:
FRATRICIDE is taking a recess for the next two months while I do a bit of resting and traveling. But FRATRICIDE will return in August with the First Anniversary Issue, packed with commentary about the stuff you love to hate. What with the current White House occupants, the upcoming political conventions, and the coming election, there may have to be a FRATRICIDE Extra! or two in the mean time, so keep your mailboxes open.
It has been a fun first year. Thanks for your support and comments.
Warmest regards,
All contents © Copyright 1995, 1996 by Redmon Barbry ¶ 10:10 PM
