Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Random Thoughts



Film At 11pm

Maybe this whole 'reality' thing is just a dream.

I got up early this morning. Couldn't sleep much because we have a new dog. Like many of our pets he was abandoned in our neighborhood as a puppy. He is an American Bulldog we have named Maximus (Max for short). He is all of 4 months old and we just had him neutered. So he kept us awake all last night as the anesthesia wore off.

As I sat in the early morning twilight watching the morning news I started to question the sanity of the world I inhabit. Let me give you a few of the examples:

News Story #1: A study has shown that in these tough economic times, many viewers don't know which bills to pay first. Many opt to pay their cable and cellphone bills before paying their mortgage or power bills, because these are the services that they feel they cannot live without. Bad Idea, always make sure to pay your Mortgage, Power and Car Payments before you pay for your Credit Cards and Cable / Cellphone. That way you won't loose your house and car.

.....excuse me? You really have to tell people this? They can't make the leap of logic that if they don't pay the power and mortgage, they won't have a home to plug the cellphone into and watch TV?

News Story #2: Dangerous Soccer (Futbol) Fields....the news story you, and your children, can't afford to miss, tonight at 10pm. The story being, that many soccer goals on playing fields are NOT anchored down and if your children climb on them they could tip over and injure the child(ren).

.....no kidding? I always thought this was natural selection. Nature weeds out the youth that aren't smart enough to make it in their environment. Do they still have 'Monkey Bars' and 'Teeter-Tooters' on playgrounds? Do they have any idea how dangerous those devices are as well? What ever happened to this concept of supervision and teaching your children responsibility. Why don't we just cover children in bubble-wrap and make them wear a helmet when they leave the house. It a dangerous world after all and lord forbid if they get hurt.

News Story #3: They arrested the man that rear ended a police cruiser, killing the police officer inside last Saturday. This comes as no big shock to folks living here but here are the facts about the man accused of the murder. He is Hispanic. He has 3 warrants out for his arrests. He has been arrested before for driving under the influence (for which one of his prior warrants was issued) and he is an illegal alien that has been deported back to Mexico FOUR times. It appears that he did not have a lot of trouble getting back into the United States after each deportation.

.....for those of you that might wonder what the big deal is about illegal immigration, this sort of sums it up. We caught and released this illegal alien three times, deported him each time before he went to court and he still managed to get back into the country and kill a police officer in a drunken stupor. Seems like the 'system' (if you can call it that) really isn't working to well.

Finally, I left the house at 6:30am to take my walk to the office. As I was walking across the Bridge of Sorrow I noticed that the freeway traffic headed westbound underneath me was at a stand-still. Thousands of cars were backed up to the horizon. As I walked over them I could hear the sound of helicopters swooping in from all directions.

There are four major television stations in the Phoenix Metro area. Each of them has a news helicopter. There are so many of them that two of them actually collided last year while covering a story. Whenever there is a relatively gruesome accident (usually involving a rolled over vehicle, a fire, or a dead body laying on the pavement), the 'News Vultures' swoop in and hover over the scene like condors searching for dead meat.

I don't know what the cause of the traffic backup was, but as I left the bridge, the four copters had all taken up position over the accident and the cameras were rolling. I could hear them all the way to my office as they hovered over the destruction.

When I was a child, I had no idea that this is what I would get to see everyday as an adult. Many mornings of late, I wish I had never grown up.

13 comments:

  1. dont get me started. it always drives me crazy that people who cant afford a pot to piss in, have cell phones and cable.

    people just have no real sense of priority...

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  2. I think one of the craziest things I've ever heard as far as this over protection of kids goes was when my neighbor's kid told me that the lunch ladies that supervise them at recess yell at them not to run on the playground.

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  3. I really enjoyed this post. Your answers were really well thought out and made sense.

    XOXO,
    CP

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  4. The whole deal about 'natural selection' is very, very similair to something Mr. Hall says a lot. He uses white trash as the primary players in his argument.

    But, news programs use strong emotions, the most evocative one being fear, to make us what the programs.

    I don't watch the news. I am fully aware of the dark side. I read various AP articles on line. I have enough drama in my life without hearing about it from other sources.

    And even with all this, I can still feel heaps of joy and be excited by things. I have wide eyed kid like excitement for most things.

    It is possible never to grow up, to feel the magic and wonder about life.

    The first step is not watching the news.

    Lord howdy Bruce, just turn it off!

    :)

    Mrs. Hall

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  5. Slyde: I love to get you started. Every time I manage to push your buttons, you take an axe to the person nearest you.

    Sharon: Running on the Playground!!!, oh my God, call out the Marines, bring the Bactine, some leg splints and lots of bandages!

    Princess: That is because I am a well thought out kind of guy, just ask me wife.

    Holly: I am way ahead of you on this one. I wrote a previous blog all about my love affair with the news media called, "Murder, Puppy-Dog, Car Wash"...you can find it here...

    http://lotus07rant.blogspot.com/2007/04/murder-puppy-dog-car-wash.html

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  6. It is amazing how stupid many people are about priorities. Here in Costa Rica everyone has a cell phone except me. Even people who live in shanties made of cast off pieces of wood and tin. They buy groceries with credit cards. Many people I know here are still paying for last Christmas while they try to acquire new credit cards for this Christmas's purchases. And then they whine because they have nothing to eat or no shoes. But they have cell phones and credit cards!

    The world is definitely in a mess. I am not a pessismist by any means, but somehow I doubt it is going to get straightened out any time soon.

    Enjoyed visiting your blog today.

    Blessings from Costa Rica

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  7. people are nuts and a shared 'reality' is questionable enterprise to say the least.

    however, i think it is important to try not to judge negatively other people's situations because we are not omniscient and don't truly know the circumstances of other people.

    also, i think it is wrong to refer to 'white trash' (but this is coming from my anthropology background)

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  8. I have said it before, I'll say it again.....we've reached some evolutionary tipping point and are now on our way back.....a few more thousand years and we'll just ooze right back into the sea from whence we came.

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  9. This post made me a bit sad, not sure why. Maybe its because the worlds gone a bit loopy....dont know???

    My last dogs name was also Maximus ;)

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  10. I'm with you on this post! Good grief, people, just start this whole little ritual called THINK. It really goes a long way in the whole "common sense" department. But then again - Nevermind. I'm thinking that "shaken child syndrome" is going to start growing up.

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  11. I don't like ranting for the most part, but when you rant, it always makes sense. It's exactly what I think and believe, but I don't rant because I don't like the idiots that can't take what is in my head. But it's always nice to know that it's in someone else's head--and that you'll say it out loud.

    I can't even pick a favorite here. Probably the one about the soccer goal since I have small children and believe in teaching them boundaries and responsiblity and am MAD that playgrounds don't have teeter totters or merry-go-rounds anymore.

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  12. Logic and society seem to not be a good mix.

    And don't get me started on the "safe" playgrounds. Drives me crazy. Are kids are growing up weak because they aren't allowed to freakin play and build strong muscles. I know ER trips are in my future. I have excepted that. So should everyone else.

    I hate the "if it bleeds..it leads" media also. Can we show more people enjoying life??? Is it too much to ask???

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