Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Had this one germinating in my cranium for awhile. SNews (n.): News that is produced for the benefit of the producer of the news, or some third-party who has entered into some transaction with the producer of the news, rather than for the benefit of the consumer of the news.
If you like, you can think of it as a portmanteau for “sponsored news.” It is meant to be a homonym of snooze. The litmus test is: Thinking of the “news” as an answer to a question, does the question it answers bear any resemblance to a question the audience would have been asking? If it doesn’t — and lately, I notice, it very rarely does — then it isn’t really “news,” is it?
My accumulation of mental kindling has been touched off by the ignition that is the “news” out of Ferguson. As we await a verdict, it is fair to say the questions foremost in the audience’s collective mind are easy to distill.
1. Are they going to indict him?
2. If so, on what charges?
3. If not, are the hoodlums going to wreck everything?
And the “news” that is coming out, ALL DAY — in fact, throughout all of last week — is not this. Rather, it is one boring speech after another from an assortment of local muckety-mucks. BLAH BLAH BLAH urge remain calm BLAH BLAH BLAH racially sensitive BLAH BLAH BLAH.
My beef with this is that things that are called “news,” whether they really are news or not, cost. They cost money. They cost time. Most of all, they cost bandwidth. You only have so many minutes in the day you can pay attention to the news. Everybody is hurt when we call things that aren’t news, “news,” and then treat those things as if they really are news, when they’re much more like sponsored messages from interested parties. Well-intentioned parties maybe, but still, seems to me they should be paying for the advertising. And let’s call it something like advertising if that’s what it is. Stop calling it news.
Update: This is what I have in mind: News.
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