Thoughtful Preparations: Media Spin Blog

Sunday, April 10th was a celebration of various kinds of green power. Islamics in Baghdad gathered in protest of the 2nd anniversary of the falling of their city to the Coalition of the Willing strike forces.

Back in the USA, the Masters Tournament plodded on for the prize, a green jacket. Great golfers learn to tune out all distracting crowd noises in order to make good scores. And so they did.

Looking back to Iraq, will freedom mean installing country clubs and golf tournaments in and around Baghdad? It would be too simple to say that places with golf courses and miniature golf parks tend to be peaceful. For now, Muqtada al-Sadr and many Iraqis do not seem to be interested in lengthening their drives and sinking long putts.

Recently I’ve noticed many flags at half staff around town, flying mournfully over various strip mall stores. I wonder, “Who died? Another random Iraq bomb casualty? The Pope? Johnny Carson? The Prince of Monaco?” I don’t know what the rules are anymore. Is this part of a big Government-Business-Religion soft sell marketing pitch to appeal to humanity’s tragic tendencies?

A review of Spamalot in The New Yorker quotes Oscar Wilde, “It is rarely in the world’s history that its ideal has been one of joy. The worship of pain has more often dominated the world.”

Or as Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, let fly on Bill’s Corpse from Trout Mask Replica,

“The only way they ever all got together was
Not in love but shameful grief.
It’s not the way I’d like it to get together
That’s not the kind of thoughts I’d like to keep .”

In an act of compassionate brilliance, United State Congress ordered blood transfusions from steroid using baseball players into the brain-damaged Terry Schiavo. “It is the American Way, and darned good sportsmanship too, for the super strong to care for the super weak,” declared a congressman from New Mexico.

In a related story, weakened by high fuel prices, SUV owners stood vigil and prayed for government passage of a large oil transfusion from the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge.

Steven Levy’s recent Newsweek article covering a Harvard conference on blogs points out a quote attributed to Keith Jenkins. Jenkins wrote, “My fear is that the overwhelmingly white and male American blogosphere… will return us to a day where the dialogue about issues was a predominantly white-only one.” Additonal fears were expressed by female bloggers. I suppose Harvard will always be the target of these kind of slings, until there is no longer is a Harvard.

I am relatively new to blogging, and not a big media player, so I do not share Jenkin’s concerns. My own first discovery in exploring blogging was Beccary, which turns out to be a wonderful young Asian woman’s web site. I enjoy her work and what she communicates, period. Nothing to do with race or gender.

Dragging race and gender preference into blogging stinks of professional paranoia and the claims of ownership that are the lifeblood of professional organizations and associations. Jenkins is a professional photojournalist. In a world where everyone is a photographer and more and more are bloggers, most likely defending territory is part of his survival story.

There’s too much goooogling on these days. A few days ago I attended the first Google AdSense Forum at Google’s Mountain View headquarters. I got overstimulated by meeting fellow Google AdSense webmasters, enthused presenters and smart Google team members, and liked it! Jennifer Slegg was one of three presenters, and she has dutifully written the Forum up in greater detail at her blog, Jensense. Another panelist, Chris Pirillo founder of Lockergnome.com gushed all over Google AdSense arousing curiousity and laughter. The next few days I’ve spent furiously tweaking parts of mediaspin.com to reflect improvements and techniques discussed at the meeting.

Did I mention that I am moving and will be off-line for almost a week? Does anyone care? I for one care, and will write to Congress to have them act immediately to prevent me from being unplugged, and becoming a brain dead demonic monster, or worse. More on this political hot potato topic later…

Here’s his side of fronting as an upstanding White House journalist, but a few other meanies pick on a naked guy, a poor crappy, fake-named press conference stooge. Work that Bush smirk and let it slide. That’s the Texas-American version of reality today. Or maybe part of the whole American Idol fascination with bad performances.

I got this lousy spam display ad today, and I’m thinking about signing up. You see, I’d like to be the first one on my block to become the expert in VICTIMOLOGY. You don’t want to get beat out on that one, do you? Next thing, you could be scrutinized by a licensed VICTIMOLOGIST. What’s a matter you, not a patriot? I want to be the Master of Victimology, and everyone else is the culprit, but not me. For the more ambitious, higher learning souls, you can study law and become a member of the Federalist Society. So, help protect your country, be a victimologist. Do it today, or be a potential predator terrorist. I’m gonna get you, sucka!

Arthur Miller taught me dancing, oh wait a minute… that’s Murray, Miller taught me the human social drama. This is serious, since the great writer died today, but he lived well and loved well, Marilyn Monroe. Worth a heartbreak.

My thought for the day in conjunction with Miller’s Crossing, comes from a venomous e-mail that was forwarded to me via a right leaning relative, spewing the same old rubbish about elites and liberal media. Let’s face it, we can’t argue with them nucular folk. The thought is, do these hateful right wingers look upon an American creative treasure such as Arthur Miller as an elitist? As a liberal mediatician? As a Commie? If so, we really are regressing, and so sorry Artie, you wasted your efforts on them. R.I.P. It has not been the first time.